As an Indian acutely aware of the danger Terrorism has always posed and continues to pose to the national security of my country I agree 💯 per cent with Arnab Goswami when he says in the video-clip above that Terrorist outfits like Hamas must be rooted out like termites.
However, as a thinking Indian whose patriotism is no less thumpchesting than Mr. Goswami’s own, I must confront the larger question about which he does not seem to care at all i.e. what are the means to be adopted in achieving the goal of exterminating a thousand Terrorists without rendering a million other Ordinary Civilians into mere dehumanised statistic of what in military parlance is called “ acceptable collateral damage” …. A tragic and horrific scenario as we now see is actually unfolding in Gaza.
Let’s examine the situation for a moment dispassionately without the Arnabesque emotion.
Israel has always been a “hard state” that was ruthless in going after terrorists not only in the Middle East but everywhere in Europe too.
Over the years the world has seen the deadly and feared hand of Mossad in several hundreds of acts of assassinations, coups, sabotage and other violent forms of regime-change in Iran, Turkey, Central and East European countries, and Central Asia and even Latin America and parts of Africa.
On many an occasion the cross-border attacks on so-called Terrorist outfits were fomented by Israeli Mossad either in the capacity of hatchet-man of the American CIA or as henchman for the British MI5, working in cahoots for Uncle Sam and John Bull who both hired it to do their dirty job for them.
Just a few days ago, the proof of this was revealed: Donald Trump publicly said that at the very last moment Bibi Netanyahu pulled out of helping the US Govt., the CIA and Mossad’s plot that had been hatched to assassinate the Iranian General and Chief of Intelligence, Qasem Soleimani, a military officer who had served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division. The US then had to go alone and finish the job to kill Gen. Soleiman.
The State of Israel has thus in the last 75 years truly become eminently reputed as a very “hard state” waging a relentless and brutal war against Terrorism all across the world both on its own behalf as well as on behalf of its allies.
The intelligence agencies of many countries in the world , including India, are in thrall of the expertise developed and possessed by Israel in the sophisticated and hi-tech field of “international counter-terrorism”. These countries all line up at the doorsteps of the Mossad to pay huge “technology knowhow fees” to eagerly learn about how to conduct anti-terror war with impunity in any territory in the world, unmindful of national or sovereign jurisdiction and without the least regard for the will of ordinary citizens in those countries. In that one respect, it can be said that the nature of villainy perpetrated by the archetypal Terrorist and the archetypal Anti-Terrorist are both one and the same, and equally heinous i.e. they neither respect international borders nor the sovereign rule of law nor human rights of any country. Unspeakable crime is often met with unspeakable retribution.
In spite of Israel being a tough, ruthless “hard state” against Terrorism all these years , tell me Mr Arnab Goswami, what has it really or substantially achieved in its war against Terrorism? Has the fear aroused in the hearts of international terrorists by Israel or the Mossad delivered it lasting “Peace or Stability or both”?
This is exactly the point at which we must all ask the eternally perplexing moral question: Ends and Means?
“The price of Liberty”, as the old saying goes, “is eternal Vigilance”.
Last week in Gaza Strip the wisdom embedded in that old saying was never made more starkly and convincingly evident. Israel with all its military might, its political acuity, its fabled intelligence and counter-intelligence resources — and its fearsome counter-terrorism capabilities and expertise too — was caught with its pants down. The gatekeepers and sentries were found gone and playing truant from their watchtowers. Just one little lapse in Vigilance on its part … the guard was let down … and the enemy struck devastatingly at the borders of Israel.
And that is exactly where the nub of the problem is. Vigilance compromised has now been somehow transformed into moral justification for wreaking terrible revenge on not just a terrorist outfit but upon a whole people.
Vigilance compromised — especially in the case of matters of grave national security — is not so much a failure of Intelligence as much as it is a total failure of the political Leadership of the nation. The State of Israel in the last few years has been mired in the throes of a political crisis wherein rabid Zionist “hard-liners” have grappled with moderates and centrist forces, those who in India Arnab Goswami might want to denounce as liberal-secularists. The Israeli elections have shown that the electorate is deeply divided and polarised over the direction the nation must take going forward. In a moment of such political fluidity and turmoil as Israel faced, the leadership shown by the Likud Party of Ben Netanyahu showed distinct lack of humility, patience and forbearance. Instead, Bibi, filled with hubris and reckless bravado, went on to brazenly steamroll the Constitutional institutions including trying to usurp the powers of the judiciary. The net result was rapid demoralisation of all government authority and functionaries including the famed IDF — Israeli Defence Forces.
Enemies strike you precisely when they know your guard is down and when your Vigilance has been compromised.
Israel’s nearest enemies are right across its borders and they know exactly what’s happening in Tel Aviv. They were quick to strike with all the might they had at their disposal in that very moment of opportunity.
Thus, there is no doubt that it was the failure of Israeli Leadership which invited the Terrorists to attack from Gaza as they did on October 7. This fact however is now being totally obfuscated and deliberately shoved under the rug in all the discourse now raging across the world over the Palestine-Israel conflict. The Western powers too are now engaged in hastily covering up their own colossal failure in anticipating the tragic mess that Israeli leadership has led them into. In the best traditions of the ways that modern American international relations are conducted, the best way to cover up one’s moral failure is to swiftly climb onto the back of a higher moral horse. In this case, that conveniently becomes : “Israel’s fight against Terrorism is America’s fight too. We stand with Israeli and condemn Hamas and Iran”.
So, my rejoinder to Mr. Arnab Goswami is simply this: INDIA that is Bharath should certainly learn lessons from the tragedy in Gaza unfolding before our eyes . But INDIA should absorb the right lessons , not the belligerent ones that Goswami would have us Indians adopt through knee-jerk as the means to deal with our own counter-terrorism challenges.
By all means, INDIA should double down on all its efforts and its investments to keep its Vigilance shipshape and fighting-fit more than ever before. Fortunately for India, we have strong political, governmental and national security institutions which are still going about doing their job professionally and coolheadedly. All that the people have to do now is to ensure that a strong, capable and Constitutionally elected government is given all the requisite power needed to govern the federal republic that India is today. That is what is required at this moment and not sabre-rattling politics of the wannabe-Netanyahu brand that gung-ho Goswami by all appearance seems to be rooting for.
The first duty of a people’s government is to make the nation ever Vigilant against external and internal threats. It is not to go out into the world looking to wage wars … or to join them.
If I think about it deeply upon watching the above video-clip, I honestly feel that to go crying hoarse as Arnab Goswami does: “Israel is fighting a war on our behalf of us all! … So it is our war too!” is not the answer to the problems of Terrorism that we face at home. What Arnab is saying is this: If you are not for Israel then you are for Terrorism! Dead Wrong, Mr Arnab Goswami! Because that’s really your own paraphrase of what George Bush too once screamed after 9/11: “If you are not with AMERICA then you are against America”! And just look at where America is today after that feckless President gave out that crusading clarion call !
The bottom line for me: Israel’s War is not India’s War. And let India’s policymakers and political leaders please beware of the fact.
Sudarshan Madabushi