Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., May 19, 2009 Iyyar 25, 5769 | | Israel Time: 13:44 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Focus U.S.A. Travel Week's End Anglo File TLV 100
Last update - 12:04 23/01/2009
India's Israel envy
By Shashi Tharoor
Tags: Israel News, Gaza, India, IDF

NEW DELHI - As Israeli planes and tanks were exacting a heavy toll on Gaza, India's leaders and strategic thinkers were watching with an unusual degree of interest - and some empathy.

India's government, no surprise, joined the rest of the world in calling for an end to the military action, but its criticism of Israel was muted. For, as Israel demonstrated anew its determination to end attacks on its civilians by militants based in Hamas-controlled territory, many in India, still smarting from the horrors of the Mumbai attacks in November, have been asking: Why can't we do the same?

For many Indians, the temptation to identify with Israel was strengthened by the terrorists' seizure of the Chabad House, and the painful awareness that India and Israel share many of the same enemies. India, with its 150 million Muslims, has long been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, and remains strongly committed to an independent Palestinian state. But the Mumbai attacks confirmed what has become apparent in recent years: The forces of global Islamist terror have added Indians to their target list of reviled "Jews and crusaders."
Advertisement
Just as Israel has frequently been attacked by rockets fired from across its border, India has suffered repeated assaults by killers trained, equipped, financed and directed by elements based next door, in Pakistan. When president George W. Bush's press secretary equated members of Hamas with the Mumbai killers, her comments were widely circulated in India.

Yet there the parallels end. Israel is a small country living in a permanent state of siege, highly security-conscious and surrounded by forces hostile to it; India is a giant country whose borders are notoriously permeable, an open society known for its lax and easygoing ways.

Whereas many regard Israel's toughness as its principal characteristic, India's own citizens view their country as a soft state, its underbelly easily penetrated by determined terrorists. Whereas Israel notoriously exacts grim retribution for every attack on its soil, India has endured with numbing stoicism an endless series of bomb blasts, including at least six major assaults in different locations in 2008 alone. Terrorism has taken more lives in India than in any country in the world after Iraq, and yet, unlike Israel, India has seemed unable to do anything about it.

Moreover, whereas Israel's principal adversary is currently Hamas, India faces a slew of terrorist organizations - Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and more. But, whereas Hamas operates from Gaza without international recognition, India's tormentors function from Pakistan, a sovereign member of the United Nations. And that makes all the difference.

Hamas is in no position to repay Israel's air and ground attacks in kind, whereas an Indian attack on Pakistani territory, even one targeting terrorist bases and training camps, would invite swift retaliation from the Pakistani army. And, at the end of the day, one chilling fact would prevent India from thinking that it could use Israel's playbook: The country that condones, if not foments, the terror attacks on India is a nuclear power.

So India has gone to the world community with evidence that the Mumbai attacks were planned in Pakistan and conducted by Pakistanis who maintained contact with handlers there during the operation. While India had briefly hoped that the proof might enable Pakistan's weak civilian government to rein in the malign elements in its society, the Pakistani authorities' reaction has been one of denial.

Yet no one doubts that Pakistan's all-powerful military intelligence has, over the last two decades, created and supported terror organizations as instruments of Pakistani policy in Afghanistan and India. When India's embassy in Kabul was hit by a suicide bomber last July, American intelligence sources revealed that not only was Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence behind the attack, but that it made little effort to cover its tracks. The ISI knew perfectly well that India would not go to war with Pakistan to avenge the killing of its diplomatic personnel.

The fact is that India knows that war will accomplish nothing. Indeed, it is just what the terrorists want - a cause that would rally all Pakistanis to the flag and provide Pakistan's army an excuse to abandon the unpopular fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in the west for the more familiar terrain of the Indian border in the east. India's government sees no reason to play into the hands of those who seek that outcome.

Yet, when Indians watch Israel take the fight to the enemy, killing those who launched rockets against it and dismantling many of the sites from which the rockets flew, some cannot resist wishing that they could do something similar in Pakistan. India understands, though, that the collateral damage would be too high, the price in civilian lives unacceptable, and the risks of the conflict spiraling out of control too acute to contemplate such an option. So Indians place their trust in international diplomacy and watch, with ill-disguised wistfulness, as Israel does what they could never permit themselves to do.

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian novelist and commentator, and a former under-secretary-general of the United Nations. Copyright: Project Syndicate.
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Spies on Facebook
Shin Bet warns militants may use Facebook to kidnap Israelis, recruit spies.
Popular denial
University of Haifa poll finds 40% of Israeli Arabs deny Holocaust happened.
  1.   That`s why everyone wants nukes they provide safety 12:20  |  ME 23/01/09
  2.   Pakistani terrorists and Mumbai 12:32  |  Paul Zucker 23/01/09
  3.   India 12:32  |  Hastaroth 23/01/09
  4.   I`m afraid India is lacking one more thing..... 12:37  |  Swiss (Dino) 23/01/09
  5.   India does not envy Israel 12:52  |  alan 23/01/09
  6.   ALAN *5 13:25  |  mike 23/01/09
  7.   More insulting than David Miliband 14:42  |  Manny Goldstein 23/01/09
  8.   Quite true 14:53  |  Jay 23/01/09
  9.   To alan 15:16  |  Shtarka 23/01/09
  10.   India fought colonialism 15:26  |  AM 23/01/09
  11.   India`s Israel envy. 15:36  |  David Nigel Braham 23/01/09
  12.   Sasi Taroor 15:39  |  Dr.Joji Cherian 23/01/09
  13.   Envy? 16:00  |  Philip Craig 23/01/09
  14.   Alan in Sydney 16:05  |  Avrum 23/01/09
  15.   Camparison is baseless 17:01  |  Barry 23/01/09
  16.   Separate states vs. integration 17:06  |  Anonymous 23/01/09
  17.   India`s Israel envy and Supid Tharoor 17:12  |  Indian 23/01/09
  18.   #10 17:13  |  Vishwanathan 23/01/09
  19.   There is no moral equality between India and Israel 17:15  |  Jens 23/01/09
  20.   Another similarity 17:26  |  Pssd Off American 23/01/09
  21.   From a distance, and with Mumbai etc in mind.. 17:36  |  ZISD 23/01/09
  22.   #9D N Braham.Nuclear Power against crude Rockets 17:53  |  Liam murphy. 23/01/09
  23.   #12 Avrum. WRONG, The Un and dozens OBSERVERS 17:59  |  Peterson 23/01/09
  24.   Jens....but their Muslims brothers don`t attack them 18:05  |  Maria 23/01/09
  25.   no way.... 18:37  |  ravi 23/01/09
  26.   dr joji cherian.... well asked 18:41  |  ravi 23/01/09
  27.   India should have had a better Anti Terror Group in Mumbai 18:43  |  Gil 23/01/09
  28.   That`s true 18:58  |  FP 23/01/09
  29.   oh my Liam 19:00  |  x-ray 23/01/09
  30.   No envy, just arrogance 19:08  |  AM 23/01/09
  31.   and who is this joker Shashi Tharoor !! 19:30  |  Sam (UK) 23/01/09
  32.   `Why can`t we do the same?` 19:58  |  Colin Wright 23/01/09
  33.   alan... have you heard about led Zepplin? 20:02  |  ben 23/01/09
  34.   Heavens forbid! 21:17  |  MK 23/01/09
  35.   wow, I love indian food and oneday I will visit India 21:36  |  Tamir Palestine 23/01/09
  36.   There`s another aspect to this as well. 22:09  |  Colin Wright 23/01/09
  37.   Jens - the Scandinavian hypocrite 22:52  |  Honi 23/01/09
  38.   INDIAN HUMANITY 23:23  |  JOHN ISH ISHMAEL 23/01/09
  39.   It`s different 23:24  |  judith 23/01/09
  40.   Shashi: it is not your fault.It`s Haaretz`s 23:33  |  Wise Syrian 23/01/09
  41.   Alan the Australian hypocrite 23:41  |  shimon 23/01/09
  42.   Don`t know what India thinks 00:27  |  Gee 24/01/09
  43.   India`s Israqel Enemy 01:14  |  Martin 24/01/09
  44.   UN secy gen 01:15  |  Atif 24/01/09
  45.   Jens never heard of occupied Kashmir, since 1948 02:22  |  Rob 24/01/09
  46.   Wise Syrian Invoking Ghandi, but not for the Pal violence, 02:29  |  Rob 24/01/09
  47.   #19 Ravi 02:36  |  Giora 24/01/09
  48.   Dr.Joji Cherian 02:39  |  Giora 24/01/09
  49.   Wise Syrian information? 02:47  |  Dumb LAer 24/01/09
  50.   India needs to use Israeli tactics 04:13  |  Alex 24/01/09
  51.   Delusional! 04:33  |  Candida 24/01/09
  52.   What is it with these people? 05:02  |  utagawa 24/01/09
  53.   India is a beacon of hope 05:07  |  awed 24/01/09
  54.   Only psychopaths.... 05:14  |  Ziad from Lebanon 24/01/09
  55.   Dear Ziad 06:36  |  Compassion 24/01/09
  56.   Official Indian stance 09:19  |  Capt Ahab 24/01/09
  57.   JUDITH #39 11:03  |  lonemoderate 24/01/09
  58.   Similarities between Israel and India are deep 11:31  |  Secular Muslim 24/01/09
  59.   Thank You Shimon but 14:01  |  alan 24/01/09
  60.   To Mr without Compassion 14:04  |  Alan 24/01/09
  61.   The Author Struggled to Make up a Story of This Kind... 17:30  |  Monitor 24/01/09
  62.   Pakistan Now Threatens India With Nukes As A First Deterrent 17:40  |  Lavi 24/01/09
  63.   To #12 Dr. Cherian 17:59  |  Shtarka 24/01/09
  64.   To Alan from Sydney 18:04  |  Acher 24/01/09
  65.   nice to have friends 18:22  |  Philip 24/01/09
  66.   Indian Here 18:26  |  Khan 24/01/09
  67.   This is the most obscene news reported in Haaretz 20:13  |  Ivar 24/01/09
  68.   Tharoor is no Ghandi! Ghandi a great man said 20:29  |  lydia 24/01/09
  69.   `India watched with envy` 20:43  |  Colin Wright 24/01/09
  70.   Tharoor`s wanna-do Israeli-style psychopathology! 01:11  |  genocidetracker 25/01/09
  71.   Get your facts right 01:25  |  PS 25/01/09
  72.   Alan #59 01:34  |  PS 25/01/09
  73.   Australia is not a racist state . . . 01:40  |  PS 25/01/09
  74.   India 01:43  |  xxx 25/01/09
  75.   Reason for Mumbai 01:52  |  xxx 25/01/09
  76.   alan in australia 04:22  |  anon 25/01/09
  77.   alan from australia 04:35  |  anon 25/01/09
  78.   Israel is the teacher to the world of how to 08:15  |  TOMY 25/01/09
  79.   lydia, preach Ghandi non-violence to the Palestinians first 08:48  |  Eve 25/01/09
  80.   INDIAN 18:01  |  INDIAN 25/01/09
  81.   God ? 18:06  |  Slim 25/01/09
  82.   Why India should never attack Pakistan 18:35  |  Johanson 25/01/09
  83.   #79 "Hamas started it first""they made us kill them" 00:57  |  lydia 26/01/09
  84.   77 Who ever said the WASP were `Stuupiid`. 01:41  |  lydia 26/01/09
  85.   "They" neo-con India US speak 11:45  |  Arthur Freed 26/01/09
  86.   Global Islamic Jihad .......... 23:48  |  PH 26/01/09
  87.   India occupied Kashmir ?? 01:15  |  Ian 27/01/09
  88.   India, like the European Union, is just another softie 17:15  |  Carlos Paulino 28/01/09
  89.   India`s Israel envy 08:43  |  Rb 29/01/09
  90.   Kashmir 09:04  |  Rb 29/01/09
  91.   Pakistan can break India`s legs?? 21:56  |  Tipu Sultan 31/01/09
  92.   Why India can`t act against terrorrists 10:25  |  Mansee 18/03/09
  93.   Sai Tharur 03:01  |  bhattathiri 19/03/09
  94.   Complete 07:32  |  Shams 25/03/09
  95.   Sashi is not an Indian , He is a devil 19:09  |  Abba 27/03/09
  96.   sasi taroor 22:09  |  Nihad 30/03/09
  97.   Sasi Tharoor changed opinion as he contests in Indian elections 20:24  |  Jamaludheen 07/04/09
 Read & React
U.S. lawmakers to quiz Netanyahu over Palestinian state
Responses: 75
Bradley Burston: Obama, Netanyahu, and two states for spoiled brats
Responses: 34
Aluf Benn: Israel gives Obama until end of year on Iran
Responses: 18
Researchers: Jerusalem will lose Jewish majority by 2035
Responses: 9


More Headlines
13:38 Shin Bet: No chance for peace while Hamas rules Gaza
12:59 Hamas: Obama looks to maintain Israel as racist state
13:16 U.S. lawmakers to quiz Netanyahu on Palestinian statehood
12:08 ANALYSIS / Israel gives Obama until end of year on Iran
23:47 IN PICTURES / Obama meets Netanyahu at the White House
00:30 What Obama and Netanyahu really said to each other
10:31 Is Madonna bringing her 'Sticky & Sweet' tour to Israel?
00:06 WATCH: Daily news round-up from Israel
13:28 What ancient artifact did archaeologists discover in Jerusalem?
13:20 Obama to Netanyahu: New Mideast initiative soon
03:15 Researchers: Jerusalem will lose Jewish majority by 2035
10:16 Hezbollah: IDF drill may be cover for launching new war
08:08 Far-right group directly funds IDF units, in breach of army rules
Previous Editions
Special Offers
Advertisement
Spring Specials-Dan Hotels
Jerusalem from 179$. Tel-Aviv from 223$. Herzliya from 336$
ISRAEL ARMY SURPLUS STORE
IDF insignia,Uniforms, Paladium Boots Watches, Israel Army T-shirts & Collectibles
The Meier on Rothschild Tower
Masterpiece Residence in the Heart of Tel Aviv
Dead Sea Skin Care
Quality cosmetics from the Dead Sea. Coupon code HAARETZ for 12% off!
Camp Kimama Israel 2009
The best place for your children this summer
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Jewish Singles Personal Ads
Find the love of your life on JDate.com
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | | Israel 2009 election results
Site rules | Makom: Engaging on Israel | Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved