Author: Chidanand Rajghatta, Times
News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 5, 2001
The US war on terrorism in Afghanistan
has been temporarily eclipsed by the turbulent events in the Middle-East
where Israeli forces struck back violently against the Palestinian establishment
on Monday following a series of terrorist attacks on Israeli territory
over the weekend.
Israeli helicopter gunships fired
several missiles near Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's headquarters,
destroying his helicopter and sending a powerful message that it will not
tolerate terrorism against its people. Arafat, who Israel accuses of not
doing enough to stop the terrorism, was not at his Gaza headquarters when
the attack occurred.
It could not have escaped Indian
policy makers that the suicide bombings in Israel that killed some 35 people
occurred the same weekend that a similar number of people were killed by
terrorists in Kashmir, in incidents that included the ethnic targeting
of minorities. But the deaths in India hardly created a ripple here, while
both the US establishment and the media were in overdrive on the incidents
in Israel.
The Bush administration, which till
recently was critical of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hardline
methods, fully backed Israel's views that Arafat had not done enough to
contain the terrorists and issued strongly worded statements calling for
action. While Washington had counselled restraint on India's part in responding
to the provocations in Kashmir in view of its priority and pre-occupation
with the war in Afghanistan, no such moderation was called for in Israel's
case.
In any case, it is unlikely that
a strong-willed Israel would have listened to Washington. Prime Minister
Sharon was in the US and scheduled to meet President Bush on Monday, but
that meeting was advanced to Sunday and he left for home soon after. Israeli
officials and leaders also launched a full scale media blitz arguing that
the Palestinian Authority and its affiliates needed to be punished for
the provocation.
On its part, India has not only
failed to forcefully present its case on Kashmir, but according to critics,
it has been lax in informing the world of the terrorist atrocities, including
the ethnic cleansing that has depopulated the Kashmir Valley of minorities.
As a result, the Bush administration has temporised and dissembled over
terrorism in Kashmir, even going to the extent of rewarding Pakistan without
seeking adequate guarantees that it will stop backing the violence there.
"Pakistan has taken this US double
dealing as a signal that it can continue its sponsorship of terrorism,"
says Lalit Kaul of the Kashmiri New Network, a newly established front
representing the interest of Kashmiri Pandits who have been totally marginalised
in the debate.
US officials say the Israel and
India cases are different, and the presence of nuclear weapons in the sub-continent
complicates matters.
But Indian analysts say such an
argument has dangerous implications. It suggests that countries can use
the nuclear cover to indulge in terrorism and it could also embolden other
countries to seek nuclear weapons to further a terrorist agenda.
They also argue that Washington
is missing the woods for the trees in targeting other countries like Sudan
and Somalia for terrorism while ignoring the fact that Pakistan is the
critical swamp and promotes terrorism as a state policy.
"As the US chases red herrings in
Iraq and elsewhere, Pakistan continues with its sham participation in the
anti-terror war at the same time it is continuing to shelter and sponsor
international terrorists," says Kaul.
Top Indian officials, including
Lalit Mansingh, the Indian ambassador in Washington, have said "Pakistan
cannot be a policeman by day and a thief at night," but the argument has
had little impact in Washington, where there is considerable residual institutional
sympathy for its Cold War ally.
Agencies add:
NABLUS: Israeli F-16 fighter bombers
launched air raids on the West Bank town of Jenin Monday, scarcely an hour
after Israeli helicopters blasted Yasser Arafat's personal heliport in
Gaza City, witnesses told AFP.
Witnesses said more than three missiles
had slammed into targets in the town, apparently hitting the police headquarters
and the governor's building. The Israeli army confirmed it had hit the
targets but refused to say whether war planes or combat helicopters had
been used.
Israeli helicopters also attacked
the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian security and hospital sources
said.
