What India should also learn from Israel

[Herschel]

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But what is noticeable was the fear that the presence of an Israeli, alone and unarmed, aroused in these Islamic terrorists. There was an obvious assumption here that the Israeli would fight back and that there was a good chance some, if not all, of the terrorists would be killed.

There is an entire mythology about Israelis as the ultimate warrior race. Israeli diplomats themselves get a little weary about this. "We do other things well other than just fight," they say, trying to play up their skills in software (they export more than India does) or desert agriculture (even Arab farmers use their equipment).

But more so than most legends, there is an element of truth in the Israeli legend.

When Tel Aviv issues a threat to a neighbouring Arab state, it is taken seriously. The working assumption is that Israel means what it says, until there is evidence to prove otherwise. When it comes to credibility, no one has more of the stuff.

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India should perhaps learn more from Israel in how the latter manages its alliances to enhance its security. Israel has a strange contradiction of being robustly independent about what it will do to preserve its security while being a US military ally which is enormously dependent on Washington for everything from butter to guns.

India wastes many strategic opportunities because of its fear of dependence. This is understandable. But Israel is an example of a country that plays its international cards so that it get its cake and eats it to. It may sound strange, but it is Israel's diplomatic craft and in particular its manipulation of Washington that India should be looking more closely at rather than its assassination squads and low-flying aerial warfare skills.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_373381,00300005.htm

There is much truth here. A glimpse at how little Israel survives in an ocean of hostility.

[Resistance]

1. Oh good

A guidemap for those with religiously fanatic, colonialist aspirations.

[bemildred]

8. This fellow seems to be an idiot.

One hardly knows where to start with drivel like this:

"There is an entire mythology about Israelis as the ultimate
warrior race."

"But more so than most legends, there is an element of truth
in the Israeli legend."

"When it comes to credibility, no one has more of the stuff."

"No better example of this focus on survival exists then Israel's
sinking of US Navy spy ship, Liberty, and killing of over 30 US
sailors in 1967."


Well, that is enough. I can just imagine the little woody this
guys gets while he indulges his power fantasies.

[jos]

2. What Israel can learn from India

Anti-Muslim pogroms. Or, as you might phrase it, "killing for peace."

[durutti]

3. Appropriate

"On 27 February a train in Godhra, Gujarat, was attacked and 59 passengers believed to be Hindus were killed. Violence of unprecedented brutality targeting the Muslim community then spread in the state and continued in the following three months. Hindu nationalist groups reportedly had a role in masterminding the violence. Reports also indicated that the state government, administration and police took insufficient action to protect civilians and in many cases may have colluded with the attackers and actively participated in the violence. Human rights groups estimated the death toll was between 2,000 and 2,500. The destruction of homes, places of worship and means of livelihood of thousands of civilians also took place. About 140,000 people fled their homes in the aftermath of the massacres and many remained homeless at the end of the year. The Gujarat government did not actively fulfil its duty to provide appropriate relief and rehabilitation to the survivors. Following the violence, the same police force that was accused of colluding with the attackers was put in charge of the investigations into the massacres, undermining the process of delivery of justice to the victims. A commission of inquiry was appointed to investigate responsibilities in the violence, but its progress was extremely slow. When AI sought permission to visit Gujarat in July to investigate the violence, its delegates were effectively denied access to the state." -- Amnesty International Annual Report 2003

[Resistance]

4. wow

a mirror image

[jos]

5. Gotta differ on that one

Israel has not (so far) engaged in the pogroms that took place Gujrat, or in Bombay in 1992. This is not to defend the denial of human rights in the occupied territories, but only to point a difference in scale and brutality.

[Resistance]

7. I acknowledge your point

on the difference in scale and brutality. It's still the same lack of regard by officials of the state for innocent victims, and in the destruction of homes and livelihood. There also seems to be a very similar broader agenda here, of intentionally inflicting unnecessary misery upon innocents who are on the 'other' side of the conflict.

[LastDemInIdaho]

6. A mirror image of what?

Are you saying Israel or India targeted 59 innocent citizens and killed them? Please explain what you see as a "mirror image"?

[varun]

9. This article is stupid

what the author forgets is that India's enemy has the nuclear bomb.

Do you think Israel would have been this aggressive if any one Arab nation had the bomb?