FACE THE NATION
Font Size 
War on Terror: Israel's the way to go with Pak?
Published on Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 07:31, Updated on Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 10:14 in India section
Tags: Face The Nation, India
Related Stories
Photogallery
 |  |
The comparisons are unreal and yet inevitable. Both India, a multicultural democracy, and Israel, a homogenous, fortress-like state, face the constant challenge of terrorism.
But while India's way of dealing with terror is political and diplomatic, Israel's is armed action.
Monday marked the 10th day of Israel's military operation in Gaza which has left at least 507 Palestinians dead, a quarter of them civilians. Israel says that four of its civilians have been killed by rockets fired by Hamas since its offensive began.
Apart from a ground assault, Israeli forces continued to pound the 40-km densely-populated Gaza coastal strip from air and sea.
With complete backing from the outgoing US administration, Israel says Operation Cast Lead and stepping up of the offensive was unavoidable.
Back home, India too has done something it says was unavoidable. It has stepped up its diplomatic offensive by providing a dossier of evidence of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan and 14 other countries.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon says so massive was the planning behind the November 26 Mumbai attacks that the Pakistani establishment simply cannot deny the knowledge of it. He says the time for dialogue is over and Pakistan must act in the face of this overwhelming evidence.
So can Israel be India’s role model when it comes to national security? Can India do more than mere diplomatic overtures to tackle terror emanating from the neighbourhood? CNN-IBN debated the issue on Face the Nation with former chief of Army Staff General Shankar Roy Choudhary Research Professor, National Security Studies, Bharat Karnad and South Asia Bureau Chief of Al Arabia Dr Wael Awwad.
Israel and India: Chalk and cheese?
Awwad said to be like Israel, a country would require to kill innocents, something India can’t do. “India can never be colonial power, if you support state-sponsored terrorism, you can behave like Israel. If you are a victim of terrorism, you need the international support,” Awwad said, adding while one cannot choose his/her neighbour, one can certainly choose friends.
But one of the more popular opinions among critics of India’s stance is that the country doesn’t have the muscle to deal with terrorism the hard way. Bharat Karnad said it was a reflection of the frustration with government and there’s only one reason why people get excited about Israel.
“There’s no comparison between Israel-Palestine issue and the India-Pak issue. The fact that people confuse the two shows how frustrated they are with the government. But while Indian government only talks and never delivers, Israel delivers what it promises as action and that’s what excites Indians,” he said.
But the fact is also that Israel enjoys the immunity of the world community and not one American politician has spoken about what’s happening in Israel now.
Karnad agreed but said India’s diplomatic offensive may not bear fruit. “If Israel has a patron in America, Pak too has a patron in America. If you had to react, it had to be immediate and in form of an air strike or something,” he said.
But General Shankar Roy Choudhary felt there were similarities between the two stand-offs. Israel vs Hamas and India vs Lashkar-e-Toiba are the same, he said. “Having said that, there are vast differences between the two cases. The military asymmetry between Palestine and Israel is just too huge compared with India and Pak. India must use its options well,” he said.
When asked what these options were, he said they were not to be discussed in public. All he said was India should consider going beyond the dialogue. Karnad said India should hold out the option of punishment that will put Islamabad on the defensive.
Israel is a small, homogenous, culturally-united missionary state that’s a fortress. India is multi-ethnic, plural, and humongous and has porous borders. It cannot have the same security dialogue as Israel.
Awwad said Israel brought 95 nationalities together to create the state. “They have an identity crisis and that’s why they want to keep creating problems so they can hide behind them,” he said, adding, “India’s multicultural identity means it cannot take war-like postures with neighbours”.
Tit-for-tat?
Karnad seemed to disagree with Awwad and said if India wants to wage a war on Pakistan, it can owing to its sheer size superiority. But, he said, it was not politically feasible to do so. “This is because of a big Muslim electorate and the growing consciousness among them,” he said.
India has presented a dossier to Pakistan and other countries detailing the Pakistani involvement in 26/11. But can it be considered a forward movement in tackling terrorism emanating from Pak or is the aggressive diplomacy pointless?
General (retired) Roy Choudhary said what India was doing was good but also irrelevant. “Whatever proof it gives Pakistan, it wont accept as proof because Pakistan government is not the centre of power. It’s the Army and its perspective of India and use of LeT will not be affected by what India provides,” he said.
Will this charade continue to play then? What is India’s way forward in that case?
Karnad said India should focus on building capabilities like targeted intelligence. “Create for them the kind of situation that they have created for us,” he said. “This must be bloody minded but this is what Pakistan understands. Either we sit quiet and wait for other parties to mete out punishment or we do something on our own,” he said.
Many say that such aggressive counter-strike tactics will isolate India or pull it down off America’s good books. Awwad said India should look at winning the war without, preferably, fighting it. “If America can do it for them, it’s great. But Israel needs an occupation. No country can do it, it’s an outlawed country,” he said.
But Karnad did not agree and said being punitive will help India. Awwad stuck to his argument and said India was a responsible state and should continue being so.
The debate concluded with a disturbing, yet one of the most important questions of our times: How should a multi-cultural democracy deal with terror emanating from neighbourhood without sacrificing its core ideals?
Result of the SMS/Web poll: Is Israel a role model for India when it comes to security?
Yes: 59 per cent
No: 41 per cent
| Ads by Google |
| Related Ads: | |
Read Comment | Post Comment
We do not want a replay of Hamas-Gaza type action between India and Pakistan which would entail deaths of many
Read Comment
Our enemy is very focussed and determined. They have their objectives to destabilise India and wreak havoc here. They have
Read Comment
It is a well known fact that India and Israel go thro the same problem. There are many intellectuals in
Read Comment
Both Israel and India have been the targets of terrorists from across their borders for the last several decades.Where as
Read Comment
There is no use in talking peace. I fully agreee with what Israel has done and the same should be
Read Comment
Read more comment »