The Contrast Betwen Israel and India
India and Israel react in very different ways to terrorist attacks. While the Israeli people are willing to make short-term sacrifices in order to secure long-term peace, India's spineless "leaders" keep inviting terrorists to kill innocent Indians by making it obvious that no punitive action will ever be taken.New York Times reports:
Israel Vows to Crush Militia; Group’s Leader Is Defiant
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: July 14, 2006
JERUSALEM, July 14 — The Israeli government decided today to press ahead with its military operations in Lebanon, concentrating on targets associated with the Hezbollah militia, including the bombing this evening of the headquarters of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli officials said.
They said that the Israeli strategy is to diminish or destroy the power of Hezbollah, which has created “a state within a state” in southern Lebanon, and to ensure that the Lebanese army replaces Hezbollah on the border with Israel, as demanded by the United Nations.
In response to a new barrage of rockets today, said Isaac Herzog, a member of the Israeli security cabinet, “We’ve decided to put an end to this saga and to change the rules of the game whereby a terrorist organization that is part of the Lebanese government can push the region to the abyss.”
...
Anyone notice a big difference between how India responds to terrorist strikes, and how countries like Israel or USA do ?
In India, politicians, ever-suspicious of the intentions of the Muslim vote-bank and ever-mindful of their possible feelings, are wary of confronting the fountain-head of terrorism -- Pakistan -- choosing instead to take symbolic steps, like making diplomatic noises, rescheduling Foreign Secretary level talks, and wonder of wonders, going so far as to darkly warn that "peace talks may be impacted".
In truth, nobody knows how Indian Muslims really feel about the terrorist attacks.
I have quite a few Indian Muslim friends with families in Mumbai, and none of them were happy to see Pakistani agents bombing a city where their close relatives live.
Indian politicians -- of all parties: Congress, BJP, everybody -- assume that Indian Muslims must by default be loyal to Pakistan, and hence be against any punitive action against Pakistan. And not just politicians, this assumption is implicitly made by most mainstrean news commentators.
Thus, they are afraid to punish Pakistan for its open terror war on India.
Leaders of countries like Israel or USA don't have a sizeable Muslim vote-bank to worry about, and are thus able to take proper action against terrorists.
India now has to make a choice.
Either assume that Indian Muslims are loyal to India. Or assume that they are loyal to Pakistan.
If India assumes they are loyal to Pakistan, they need to be expelled from the country for treason, and sent to Pakistan.
If India assumes they are loyal to India, then Indian leaders, news commentators, and other makers of public opinion should stop worrying about the Muslim vote-bank being against action against Pakistan.
India should go ahead resolutely with concrete diplomatic and military steps to punish Pakistn-sponsored terrorist outrages each time they occur.
One option would be: to treat a terrorist attack as an act of war by Pakistan, and respond with air strikes on Pakistani military installations. This should be done in diplomatic co-ordination with US, Israel, Russia, and the UN Security Council.
Indian diplomatic contacts with US and Russia should be used to make sure that the UN Security Council does not oppose Indian military action for acts of terrorist war by Pakistan.
Once this course of action is decided, Indian people must resolutely support this strategy, even if short-term losses occur (such as rise in oil prices, losses in the stock market, unemployment, etc).
Those are legitimate prices one has to pay in order to live with dignity with one's head held high in the modern world populated by steadily growing stronger forces of evil such as Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Talban, and Pakistan.
posted by Harsh Vardhan @ 5:27 pm
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2 Comments:
Is there any clear indication that the people responsible for the bomb blasts are from Pakistan? I ask because I haven't seen anything on the news about it.
Excellent point, Nav.
There were some early reports on Pakistani involvement, on the basis of intercepted telephone calls.
Later two Pakistani Let agents were caught and they have confessed that they were part of the group that carried out the attacks.
The Pakistani link seems very clear at this point.
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