ISLAMABAD – A renowned English writer and journalist has revealed theIsraeli fingerprints all over behind the escalating Pakistan Indiasituation.
He has exposed an alarming nexus between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and Netanyahu-led Likud — a centre-right to right-wing politicalparty of Israel.
Robert Fisk, The Independent’s multi-award-winning Middle Eastcorrespondent, connects the dots to reveal Israeli hand in major escalationbetween the two South Asian countries that was sparked by a suicide attackon the Indian-controlled Kashmir earlier this month.
His latest article starts: “When I heard the first news report, I assumedit was an Israeli air raid on Gaza. Or Syria. Air strikes on a ‘terroristcamp’ were the first words. A ‘command and control centre’ destroyed, many‘terrorists’ killed. The military was retaliating for a ‘terrorist attack’on its troops, we were told.
An Islamist ‘jihadi’ base had been eliminated. Then I heard the nameBalakot and realised that it was neither in Gaza, nor in Syria – not evenin Lebanon – but in Pakistan. Strange thing, that. How could anyone mix upIsrael and India?
Well, don’t let the idea fade away. Two thousand five hundred milesseparate the Israeli ministry of defence in Tel Aviv from the Indianministry of defence in New Delhi, but there’s a reason why the usualcliché-stricken agency dispatches sound so similar.”
The Beirut-based journalist also highlights that “for months, Israel hasbeen assiduously lining itself up alongside India’s nationalist BJPgovernment in an unspoken – and politically dangerous – ‘anti-Islamist’coalition, an unofficial, unacknowledged alliance, while India itself hasnow become the largest weapons market for the Israeli arms trade.”
India was Israel largest arms client paying £530m for Israeli air defence,radar systems and ammunition, including air-to-ground missiles – most ofthem tested during Israel’s military offensives against Palestinians andtargets in Syria.
“Not by chance, therefore, has the Indian press just trumpeted the factthat Israeli-made Rafael Spice-2000 ‘smart bombs’ were used by the Indianair force in its strike against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) ‘terrorists’ insidePakistan,” writes Mr. Fisk.
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‘Like many Israeli boasts of hitting similar targets, the Indian adventureinto Pakistan might owe more to the imagination than military success’___________________________________________________________
He also mocked Indian authorities for boasting the claims of “eliminatingthe 300-400 terrorists” supposedly by the Israeli-manufactured andIsraeli-supplied GPS-guided bombs – which in reality turned out to be“little more than rocks and trees”.
It was India’s first air strike on Pakistani soil since the neighboursfought a war in 1971 — when neither had nuclear weapons. The much-hyped“air assault” came in ‘retaliation’ to a savage ambush of Indian troops inthe Pulwama district of the Occupied Jammu &Kashmir on 14 February, whichthe “JeM” claimed, left 45 Indian soldiers dead.
Islamabad, while denying the Indian strike caused any major damage orcasualties, said that this was New Delhi’s strategy to divert internationalattention from human rights violations taking place in the Kashmir region.View image on Twitterlink[image: View image on Twitter]link
linkMaj Gen Asif Ghafoor✔@OfficialDGISPRlinklink
There is only one pilot under Pakistan Army’s custody. Wing Comd AbhiNandan is being treated as per norms of military ethics.Twitter Ads info and privacy link
Pakistan, a nation of nearly 200 million Muslims, is trying its best toplay down the threat of war with India amid the rare aerial engagement overthe divided and disputed territory of Kashmir that resulted in shootingdown of two IAF jets.
India and Israel, ‘partners-in-arms’ against Muslims
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Further highlighting the hatred prevailing against Muslims in both Israeland India, Mr Fisk reminds the world that “Israel itself is trying toexplain away its continued sales of tanks, weapons and boats to the Myanmarmilitary dictatorship – while western nations impose sanctions on thegovernment which has attempted to destroy its minority and largely MuslimRohingya people.”
“But Israel’s arms trade with India is legal, above-board and muchadvertised by both sides.”
From Mr Fisk’s article, we get to know that the “Israelis have filmed jointexercises between their own ‘special commando’ units and those sent byIndia to be trained in the Negev desert, again with all the expertisesupposedly learned by Israel in Gaza and other civilian-throngedbattlefronts.”
Detailing the joint drill, the Independent’s correspondent shares “at least16 Indian ‘Garud’ commandos – part of a 45-strong Indian militarydelegation – were for a time based at the Nevatim and Palmachim air basesin Israel.”
Then, he finds a stark similarity between the rhetoric ratcheted up by Modiand his Israeli friend Benjamin Netanyahu during their recent visits toeach other’s countries.
“In his first visit to India last year – preceded by a trip to Israel bynationalist Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Israeli prime ministerNetanyahu recalled the 2008 Islamist attacks on Mumbai in which almost 170civilians were killed. “Indians and Israelis know too well the pain ofterrorist attacks,” he told Modi. “We remember the horrific savagery ofMumbai. We grit our teeth, we fight back, we never give in.” This was alsoBJP-speak.”
He also mentions “several Indian commentators have warned that right-wingZionism and right-wing Nationalism under Modi should not become thefoundation stone of the relationship between the two countries, both ofwhich – in rather different ways – fought the British Empire”.
Who is the victim, Muslims or Hindus?
Mr. Fisk also refers to the statement of Brussels researcher ShaireeMalhotra, whose work has appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, inwhich she pointed out that India has the world’s third largest Muslimpopulation after Indonesia and Pakistan – upward of 180 million people.
“The India-Israel relationship is also commonly being framed in terms of anatural convergence of ideas between their ruling BJP and Likud parties,”Malhotra wrote last year.
Mr. Fisk, who has lived in the Arab world for more than 40 years, notes“Hindu nationalists had constructed ‘a narrative of Hindus as historicallyvictims at the hands of Muslims’, an attractive idea to those Hindus whorecall partition and the continuing “turbulent relationship” with Pakistan”.
“In fact, as Malhotra pointed out in Haaretz, ‘Israel’s biggest fans inIndia appear to be the Internet Hindus who primarily love Israel for how itdeals with Palestine and fights Muslims.’”
He goes on “… it is difficult to see how Zionist nationalism will not leachinto Hindu nationalism when Israel is supplying so many weapons to India –the latest of which India, which has enjoyed diplomatic relations withIsrael since 1992, has already used against Islamists inside Pakistan.”
“Signing up to the “war on terror” – especially “Islamist terror” – mayseem natural for two states built on colonial partition whose security isthreatened by Muslim neighbours.”
In the end, the noted journalist tries to knock sense into the warmongers,saying “In both cases, their struggle is over the right to own or occupyterritory. Israel, India and Pakistan all possess nuclear weapons. Anothergood reason not to let Palestine and Kashmir get tangled up together. Andto leave India’s 180 million Muslims alone.”
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