venkat_kv wrote: ↑08 May 2024 10:28
Sanman Saar,
I think you are going off on a tangent with one or two pieces of info. It wasn't just the American support to jihadis that caused 9/11, but the rampant radicalization that went unchecked after the afghan war with soviets that was continued with Pakistan training and Saudi money. Most of it was supposed to have been closed and the existing cadres sent to deradicalization centers, but its easily said than done.
Americans outsourced Afghan jihad to Pak, and Zia cunningly milked that to the hilt, while Americans couldn't care less about any collateral damage to India.
Israel, has always maintained relations with any country that was willing to recognize the state of Israel, (like Iran under Shah and the apartheid regime of South Africa). Israel has always prioritized this and it has it own value where they are willing to work with any country having diplomatic/good relations with them.
I'm not reflexively trashing Israelis, and I recognize the value of the economic, trade and arms relationship with them. But I think we need to notice that US-based Israeli lobby is hydra-headed, and some factions of that lobby are willing to stomp all over India. I'm specifically talking about the NeoCons (eg. Victoria Nuland) who extend their ambitions beyond re-drawing Arab states to additionally taking on Russia, whom they see as a backer of Syria and Iran. By reviving the Cold War animosity with Russia, they're then inevitably putting India in their crosshairs, since we're dependent on Russia and cannot discard our relationship with them. Remember that India is at best just an afterthought to them, so they don't care what happens to us, nor are they willing to make any concession for our interests.
PLO wasn't any saint and were as brutal in their heydays as the hamas is now.(the massacres of athletes in Munich olympics, bombings). The Israeli dispensation tried every trick to weaken the PLO with targeted killings to promoting divisions, to promoting rival factions. (nothing new when you see what is done in most other cases The British did some of their own over the IRA in its hey days).
Arabs are not pacifists, to be sure, and have their own bad temperament. Their AfPak offspring/converts are even worse. The outermost edges of the ummah are the most ferocious.
But locking up people into a Bantu-stan and bombarding them seems to me akin to locking a dog in a cage and poking him with a stick until he becomes vicious.
Netanyahu wasn't in power from the disbanding of PLO till the rise of Hamas. israeli have their won divisions to cater to with the newer generations preferring the bhaichara koolaid. And this selective leaks are designed to paint the current Israeli leadership in poor light. there have been security mistakes that are made and they need to rectify the same (after all the initial reports did point out that workers coming from palestinian side pointing out the flaws.
Netanyahu came to power after Ehud Barak, and chose the strategy of supporting Hamas in order to defeat the PLO. This inevitably set the stage for blowback (aka. "snakes in the backyard to bite your PLO neighbors")
But we all know that Iran is the main patron of Hamas, and likely helped orchestrate the Oct 7 attacks as a way to derail the looming Israel-Saudi peace agreement that was supposed to form the lynchpin of IMEC (India-MiddleEast-European Corridor)
The jewish people are the only group of people who is modern history were about to be eradicated wholesale and their survival instincts have kicked in. they will fight anyone who is opposed to them for that very reason and US regime change has nothing to do with that. After second world war US has been involved in a big war in every decade (korea, vietnam, south america, afganistan, baltic states, gulf war1, afganistan again, gulf war 2, ukraine vs russia). All of these were not driven by Israel.
Yes, I agree that the European Holocaust against Jews was a defining trauma for them, along with their longtime statelessness. But I blame Brits and Americans for that European Holocaust more than the Arabs.
Colonial Brits were always playing imperial games against Europe, and then Americans joined in to pile on against Germany in WW1. The resulting lopsided victory over Germany created the untenable Treaty of Versailles, which then inevitably led to German backlash and WW2. This German backlash included blaming the Jewish minorities for Germany's humiliation, which culminated in a genocidal extermination campaign.
The question that needs to be asked is why was there no condemnation of hamas when they took ordinary civilians as hostages leading them like some war slaves and all the high flying Wapo, NYT and huff post like publications didn't condemn hamas nor asked any questions of Qatar which is housing the leadership of Hamas. Qatar itself is under US umbrella of protection. So how come there are no FATF related question for the Qatar. Qatar is afterall needed to supply gas to Europe after cutting russian gas supplies that were cheaper.
I think all the MSM condemned Hamas. But support for Israel has then fallen away since then, given its own indiscriminate bombardment against civilians who are effectively captives. Remember that Modi was the first to offer assistance to Israel on Oct 7, but since then we too have had to balance our condemnation of Hamas terror with reminders that nations must abide by the laws of war on treatment of civilians.
On Qatar, how come the wily Americans haven't tried their regime-change tricks on it, like they're so willing to try against Modi?
Isn't it because they see us less-developed but democratic Indians as easier pushovers compared to tiny Qatar's dictatorial emirate?
The answer lies in self interests for each country whether Israeli or US or Qatar or anyone else for that matter. You are absolutely right that we shouldn't blindly support the israelis and that is the reason why India supports the 2 nation settlement with Palestinians also deserving a state of their own. but we stand with friends with our interests in IMEC or the Haifa port driving our self interests in this.
Anyway, the Palestinians aren't important enough for me to make me anti-Israel. I remember when Israelis launched their lunar mission, I tuned in live to watch their landing attempt, and felt their mission had many inspiring things we should learn from -- like their inclusion of an archive crystal which encoded the history of Jewish civilization, their holy texts, and Jewish intellectual writings. Their intellectualism certainly outpaces ours.
It's really the Russophobic contingent within the US-based Israel lobby (ie. the NeoCons) who make me the most wary -- because their Russophobia and their willingness to launch a new Cold War 2.0 will inevitably mean victimizing India.
Well before Putin's invasion, as I watched the confrontation with Russia developing, I became worried about a looming new Cold War that could bring back to India the bad old days of the terrorism-filled 1980s again.
We can't just sit there and take all of that lying down. NRI populations in both US and Canada are much larger now, and must be mobilized to oppose and arrest these negative trends.