The CPM does not like India's burgeoning relationship with Israel. The main reason is that it wants to keep the pot boiling between followers of India's 2 major religions
[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030907/asp/nation/story_2341301.asp"]CPM call to clarify stand on Palestine[/url]
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Sept. 6: CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet has asked Atal Bihari Vajpayee to clarify his governmentâs stand on Palestine, two days before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrives on an official visit.
In a three-page letter to the Prime Minister, Surjeet said: âIt is incumbent on the part of the government to reiterate its stand on Palestine in the context of the invitation extended to the Israeli Prime Minister.â
He added: âIt is time that the government clarified its stand instead of trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hound.â
Surjeet asked the Centre to clarify if it supported the creation of an independent Palestine state as per relevant UN resolutions. He wished to know if the government sought the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank and Gaza strip and if it recognised the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as the genuine representative of Palestinians.
This is not the first time the CPM has criticised the Centreâs foreign policy. It has often said the government is moving away from Indiaâs traditional policy based on national consensus.
Surjeet pointed out Sharon had to quit as defence minister following a massacre of Palestinian refugees. âOn February 13, 1983, a commission of inquiry set up by the Israeli government found Sharon guilty of complicity in the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut between September 16-18 1982,â he said.
[quote name='Kaushal' date='Sep 7 2003, 01:11 PM'] [url="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030907/asp/nation/story_2341301.asp"]CPM call to clarify stand on Palestine[/url]
[/quote]
The nation should ask CPM to 'clarify it's stand with respect to Tibet, Taiwan etc' :mad
But then that would be giving these nincompoops too much attention.
Quote:Surjeet pointed out Sharon had to quit as defence minister following a massacre of Palestinian refugees. âOn February 13, 1983, a commission of inquiry set up by the Israeli government found Sharon guilty of complicity in the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut between September 16-18 1982,â he said.
India is hosting the Prime Minister of Israel. If this person is good enough to lead Israel and has enough credientials to be invited by Bush to White House, what's wrong with India inviting him. I don't remember the commies being so harsh on ABV or GOI even when Mushy the butcher of Kargil was put up in the Rs. 60K/night hotel in Delhi :mad
[url="http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=37545"]Struggle to continue till logical solution of Kashmir dispute[/url]
..
They will again meet the foreign diplomats in New Delhi and apprise them of the ground situation in occupied Kashmir. He hope that the international community will adopt a proactive attitude in view of the ever-worsening situation in the Indian held territory
Quote:All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Maulvi Abbas Ansari:He hope that the international community will adopt a proactive attitude in view of the ever-worsening situation in the Indian held territory.
Note the charlatan is concerned about situation in the 'India held territory' onleee..
About a month ago the big honcho from the PoK was making all the right noise in some Swiss/European city as to how PoK-is has been reduced to a slave status by TSP.
[quote name='Kaushal' date='Sep 8 2003, 08:01 AM'] [url="http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/08sharon2.htm"]'Israel helped India during Kargil'[/url]
Rediff Foreign Affairs Bureau | September 08, 2003 13:53 IST [/quote]
Kaushal: I remember reading elswhere <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> about a report of Mossad helping obtain that Mushy+Aziz conversation during Kargil.
[url="http://www.samachar.com/openbin/redirect.vs?H/20030909/rediff_news/3,http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/08spec.htm"]The Rediff Special/A Special Correspondent[/url]
September 08, 2003
Thirty-five years ago, in September 1968, when the Research and Analysis Wing was founded with Rameshwar Nath Kao at its helm, then prime minister Indira Gandhi asked him to cultivate Israel's Mossad. She believed relations between the two intelligence agencies was necessary to monitor developments that could threaten India and Israel.
The efficient spymaster he was, Kao established a clandestine relationship with Mossad. In the 1950s, New Delhi had permitted Tel Aviv to establish a consulate in Mumbai. But full-fledged diplomatic relations with Israel were discouraged because India supported the Palestinian cause; having an Israeli embassy in New Delhi, various governments believed, would rupture its relations with the Arab world.
This was where the RAW-Mossad liaison came in. Among the threats the two external intelligence agencies identified were the military relationship between Pakistan and China, especially after then Pakistan foreign minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Pyongyang in 1971 to establish a military relationship with North Korea.
Again, Israel was worried by reports that Pakistani army officers were training Libyans and Iranians to handle Chinese and North Korean military equipment.
RAW-Mossad relations were a secret till Morarji Desai became prime minister in 1977. RAW officials had alerted him about the Zia-ul Haq regime's plans to acquire nuclear capability. While French assistance to Pakistan for a plutonium reprocessing plant was well known, the uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta was a secret. After the French stopped helping Islamabad under pressure from the Carter administration, Pakistan was determined to keep the Kahuta plant a secret. Islamabad did not want Washington to prevent its commissioning.
RAW agents were shocked when Desai called Zia and told the Pakistani military dictator: 'General, I know what you are up to in Kahuta. RAW has got me all the details.' The prime minister's indiscretion threatened to expose RAW sources.
The unfortunate revelation came about the same time that General Moshe Dayan, hero of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, was secretly visiting Kathmandu for a meeting with Indian representatives. Islamabad believed Dayan's visit was connected with a joint operation by Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies to end Pakistan's nuclear programme.
Apprehensive about an Indo-Israeli air strike on Kahuta, surface-to-air missiles were mounted around the uranium enrichment plant. These fears grew after the Israeli bombardment of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
Zia decided Islamabad needed to reassure Israel that it had nothing to fear from Pakistan's nuclear plans. Intermediaries -- Americans close to Israel -- established the initial contacts between Islamabad and Tel Aviv. Israel was confidant the US would not allow Pakistan's nuclear capability to threaten Israel. That is why Israeli experts do not mention the threat from Pakistan when they refer to the need for pre-emptive strikes against Iraq, Iran and Libya's nuclear schemes.
By the early 1980s, the US had discovered Pakistan's Kahuta project. By then northwest Pakistan was the staging ground for mujahideen attacks against Soviet troops in Afghanistan and Zia no longer feared US objections to his nuclear agenda. But Pakistani concerns over Israel persisted, hence Zia decided to establish a clandestine relationship between Inter-Services Intelligence and Mossad via officers of the two services posted at their embassies in Washington, DC.
The ISI knew Mossad would be interested in information about the Libyan, Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian military. Pakistani army officers were often posted on deputation in the Arab world -- in these very countries -- and had access to valuable information, which the ISI offered Mossad.
When young Israeli tourists began visiting the Kashmir valley in the early nineties Pakistan suspected they were Israeli army officers in disguise to help Indian security forces with counter-terrorism operations. The ISI propaganda inspired a series of terrorist attacks on the unsuspecting Israeli tourists. One was slain, another kidnapped.
The Kashmiri Muslim Diaspora in the US feared the attacks would alienate the influential Jewish community who, they felt, could lobby the US government and turn it against Kashmiri organisations clamouring for independence. Soon after, presumably caving into pressure, the terrorists released the kidnapped Israeli. During negotiations for his release, Israeli government officials, including senior intelligence operatives, arrived in Delhi.
The ensuing interaction with Indian officials led to India establishing embassy-level relations with Israel in 1992. The decision was taken by a Congress prime minister -- P V Narasimha Rao -- whose government also began pressing the American Jewish lobby for support in getting the US to declare Pakistan a sponsor of terrorism. The lobbying bore some results.
The US State Department put Pakistan on a 'watch-list' for six months in 1993. The Clinton administration 'persuaded' then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to dismiss Lieutenant General Javed Nasir, then director general of the ISI. The Americans were livid that the ISI refused to play ball with the CIA who wanted to buy unused Stinger missiles from the Afghan mujahideen, then in power in Kabul.
After she returned to power towards the end of 1993, Benazir Bhutto intensified the ISI's liaison with Mossad. She too began to cultivate the American Jewish lobby. Benazir is said to have a secret meeting in New York with a senior Israeli emissary, who flew to the US during her visit to Washington, DC in 1995 for talks with Clinton.
From his days as Bhutto's director general of military operations, Pervez Musharraf has been a keen advocate of Pakistan establishing diplomatic relations with the state of Israel.
The new defence relationship between India and Israel -- where the Jewish State has become the second-biggest seller of weapons to India, after Russia -- bother Musharraf no end. Like another military dictator before him, the Pakistan president is also wary that the fear of terrorists gaining control over Islamabad's nuclear arsenal could lead to an Israel-led pre-emptive strike against his country.
Musharraf is the first Pakistani leader to speak publicly about diplomatic relations with Israel. His pragmatic corps commanders share his view that India's defence relationship with Israel need to be countered and are unlikely to oppose such a move. But the generals are wary of the backlash from the streets. Recognising Israel and establishing an Israeli embassy in Islamabad would be unacceptable to the increasingly powerful mullahs who see the United States, Israel and India as enemies of Pakistan and Islam.
While there have always been relations between Israel and India, it is the NDA that has taken them a step forward. I believe the reaction in the arab world is being overplayed. if anything the Arab world will take more notice of India , instead of taking India's support for Arab causes for granted. In any event relations with Iran and Afghanistan are excellent. To use a phrase coined by the state department, the relations with each country will take a independent trajectory. This is definitely a win win for both countries.
[url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=173593"]A real friendship in the offing, says Sharon[/url]
IANS[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2003 12:44:20 PM ]
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Tuesday that Israel and India could do "many things together," setting the tone for a historic visit to this country that both countries hope would strengthen their growing ties.
"We can do many things together in many fields," a beaming Sharon told reporters after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee accorded him a ceremonial welcome in the red, gravelled forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the imposing presidential palace, in balmy weather conditions.
This is the first trip by an Israeli premier to India, which established diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv in 1992, an event that many interpret as a shift from the pro-Palestine, pro-Arab stance that marked New Delhi's foreign policy since independence in 1947.
Muslim groups and leftists have organised protests against Sharon, who arrived here Sunday night on a three-day trip, accompanied by a 150-strong delegation, including senior ministers, top businessmen and journalists.
An overcast sky hid the sun and brought down the temperature as Sharon took the salute from an inter-services guard of honour from a special saluting base, a rectangular maroon canopy with golden frills and shiny brass supports, as the navy band played the national anthems of the two countries.
A former brigadier general of the Israeli Defence Forces, the burly Sharon, 75, wearing a black suit with white shirt and light blue tie, then briskly marched to inspect the honour guard.
Presidential guards mounted on thoroughbred horses flanked either end of the sprawling forecourt, impressive in their white tunics, blue and gold turbans and knee-length leather boots, red and white pendants atop the lances they held aloft.
Thanking Vajpayee for the invitation, Sharon noted that this was the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to India and said he had brought along greetings from Jerusalem.
He described India "one of the most important countries in the world" and said Tel Aviv was keen to develop and strengthen bilateral ties.
"We are very much interested to develop and strengthen relations with India because India is one of the most important countries in the world," he said.
A smiling Vajpayee, who introduced Sharon to his senior ministers and officials, echoed similar sentiments and termed Sharon's visit as "historic".
"The visit will give a new shape to our relations. I am confident relations between our countries will become closer," he said.
From the Rashtrapati Bhavan welcome, Sharon drove to the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat on the banks of the Yamuna river.
Paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed hope that "embattled democracies" such as Israel and India could unite in the battle against terrorism, for peace and for a better future.
In his comments in the visitors' book, he wrote: "From Jerusalem, the city of peace, the internal capital of the Jewish people, I bring you a message of hope and peace.
"Today Israel and India are embattled democracies and sharing values and the challenge of terrorism. United in our quest of life, liberty and peace, our joint determination to fight for these values can inspire our hope for a better future for our people."
According to Rajghat secretary Rajnish Kumar, Sharon spent 20 minutes in the soothing environs of the memorial. Escorted by 20-odd officials and security personnel, the Israeli premier paid floral tributes at the polished black granite memorial stone. He was curious about the words "Hey Ram!" inscribed on it.
"When I explained that these were the last words of Gandhi, Sharon appeared deeply moved," Kumar said.
Hectic engagements await Sharon during his two-day stay in the capital and a day in Mumbai before returning home on Thursday.
Besides holding delegation level talks with Vajpayee, he will also call on President A P J Abdul Kalam and hold talks with almost all key senior Indian ministers.
Military cooperation and a strategy to combat terrorism, besides enhancing economic and trade ties, are expected to dominate the talks.
The two sides will sign six agreements at the end of the delegation-level talks and possibly a joint statement, charting out the future course of their bilateral ties.
Ariel Sharon's visit to India, the first ever by an Israeli prime minister, marks a growing friendship between the two countries.
The visit comes amid growing calls from some interest groups and commentators in the US for the US, Israel and India to do more together to counter Islamic militants.
India and Israel's bilateral relationship has blossomed since the two countries opened diplomatic ties in 1992.
But more recently the idea of a strategic axis between the US, Israel and India has been gaining ground.
'Alliance'
India's National Security adviser Brajesh Mishra set out India's stall in a speech to the American Jewish Committee's annual dinner earlier this year.
The three countries share a high, enduring interest in determining the roots and causes of terrorism
Richard Foster
Center for Security Policy
He said that the three countries "have to jointly face the same ugly face of modern-day terrorism".
"Such an alliance", he said, "would have the political will and moral authority to take bold decisions in extreme cases of terrorist provocation."
It is an idea that appears to have advocates, privately at least, within the Bush administration.
The Bush administration sees India as a rising regional power in Asia with an expanding economy and shared democratic values.
And as Richard Foster, Asian security fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, suggests, supporters of Israel within the administration can be assumed to view growing Indo-Israeli ties positively.
"The three countries share a high, enduring interest in determining the roots and causes of terrorism."
They also share a common interest in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and of dangerous missiles, he says.
Common front
The green light given by the Bush administration for Israel to sell its Phalcon early warning radar system to India is one signal of the encouragement which Washington is giving to the developing strategic relationship.
Israeli radar will be used on India's Russian-made Ilyushins
The US has a veto over the countries to which Israel can sell defence systems that are based on US technology.
And clearance for Israel to sell its Arrow ballistic missile defence system to India is currently on the agenda in Washington.
New lobbying groups dedicated to promoting India's interests in Washington, such as the US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) set up in September 2002, are increasingly working with Jewish groups such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to promote what they say are India and Israel's common concerns and values.
The AJC is planning to open a permanent liaison office in India this year and has been helping to train Indian Americans in the art of lobbying.
'Awkward balancing act'
The depth of the growing ties between the three countries is viewed with particular concern by Pakistan.
India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism within its borders, and has lobbied hard to press this point with Washington.
But as long as the US remains dependent on Pakistan for its fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban it is likely to continue an awkward balancing act in its policy towards South Asia.
The Bush administration has recently pledged $3bn in aid to Pakistan and Pakistani defence officials will be travelling to Washington in mid-September for talks at the Pentagon.
And this could explain some of the public reticence in Washington to talk of a US-Israeli-India strategic axis - something that worries, among others, many officials in Pakistan.
This is the kind of woolly headed thinking that IM should eschew in the future if they dont wish to be left behind in a polico-cultural cul de sac. Why should the blood of an Indian boil when somebody thousands of miles away is affected. As for betrayal, the question is who betrayed whom ? The Islamic countries have by and large supported the terrorist state of Pakistan (TSP) regardless of the merits of the issue. The IM has to stop worrying about what happens thousands of miles away and focus on the material betterment of his fellow countrymen. As long as the IM remains distracted and swayed by events of less relevance to India he will not be able to reach out to his Hindu compatriots and build a rapprochement. In any event it is not as if India is abandoning the palestinian cause. What this merely presages is the fact that in the future India will not act more catholic than the Pope.
[url="http://us.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/09spec1.htm"]Our blood boils at this betrayal[/url]
Shafi Sheikh sells shoes in south Mumbai's Muslim-dominated Dongri area. He supports his family of four by working at his shop from 11 in the morning till 10 at night.
But on Thursday, September 11, he plans to shut his shop and join many other Muslims across Mumbai to protest Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the city.
Says Shafi: "Sharon is a terrorist. He has killed hundreds of innocent people. He is an enemy of Islam. He has occupied the Masjid-e-Aqsa, our holy place in Jerusalem. He has no respect for my religion and wants to wipe out Muslims from the world."
As Sharon makes a historic visit to India, Muslim organizations across the country are holding demonstrations to voice their dissent to an Israeli premier's first-ever Indian trip.
Posters dubbing him 'an international terrorist' have appeared across Kerala, especially in the Muslim-dominated
Malappuram district. In Delhi, Hyderabad and Lucknow, slogan-shouting Muslims denounce Sharon as a
man who has been 'massacring innocent Palestinians.'
"It is ridiculous that the Vajpayee government should be seeking Sharon's advice on ways to combat terrorism," says Abdullah Wahab, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Hind's Kerala wing.
"It is preposterous to discuss strategies to counter terrorism with a person who has failed to contain terrorism in his
own country," Wahab pointed out, adding: "The Vajpayee government's love for Sharon represents the application of
the unethical principle according to which your enemy's enemy is your friend."
Wahab says all lovers of peace in India should protest Sharon's visit. "There is a hidden agenda behind the talks
between Sharon and Vajpayee. We should expose that," the Jamaat-e-Hind leader alleged.
Maulana Mohamad Saeed Noori, a Muslim cleric in Mumbai, promises "to greet Sharon with black flags at the airport and gherao his Mumbai visit. He is a murderer and a terrorist like Osama bin Laden. I would say he is worse than Hitler and Genghis Khan."
Maulana Noori is upset that the government has refused to divulge information about Sharon's one-day visit to Mumbai. "Whenever a foreign leader comes to India his itinerary is released in advance. In Sharon's case no one knows when he is expected in the city. He is coming like a thief to our city," the cleric said.
The discord over Sharon's visit has spread to the city's streets. Inaayat Qureshi, a fruit vendor in a south Mumbai street, asked rediff.com, "What was the need to invite Sharon? The Europeans don't allow Sharon to set foot in their countries. Why are we welcoming him? We are destroying our friendship with the Arab countries by inviting him."
Qureshi felt the Vajpayee government was sending wrong messages to the Indian Muslim community and the Arab world by inviting Sharon. "Our country always enjoyed confidence of the Arab countries. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was close to India when the Congress government was in power. God knows what he must now be thinking about our country," he added.
Syed Vicaruddin, chairman of the Hyderabad-based Indo-Arab League and editor of the Urdu daily Rahnuma-e-Deccan, believed Sharon's "ill-conceived visit has aroused very strong emotions among Indians. Even those who considered Prime Minister Vajpayee a secular person are having second thoughts today because he is playing host to Sharon, a war criminal responsible for massacres in Palestine and Lebanon."
"Right from the time of Mahatma Gandhi," Vicaruddin said, "we have been committed to the cause of Palestine. That has been the cornerstone of our foreign policy all these decades. Arafat has been a very close friend of India. The BJP government has dumped India's traditional foreign policy into the Arabian Sea and courted Israel and Sharon. Our blood boils at this betrayal."
Vicaruddin said the Palestinian struggle for restoration of their homeland could not be equated with what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir. Israel committed aggression and occupied the Arab territories in the 1967 Six-Day War, he said.
Ever since, Israel has defied the world and refused to abide by UN resolutions to withdraw from the occupied territories, including Jerusalem.
Asaduddin Owaisi, leader of the hardline Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen in Andhra Pradesh, felt the BJP "wants to have a strong alliance with Israel and the United States," claiming that L K Advani's first visit as deputy prime minister was to the State of Israel.
Owaisi, a member of the state legislative assembly, added that Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is also a fan of the Israelis. "Naidu invited the Israelis to set up a demonstration farm for drip irrigation technology in his constituency, Kuppam," he said.
This Israeli drip irrigation technology, Owaisi claimed, is being replicated in more districts in Andhra Pradesh. "But this
technology, experts say, is not at all useful to the state. The Muslims here see a larger design other than drip irrigation
technology in the growing relations of Andhra Pradesh with Israel," he said.
"In today's world," said Maulana Rizwan-ul-Qasimi, member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, "anybody can go anywhere, but Sharon's visit to India raises some serious doubts. What is the BJP government going to discuss with him? Do the discussions centre around efforts to promote peace in the world, particularly in troubled regions like West Asia? Or do the deliberations lead to a nexus of sorts, a conspiracy to thwart the peace process in Israeli-occupied Palestine?"
Quote:Vicaruddin said the Palestinian struggle for restoration of their homeland could not be equated with what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir. Israel committed aggression and occupied the Arab territories in the 1967 Six-Day War, he said.
Now, now who used stealth and cunning to attack Israel during their holy fesitval of Yom Kippur. Arabs lost war and it's territories. Sadat had to go to Camp David to strike a peace deal to get it back.
Why doesn't the media report facts along with comments of some grand mullah - wouldn't that be fair and balanced (sorry FOX)?
On October 6, 1973 â Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar â Egypt and Syria opened a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The equivalent of the total forces of NATO in Europe were mobilized on Israel's borders. On the Golan Heights, approximately 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, fewer than 500 Israeli defenders were attacked by 80,000 Egyptians.
I have met Sri B Raman in person and have attended his talk in the Bay Area during his recent visit here and I generally pay a lot of attention to what he says. However, i disagree with him on certain points, for example
Quote:7. At a time when there are indications that the IIF might succumb to the pressure from its Pakistani components and step up its rhetoric and operations against India, was it wise to have programmed this high-profile visit and talk from the roof-top about our counter-terrorism co-operation with Israel?
The question then becomes when is a good time for a Israeli head of state visit. For 56 years we have kept Israel at arms length, inspite of repeated overtures by Israel. Should we have waited another 56 years ? The reality is that if we are concerned about what IIF will do we would never have this visit.
This visit is a signal to the Islamic ummah that India will not become a patsy for every two bit Jehadi organization and will work heartily in cooperation with those who wish to work with India. The Arab world has been particularly ambivalent about terrorism directed against India and certain countries in the Arab world have been openly supportive of the Paki role in creating subversion in India. We should not be concerned about the reaction of such countries or the reaction of IIF. India should do what is in her national interest, without worrying about the reaction of dubious characters, organizations or nations.
' /> about a report of Mossad helping obtain that Mushy+Aziz conversation during Kargil.