India and Israel Against Islamic Terror

CHAPTER 20 THE RECKONING 331
civilizations remained unscathed through the triumphs, tribulations

and cataclysms of time and history. Both nations struggled and

obtained their freedom from the British; India on 15th August,

1947, and Israel on 14 May, 1948. In both cases the spirit

though non-violent could standup to aggression and violence.

Israel was trampled under the hoofs of the fighting hordes of

Assyrian, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and

Muslims while India had it’s share of invaders, starting from

Huns, Sakas, Mongols, Turks, Ghazni, Ghor, Mughals and the

British. There is no trace of the invaders and their civilizations,

but the nations they attacked, that is India and Israel, endure.
Both the nations have been surrounded by hostile

neighbours; Israel by the Arabs and India by Islamic countries

in the northwest. The situation remains the same today. More

on this later. Both states were partitioned against their wish by

the British administration creating permanent enemies and hatred

that led to disastrous consequences, which persist even today. In

both cases the partition was demanded by the Muslims and

openly encouraged by the British, who believed in, and ruled by

the policy of ”Divide and Rule”. Despite the partition, a sizable

part of the Muslim population left behind in the mother country

continued to be a source of instability, owing, as it did, a supra

national loyalty to a Pan Islamic Order.
Israel resorted to an armed struggle to gain its independence

from the British mandate. India used a unique method of nonviolence

and civil disobedience against its rulers, under the inspiring

leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest man of his age.

Both freedom struggles received tacit diplomatic support from

the United States; President F.D. Roosevelt pleaded India’s cause

with Churchill, as President Truman helped Israel in the

proceedings of the United Nations, and virtually midwifed the

birth of a new nation.
Let us now look at the differences. A direct outcome of the

teaching of our scriptures has been to nurture a spirit of

detachment towards the material as against the spiritual. This

trait manifested itself in the total disregard of any threats to our
332 INDIA AND ISRAEL
CHAPTER 2Q
national existence and the inviolability of our land. With Israel

their land comes first always and every time, their people come

next, to serve the cause of their land. Both India and Israel

always had insecure borders with hostile Islamic countries, ever

on the lookout to sneak into their territory to cause murder and

mayhem. While the Palestinians sent suicide bombers into Israel

India’s western neighbour encourages, organises and supports

cross-border terrorism into India. The Palestinians cannot hope

to destroy the state of Israel and thus resort to a guerrilla war

of murder and sabotage. The same way Pakistan cannot match

India’s military might in an open war; so it has changed track

and embarked on a policy of subversion and destabilization.

Since Pakistan cannot hope to win in a conventional and decisive

campaign, it is trying to inflect a thousand wounds to bleed

India to death. This effort is doomed to failure. Man to man,

Indian and Israeli soldiers are the best soldiers in the world. If

Indian armed forces admire and respect any country and its

armed forces, it is Israeli. The two can endure much more

hardships than any other nation can. India’s weaponry is

adequate for its defence tasks and they, like the Israelis, are the

masters in the art of improvisation. In addition, Israel has achieved

much higher levels in the sophistication of it’s weapons. Thus,

militarily challenged the two countries can proudly hold their

own against any likely enemy offensive. However, India could

emulate the Israeli philosophy of reprisals, retaliations and

retribution against attack on its people and sovereignty. The so

called ’secularist’, arm chair elites, and literary chatterati of

metropolitan India who have not ventured outside their cosy

urban homes, have little concern for the unity and integrity of

our land and the abiding values of our civilization. To the Jews

freedom is the elixir of life. To the above-educated illiterates

freedom is a mere convenience. The Jews being so few, a mere

fourteen million in the world of which less than five million live

in Eretz Israel, there is a high value to human life. India with a

population of one billion does not seem to set any store to any

depletion in its human resource. Even before independence and

more so after, Israel avenged the death of everyone of its sons.
CHAPTER 20 THE RECKONING 333
During the British mandate for every Jew killed or hanged the

price was an Arab killed or a British hanged. This is a far cry

from our country where everyday scores of civilians and soldiers

lose their lives, falling to the bullet of Pak-sponsored terrorism,

with hardly any ripples in our metropolitan elite. The casualities

among our soldiers in fighting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir

alone exceeds the total lost in all the wars we have fought so far,

yet these remain only numbers and statistics. We have not been

able to put a high price tag on the loss of Indian life. We in India

do not mourn our dead as they do in Israel.
Some of our thinking soldiers on the battleline in Jammu

and Kashmir often wonder as to whom they are supposed to

protect. One part of the answer is clear. The people of India.

But how about their leaders? Why do they too deserve to be

protected? Unfortunately, with all the rhetoric of our chatteratie

democracy has not yet found deep roots in our land. Elections

are rigged with the help of money, mafia and muscle power.

The specimens that you find as legislators in state assemblies and

members of parliament are a shame to any self-respecting citizen.

A law unto themselves, they increase their salaries and perks

without any compunction with a consensus that is rare. Cutting

across party lines they shower upon themselves privileges that a

poor taxpayer and even an affluent Indian would envy. And

what do they give back in return? Shouting, slogans, yelling at

one another, trooping into the well of the parliament, stalling

the proceedings and retiring, having done not an iota of useful

work. Is this the rabble that the soldier is expected to protect?

Our lawmakers, instead of demanding protection from the armed

forces, first need to deserve to be protected. Then only would

our soldiers serve any useful purpose when they make the

highest sacrifice.
We do not rise up to mete out justice to the hijackers as

Israelis do. The rescue operation at Entebbe mounted by Israelis

to bring back their hijacked citizens from Uganda should have

been an example worth emulation during the 1C 814 air heist

to Kandhar, where our foreign minister ceremonially handed

over five of the most dreaded militants to the Taliban. One
334 INDIA AND ISRAIL
CHAPTER ^g
would wish that Israel’s patriotic and aggressive impulse cnu

also rub on the Indian public and its leaders. Israel is a rtati

and a civilization rolled into one; India is a civilization but •

needs to work very hard to become a nation of any consequentLet

us debunk the theory of ’cultural pluralism’ being peddlpH

by our effete social scientists. In a vast country of our size th^r

are bound to be minor differences in social mores and community

norms from place to place, but the underlying thread of

civilizational unity based on our values and a common heritage

runs deep through all parts of our country. Instead of highlighting

the parts we should emphasize the whole. This needs a cultural

and national renaissance throughout our country as exemplified

by the land of Israel. The breast beating of our leftist messiahs

of the dalits cannot obfuscate the fact that India is one and its

people are one. It is about time that we as a nation define

ourselves in terms of the majority community, a task that Nehru

failed to complete at the time of independence. Every country

in the world has it’s share of minorities but that does not change

the colour, ethos, value systems and the moorings of that nation.

Israel is a nation on the make. The world Jewry rose as one to

help the fledgling state to achieve maturity. India is a nation in

its own right; its size and population can hardly be ignored and

it has no reason to be apologetic on any count.
What of the present and the future? As observers of the

present Indian scene we do not find much to admire. In all

areas of human activity India seems to be slipping and the slide

down has been precipitious and fast. Against a glorious past of

ten millennia we had a terrible degradation in almost everything

human since 13th century A.D. till independence and even

thereafter. Though, plotted on a time scale of the life of

civilizations, our degradation is but a brief interlude, we cannot

be too complacent. In moments of a highly critical analysis

nothing seems to be going right with us. Lack of pride in our

past, an attitude of slavishness to the west, lack of a civic sense,

self above the country, corruption, caste conflicts, communal

violence, fragmentation of society, covetousness, avarice and greed

and the proverbial ’Hindu cowardice’. The list is endless. And
CHAPTER 20 THE RECKONING 335
the Holy Ganga keeps flowing silently along. But that is only one

side of the coin. As an Arab saying goes ”This too shall pass”.

vVe have many positives. A vast country, unlimited natural

resources, a vast reservoir of skilled manpower, some of the best

scientists in the world; the possibilities are endless. With our rich

past and a glorious heritage, together with the wisdom of our

sages of yore, Cod’s plenty, and human wealth there is nothing

that India cannot achieve. Our technical and technological

competence along with that of Israel is one of the best in the

world.
Remember that Kurukshetra is not buried deep enough,

and can be lived again by pushing the right buttons on the time

space continuum. Ours is the only country in the world, where

God gave out his gospel in the battlefield of Dharmakshetra of

Kurukshetra. Jehovah gave his commandments to Moses at

Mount Sinai, a silent mountain. Jesus got his instructions from

his Father God, as Mohammed received his revelations from

Allah through his angel Gabriel in the wilderness of the desert.

We are the only nation spoken to directly by God himself. The

spirit of Kurukshetra should not die. We need not be a pacifist

nation. Our patience does not have to be unlimited.
The longevity of a civilization does not depend on its material

wealth or its military might. It is determined by the depth of its

national conscienceness, human resource, and its infinite capacity

to withstand adverse weather. India and Israel are not possessed

of a jingoistic nationalism but have a deep and diffused cultural

identity and unity of thought which is derived from their deep

roots in the past-Torah and Talmud for Israel and Vedas and

the Sanatan culture for India. This diffusiveness of culture is a

strength rather than a weakness, since it can absorb, assimilate,

evolve, transform and renew. It’s batteries are being constantly

charged, it’s vitality will grow, and it shall not get ossified into a

time warp as some other civilizations did. Such a civilization

instead of being linear shall always remain multidirectional.

Endowed with a tolerant nationalism as against state-forced values

and culture, placing individual above the state, other worldliness

and spirituality above avarice and covetousness. Bndia and Israel
HI
336 INDIA AND ISRAEL CHAP
TER 20
are bound to outlive and indeed lead all the civilizations of the

world. The Romans wanted power and wealth, they got it and

disappeared; the Creeks wanted beauty, they got it and left no

trace. The Egyptians wanted immorality but lie buried under the

pyramids. The Sumerians, Babylonians, Persians, the Mongols

the Huns and so many others strutted on the stage of the world’

and are heard no more.
The two countries are strategically located on the northwest

and the southeast corners of the militant Islamic heartland. The

two together can act as a double pincer to operate from both

sides on this heartland. Thus, militarily by virtue of their strategic

positioning India and Israel can beat back any offensive by the

militant Islam. We have also noted earlier that Israel is the eastern

beachhead of the America centric West European Christianity

on the Mediterranean Sea. As per the religious factoid, there are

five major civilizations in the world-Christian (2 billion), Islam

(1.3 billion), Hinduism (900 million), Sinic or Chinese (1.2

billion) and Judaism (14 million). The Chinese civilization, which

has been historically content within its old confines, can be

counted out from any clash of civilizations. Hinduism poses no

danger to anyone outside, but it shall not yield or surrender.

That leaves us with Judaic Christianity and Islam as the main

contenders. The future portends a clash of civilizations between

Islam and the remaining two civilizations. Since Israel is the

arrowhead of the Judaic Christian civilization, the immediate

clashes will concern only fundamentalist militant Islam as pitched

against Hinduism and Judaism. It needs no prescience of mind

to foretell the future.
A word about the nuclear dimensions of the Indo-Pak

standoff. Much has been said and written about the U.S. concerns

on the possibility of a nuclear conflict between the two neighbours.

Of course the U.S. stepped into the space vacated by the British

Empire and carrying their colonial baggage and adopted the

same policy, initiatives and concerns, thereby balancing India

and Pakistan against each other. According to this theory any

conflict in the region is bound to destabilise South Asia and the

Pacific region and could hurt the U.S. interests. The fear of an
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