In India it is very unusual and
abnormal to write anything in support of Israel because doing so is
something portraying itself as politically incorrect. In present
circumstances when Israel has waged a war against Hamas in Gaza strip
and analysts along with political commentators are busy in writing big
articles it is less important to be included in that list but few
aspects of this problem has not been addressed so far.
Being a secular and liberal democracy India always has adopted a
middle path in Arab-Israel struggle although it always preferred to be
seen in favor of Arab camp but for a long time every effort were going
on from out of government channels to keep Israel in good humor also.
But it is really paradox for Indian democracy to follow the principle
of political correctness and secularism in the context of every action
of Israel against its hostile neighbors. Since birth of Israel India
adopted the policy of condemnation of every act of self defense of this
lone Jewish nation along with other Arab nations and European
countries. In last sixty years it would be very rare to get any
instance when supreme body of international law United Nations had not
support of India in any resolutions against Israel. Since independence
India adopted the policy of condemnation of Israel on every front to
appease the Muslim constituency in India as well as Islamic Umma in
rest of the world. But since 1992 when Indian government has officially
opened diplomatic channel between two countries it could be discussed
why Policy of condemnation of cold war era is still being followed even
after facing new threats in the form of Islamist terrorism.
In latest string of condemnation of action of Israel Indian
government come out openly with official statement to condemn the
assault on Gaza strip. However this statement was not very unusual or
unpredicted but in some way it could be called haste decision.
Political correctness along with pseudo liberal syndrome has infected
the opinion makers and intellectuals around the world and due to this
infection they are suffering with grave decease of myopic vision.
Because of their myopic vision they are not able to analyze the
situation in objective way as they boast to be. If intellectuals and
academicians worldwide would not have suffered with a pseudo liberal
syndrome case of Israel have not been dismissed every time even without
giving a chance of hearing.
We have witnessed the same thing being repeated in the case of
assault on Gaza strip. The whole media, intellectuals, academicians and
politically correct nations started bombardment of condemnation on
Israel. The whole debate of attack turned into some emotional
appeals with cozy pictures of innocent civilians and children who were
injured or lost their lives in attack on Gaza but as it has been
mentioned earlier that the whole debate on conflict of Arab-Israel was
always eclipsed with some one-sided and myopic approach with
presumption of aggression of Israel and innocence of the opposite. It
is paradox that conspiracy theorist and Islamist apologists plead on a
ground that Jews has some invisible hands which control the whole world
including media moguls but when the case of Arab-Israel come on testing
ground the reverse happens with Palestinian organizations or Islamist
groups gain the sympathy of the whole world. It was true with the
recent attack as well. For last few years Hamas was targeting civilians
in Israel with their rockets but no word of condemnation was coming out
in favor of Israel probably because it was not politically correct to
support Israel against Hamas.
Ideally it could be the issue of debate how much assault is
technically correct and how much it has moral value but it is not a
justice for Israel to condemn the right of self defense of this
country. There is question of technical correctness and moral
correctness is involved in this case as according to Israel it is
following the norms of United Nations. Article 51 of charter of United
Nations reserves to every nation the right to engage in self defense
against armed attacks. The only limitation international law place on a
democracy is that its action must satisfy the principle of
proportionality.
Principle of proportionality is very complex in this case because
Hamas is an organization which has not abandoned its goal of
elimination of Israel and to achieve this goal it is indulged in
targeting innocent civilians inside Israel as its legitimate operation.
For last few years Israel tolerated several rocket attacks and
prevented its citizens from this offensive with providing shelters and
warning system against these attacks to their civilians. These efforts
prevented several casualties from Israel side but only due to these
efforts intention of Hamas to kill innocent civilians in Israel could
not be denied and this intention should have been included in the
principle of proportionality particularly when causality from both
sides has been counted.
In this whole issue Israel has been criticized for targeting
innocent civilians including children. It is definitely a issue of
judgment of moral value in this attack but as Israel has clarified that
their air force operation was carefully crafted to avoid civilian
causalities and they have also complained that in some areas Hamas used
civilians as human shields to prevent Israel from attack. In Arab
countries in general and Palestine in particular there is a tradition
of indoctrination of kids and young children to lay down their lives in
the name of Jihad fighting against occupier Israel. Few Arab countries
which are more hostile to Israel and Palestine have several TV channels
which are indoctrinating their people of Sahada and Jihad. A film based
on radical Islamic movement titled obsession exposed the reality of
Arab televisions how they teach their young generation not to live the
life but to die in the name of faith and Jihad. This culture of dyeing
in the name of faith and Jihad has flourished in Palestine for several
years and strengthen the movement of intifada of PLO and now Hamas to
eliminate Israel. In this background it is very difficult for Israel to
live in this hostile situation without being ready for self defense.
It is very difficult to understand why most of the people in this
world condemn Israel without going into the facts because condemning
Israel is proportionate to denying this nation to right to exist and
being a member of United Nations this vibrant democracy has the every
right to exist as other countries have. It is time to become
politically incorrect and think who is aggressor one who is fighting
for its existence or one who is fighting in the shadow of
khilafat to deny the right of existence to Israel.
Recommend