Vicious but Good:

October 19/2011: Nearly 1027 deadly Palestinian prisoners are to be released by Israel to get, in return, the release of a single Jewish soldier Gilad Shalit. The imprisoned Palestinians had serious accusations leveled against them such as murder and mayhem. Yet an intolerant State as Israel has done what it has done. This is no small feat, to say the least. Historically, Israel may be perceived as a nation that never bends under any threat. The Jewish State was born after the terrible Holocaust of the Nazi era of Adolf Hitler. It has been populated by people believing in that single religion but hailing from all over the globe who chose to make home on a thin strip of land with major Moslem countries on 3 sides and the Mediterranean Sea to the north. Not endowed with mentionable natural resources except a land that has seen much of human history being created in its most acute form, Israel today sits where the 3 most important religions were born—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

After the Second World War, the West was besotted with the anti Semitic mindset which could not express itself openly lest it be viewed as Neo Nazi. Therefore, Europe probably found a socio political end to the gnawing problem of tolerating the Jews in its midst by the formation of a new State exclusively designed for them and yet far away from its shores. Ideas such as this have been extensively discussed by world historians. I do not consider myself capable to shed any new light on such an issue. The Jewish State was, most likely, seen as a bumper against future and possible growth of Moslem strength. Similar in nature was the creation of the two Pakistans (West and East)  then seen as a ‘bundh’ built to contain the Hindoo religion from overflowing the banks and inundating the world with thoughts that were not totally comprehensible to the logic driven Western mind. This in spite of centuries of dominating the people and land of this sub continent.

Risking international displeasure has been a key foreign policy for the Israeli administration. Whether it is the killing of a Hamas leader, raiding the Entebbe airport during Idi Amin’s regime and freeing almost all the passengers of an El Al airline hijacked there or bombing the hell out of Lebanon, Israel has braved everyone’s wrath to ensure safety and security of every single one of its national. That had been the momentous decision that the Jewish nation had taken at its time of inception. Protect every single inpidual as if the whole nation depended on that one person. No other country in this world of today could possibly lay claim to such a feat and that is the uniqueness of the Israelis.

We in India may not be seen as approving that country much. We notice that Narendra Modi goes to Israel, learns a few tricks from their kibbutz life style and tries to imitate it back home in Kutch or some such place. The NDA government had opted to extend a wavering hand to the Jewish State while all Congress led governments have kept a great distance from the Israelis fearing backlash from the Indian Moslems who are supposedly more keen on their ties with Arab countries. We are not yet confident whether this be true but that has been the impression created till now, maybe to build another minority vote bank that has rapidly shifted away from the mother Party of our country.

While India is known to bend backwards for saving a daughter of a Union Home minister from a terror group’s clutches, we, as a nation, are not seen as standing by our citizens in times of their need. An airlift from a war torn Libya may be an exception but an Israeli mind is something that we are not able to match up. We are more interested to be seen as ‘nice’ as a country. Spineless could be a better term to define Indian foreign policy. An Ajmal Kasab is kept alive, thereby giving out a message that our system does not function even for the protection of our own nationals. True, our nationals are too many and do behave irrationally outside the country, same as they do at home. Yet, the Indian State remains frozen when danger strikes. On the other hand, Israel strikes back vicious when it is simply scratched.