Israel Matzav

INDIA REMINISCENT OF ISRAEL

At the History News Network, Judith Apter Klinghoffer reports from India that it sounds an awful lot like Israel:

Reading the papers in India is very much like reading the papers in Israel. Whether Indians, or Israelis for that matter, chose to admit it or not, they are under constant attack. Indeed, Musharef is following in the footsteps of Yassir Arafat. He is talking and terrorizing and the Indians let him. Last week I met with the vice chancellor of Goa University. He told me that a group of Japanese students who were supposed to come to the university for a course on India, cancelled after the Mumbai bombing. I responded that it reminded me of Israel. He correctly pointed out the crucial difference in size. I noted the equally important distinction; terrorism in India hardly merits a comment in the world press. Last week, India was shaken by the revelation that two Pakistanis were arrested for planning attacks on Bangalore, the country's Silicon Valley. In Israel, 4 Palestinians and one Israeli Arab were arrested with explosives. Both countries had a narrow escape, one of many. This short paragraph is all the NYT editors thought the Indian item merited but in an editorial, the Times of India correctly assessed the meaning of the arrests:

If suspected Pakistani militants nabbed in Mysore had been planning to attack the Vikas Soudha a newly built government administration block that is part of the state secretariat in Bangalore that's more evidence that it's not just Kashmir, Mumbai or Delhi who need to worry about large-scale terror attacks.

The whole country is a target, and Bangalore as the symbol of India's new-found economic prowess is high on the list. The men were apprehended close to the Infosys campus in Mysore, and there are reports that IT majors like Infosys and Wipro may be on the list of terror targets.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has already been struck. It's not just the north but also the south that may be targeted, and it's not just government establishments but private sector corporations and scientific establishments that find themselves on the hit list.

Welcome to our world, people of India. Maybe it's time that you stop voting with the Arabs and make an open alliance with us.

Read it all.

Update 6:19 PM

“At least eight people, mostly shoppers, have [been] killed and more than 20 injured in two simultaneous bomb attacks in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati, police and witnesses said.”

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:22 PM