SPEAKING
FREELY India-Israel anti-terror axis
evolves By Ninan Koshy
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
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"It is advisable for
the democratic countries of the US, Israel and
India to come together with an integrated task
force to effectively defeat the threats of
terrorists", stated former Indian president APJ
Abdul Kalam in a speech in New Delhi last Friday.
Given his status, is the former president
really oblivious to the fact that such a
US-India-Israel axis on counter-terrorism already
exists?
During then Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon's visit to New Delhi in September
2003, his deputy, Yosef Lapid, told journalists that
an "unwritten and abstract"
axis had been created among India, Israel and the
US to combat international terrorism.
"While there was no formal triangular
agreement there is a mutual interest of the three
countries in making the world a more secure place
for all of us. There is American support for the
development of the unwritten axis", Lapid told
them. "Therefore in the abstract sense we are
creating such an axis."
Just four months
before the announcement of the creation of the
axis by the Israeli deputy prime minister, Brajesh
Mishra, India's National Security Adviser, had
called for such an alliance.
Speaking to
the American Jewish Committee on May 8, 2003,
Mishra said, "Only a 'core' consisting of
democracies such as India, Israel and USA can deal
with terrorism. Such an alliance would have the
political will and moral authority to make bold
decisions in extreme cases of terrorist
provocations".
He added that the countries
would not waste time in defining terrorism or
arguing about its causes. "Distinctions sought to
be made between freedom fighters and terrorists
propagate a bizarre logic", Mishra pontificated.
"Another fallacy propagated is that terrorism can
be eradicated by addressing the root causes. This
is nonsense", Mishra declared.
He then
repeated his favorite themes: India, the US and
Israel were the "prime targets of terrorism". They
had a "common enemy" and this required "joint
action".
Mishra's comments underpinned and
expanded those of the deputy prime minister LK
Advani, who in an interview given to Fox News in
July 2002 said. "Terrorism in so far we have seen
it on September 11 [2001] or December 13 [2001, an
attack on the Indian Parliament] has a common
source and that common source has declared the
U.S, Israel and India as its three main enemies".
The long history of the axis makes it
unnecessary for the former president to repeat
calls for cooperation in counter-terrorism among
the three countries.
Let us look at
India-Israel cooperation in counter-terrorism
within the framework of the axis.
Mani
Shankar Aiyer, member of the Rajya Sabha (upper
house) and a former minister told the Indian
Express on September 25, 2010:
"We have become so dependent on
defense supplies from Israel that when I put up
a Rajya Sabha question seeking the government to
reply on whether it equated the large number of
civilians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza strip
- as found by the Goldstone fact-finding team -
with the killings of Hamas, the Ministry of
External Affairs disallowed my question, calling
it a state secret. Since when has the subject of
India-Palestinian relations become a state
secret given the fact that we [India] were at
the forefront of the Palestinian
struggle?"
India-Palestinian relations
have long been subsumed by India-Israel relations.
Just before Sharon's momentous visit to New Delhi
in 2003, the Financial Times describes his
country's ties with India as "one of the world's
most secretive relationships".
The
sentiment was echoed, albeit obliquely, by former
Israeli ambassador to India, Mark Sofer in
February 2008.
"We do have a defense
relationship with India which is no secret. On the
other hand, what is a secret is what the defense
relationship is. And with all respect the secret
part will remain a secret," said Sofer.
This prompted analyst Rahnuma Ahmed to
ask:
"What is one to make of this? That
defense and intelligence cooperation which
includes sale of high tech weapon systems and
mutual access to military facilities and
training is the mere surface? What lies
underneath? Something which is so hidden that
His Excellency needed to utter the word 'secret'
four times?"
A visit by then Israeli
foreign minister Shimon Peres to New Delhi in
January 2002 became an occasion to reinforce the
strategic ties between India and Israel. An Indian
Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during Peres'
visit, "India finds it increasingly beneficial to
learn from Israel's experience in dealing with
terrorism since Israel too has long suffered from
cross-border terrorism".
The spokesperson
was reiterating the Indian foreign ministry's
position of equating the Palestinian struggle with
cross-border terrorism. This fundamentally flawed
position continues to be the basis of
Indian-Israeli counter-terrorism cooperation.
India and Israel not only exchange crucial
intelligence information on what they call
"Islamic terrorist groups", Israel has also been
"helping" India to "fight terrorism in Kashmir" by
providing important logistical support such as
specialized surveillance, equipment, cooperation
or intelligence gathering and joint exercises.
The level of intelligence cooperation
between India and Israel is more extensive and
deeper than between India and the US. Thousands of
special troops have been trained in Israel. India
primarily sought this training in order to tackle
cross-border infiltration of insurgents into
Kashmir from Pakistan, as well as to protect
north-eastern states from possible infiltration by
neighboring countries such as China.
In a
June 2004 visit to Israel, India's then vice chief
of army staff, General Shantano Chowdhary, was
shown counter-infiltration devices used along the
borders in the Golan Heights and Nagev desert.
During Major-General Kaplinsky's 2007 visit to
India, the Israeli delegation along with its
Indian hosts reviewed the performance of the
Israeli equipment used along the Line of Control
(LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The 2008
Mumbai attack stirred a growing interest in
Israeli counter-terrorism techniques and led to
the formation of a new working group. In September
2008, Defense News reported that India and Israel
were planning joint exercises between Israeli
commando forces and Indian troops.
As part
of the agreement, Israeli commandos provided
training to Indian troops at various locations in
India including jungles, mountains and highly
populated urban zones, as well as close quarter
operational training for defeating terror targets
with reduced civilian casualties.
When
Israel offered Indian homeland security and
counter-terror know-how in 2009, the Maharashtra
government responded by sending an Indian
delegation to Israel for hands-on experience.
"Israel's homeland security systems are
way ahead and India can benefit from your own
experience. We are friendly countries and
strategic partners based on sound fundamental
principles. We have to cooperate to the fullest
extent to combat the menace of terrorism", India's
former minister of state for commerce and
industry, Jyothiraditya Scindia, told business
leaders in Tel Aviv in February 2010.
During a one-to-one meeting with Peres,
then Israel's president, the minister thanked
Israel for its help in the "fight against terror
from time to time".
The nature of the
cooperation between India and Israel in dealing
with terrorism raises fundamental questions not
only about about India's views on terrorism but
also on how it understands the nature of the
Palestinian struggle.
Diplomatic remarks
about "cross-border terrorism" clearly equates the
Palestinian resistance with terror. India and
Israel have found shared enemies to target in
their respective anti-terrorism operations,
conflating Kashmir and Pakistan with Palestine.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Ninan Koshy, a
political commentator based in Trivandrum, Kerala,
India, and formerly Visiting Fellow, Harvard Law
School, is the author of War on Terror: Reordering
the World and Under the Empire: India's New
Foreign Policy.
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