India Loses Her Palestinian Heart and Gains a Calculating Israeli Mind
There are two main developments that underlie the emergence of Indo-chic in Israel. One is the Oslo accords of 1993 that led to a normalization of diplomatic and economic ties with Israel for many countries.
This facilitated relationships with countries such as India that had opened its markets to foreign trade after economic liberalization, which the Israeli business sector has been quick to capitalize on in its search for cheap commodities and labor.
India’s non-military trade with Israel was $1.27 billion in 2002, a six-fold increase over the previous decade, and India is now Israel’s second-largest trading partner in Asia.
The second important historical shift is that India established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. The Bharatiya Janata Party government deepened the military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries that had already been in place, but covertly, since the 1950s.
By 2004, Israel had become India’s largest arms supplier, and India emerged as Israel’s biggest arms market.
Underlying this new alliance is a deeper issue of ideology and political orientation in the current moment.
India and Israel have begun to emphasize a common enemy in their respective “anti-terrorism” operations which were framed by both nations as a battle against “Islamic militants,”
...a framework that gained global currency with Bush’s launching of the War on Terrorism.
India and Israel’s new honeymoon reversed India’s historical stand of support for the Palestinians who were still living under occupation and apartheid and ignored India’s own experience with colonization.
Despite some criticism of this new India-Israel axis and symbolic gestures toward the Palestinian Authority, the United Progressive Alliance government has continued the policy of strengthening ties with Israel. This is despite the fact that Israel continues to maintain its military, political, and economic stranglehold on Palestinians who still do not live in a fully sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza, or in a truly democratic nation in Israel.
At the same time as the alliance between India-U.S.-Israel formed a new political triangle, a parallel development has occurred in the U.S. Hindu right-wing groups, such as the Indian American Political Action Committee and the Hindu American Foundation, linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and overseas branches of the RSS, have forged alliances with powerful pro-Israel lobby groups such as the American Israel Political Action Committee and the American Jewish Committee.
Hindutva groups are meeting Zionist organizations to learn about strategies to advance religious nationalist agendas and suppress any criticism of their political movements.
These U.S.-based groups have helped strengthen India-Israel ties and propagate the notion that Hindu and Jewish Americans are victims of a common enemy defined as “Islamic terrorism,” for example, through organizations such as Democracies against Terror which is an alliance of Zionist and Hindutva activists based in Fremont, Calif.
Yet as these links were being forged in the U.S., Indian Americans, and South Asian Americans more generally, have had similar experiences of racial profiling and anti-immigrant sentiment with Arab Americans and other immigrant groups, especially after 9/11.
The “war on terrorism” has targeted South Asian, Muslim, and Arab Americans as automatic suspects and potential terrorists. Experiences of FBI surveillance, detention, deportation, and discrimination in airports, workplaces, schools, and public spaces have persisted well beyond 9/11.
As these communities continue to be targeted in the U.S., Indian and South Asian Americans need to find common cause with Arab Americans and other minority groups to fight for our civil rights, instead of embarking on a campaign based on racist and exclusionary ideas. Clearly, there is a need for all communities to live in peace and security, but this will not happen by ignoring or denying the right of people to freedom and human rights.
At the same time as I was grappling with the politics of hate spanning three continents — in the U.S., Israel, and India — I also puzzled at the curious place that India had in the imagination of many Israelis.
In many instances, it seemed that India represented a land of spirituality and exoticism, much as it does in the West generally. One Israeli store-owner in Haifa commented, “Israelis love the Eastern style.” But the New Age fascination with India in Israeli culture plays a somewhat different role than it does in the U.S. or Europe.
For one thing, Israel is a nation that is in the East, technically, but the culture of the nation created by Jewish settlers is not Eastern. Most of the Jewish settlers in Israel were Ashkenazis from Eastern Europe, and while there have been later arrivals from Russia, Africa, and the Arab world, Israeli Jewish culture remains a blend that is primarily European and American with Arab and African culture remaining marginal, I wondered if the turn to India is an attempt to create an Eastern culture for a nation that was created by European minds but carved out of Arab soil.
The second, equally ironic but even more troubling, distinction of Israel’s Indo-chic is that it fetishizes an image of pacifism in a culture that is overwhelmingly militarized.
I was struck from the moment I stepped out of the Palestinian village at the overwhelming presence of Israeli soldiers. On sidewalks, at bus stops, sitting in cafes, lounging by the beach — everywhere I turned, there were soldiers standing, talking, strolling, and all carrying arms.
I was reminded, however, that even those Israelis not wearing military uniform were would-be soldiers or had-been soldiers, for by law, all Israeli men as well as women have to do two to three years of military service when they turn eighteen.
The distinction between civilians and soldiers is blurred in Israel, and militarism penetrates every corner of public space.
Israelis travel to India to relax after doing their reserve duty since the 1990s when many young Israelis began flocking to Goa to do drugs and dance at raves on the beach.
An Indian friend who has traveled and hitchhiked extensively in India said that she saw an increasing numbers of young Israelis traveling and doing drugs in India and Nepal. [see Crimes of Zion post]
The famous camel fair at Pushkar in Rajasthan, already a popular destination for Western tourists seeking experiences of the “exotic,” has become flooded with signs in Hebrew and with marijuana smoke.
Many of these Israeli nirvana-seekers overdosed on drugs and the Israeli government set up detoxification programs for them in India, recognizing that this was becoming a serious problem.
On my last trip to India in 2005, I noticed groups of young Israeli tourists dressed in neo-hippie garb. At Delhi airport, an Israeli woman held up a portrait of her son, proudly explaining to other passengers that he was a soldier who was now living and traveling in India.
What does it mean for India to be the place where Israeli soldiers can overdose and detox and find nirvana for cheap?
Have we sold out in supporting the Israeli military and economy through trade, arms deals, and intelligence cooperation? It is true, of course, that not all Israelis are going to India to do drugs such as ecstasy or find nirvana after serving in the army and that India cannot, and should not, police motivations for tourism.
However, the larger picture is one in which India is now supporting and enabling the Israeli military occupation, directly and indirectly, and where Israeli soldiers are a much more common sight in Delhi than the Palestinian refugee students of yesteryear.
Back to the U.S.A.
The world of Arafat and Gandhi, Nehru and Amitabh — at least the hero in bellbottoms — no longer exists. It is a different moment in history, and we cannot indulge in nostalgia for a very different political time.
The question for me, as I drove to the airport in Tel Aviv on my way back to the U.S., was rather: what kind of role India is hoping to play on the world stage and what principles are we going to represent? Are we going to be a beacon of principled support for sovereignty and democracy, and recognize other anti-colonial struggles in a different time and place as echoing our own fight for independence from colonization?
Are we going to publicly oppose Israeli apartheid and try to support Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza or reach out to Palestinians inside Israel through economic, political, or educational exchange?
In the U.S., are we going to see in the targeting of South Asian, Arab, and Muslim Americans a common cause for civil rights, or are we going to join forces with movements that want to expand the targeting of communities based on racist cultural assumptions and denial of humanity?
When I returned to the U.S., I was struck by how much it increasingly reminded me of Israel every time I went through security checkpoints at American airports.
But there are also moments when I go to a film about Palestine or Iraq, or to a meeting to discuss immigrant rights in the U.S., and someone from the region will ask me if I have seen the latest Hindi movie or if Indians care about what is happening to the Arabs, here and there. That is when I realize that even though I went to Israel, I discovered Palestine and found India, and that both will hopefully find their way to each other again in a time of war and occupation.
_____________________________
Sunaina Maira is associate professor of Asian American studies at the University of California at Davis and author of ‘Desis in the House:Indian American Youth Culture in New York City.’
I think the present administration can be relied on to support the Palestinians. In the opposition BJP, there may be some who do not have a broad enough a perspective, seeing the entire middle-east through a Pakistani prism. Mahmoud Abbas will soon be in Delhi. Let's hope something good comes out of that, although I doubt that India has much influence in that part of the world.
--------------------------------
Abbas: India crucial to Middle East peace process
PTI
Ramallah, October 6, 2008
Describing Indian democracy as a "role model" for the Palestinian people, President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has said the country can play an important role in the Middle East peace process.
"India, the second largest populated nation in the world and the biggest democracy with a booming economy, including high techonology, could play an important role in the Middle East peace process", Abbas told PTI in an interview a day before leaving for New Delhi.
"It maintains special relations with all the countries in our region, including the state of Israel, and can do a lot to push forward the peace process", the Palestinian leader said.
Urging India to actively engage in the process, he said the "security and stability of our region directly affects the stability of their region". India has appointed a special envoy for the region in view of this understanding.
Acknowledging the "unique, historic and strong" ties with India, the Palestinian leader said that people in Palestine see India as a "role model" and the bilateral relations are independent from political party in power in New Delhi.
"All Indian political parties support the Palestinian cause and we salute the Indian people and all the parties. India continues to be one of the pioneering countries in support of the Palestinian rights in international circles", Abbas emphasised.
"India is one of the first countries with which we exchanged diplomatic representation on the eve of the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority. It is also worth mentioning that India was one of the first states to recognise the PLO through opening a representation office on its soil and among the first to recognise the declaration of the state of Palestine in 1988", he pointed out.
"Our people value the strong support from India to their liberty and independence. Given India's richness in humanity and liberty our people look at it as a role model. It is not a coincidence that thousands of our people study in India", the Palestinian leader added. Appreciating India's aid of $15 million to the PA, the President said that active efforts should be made between the two sides to start contacts at the ministerial level and India's expertise in industry, technology and hi-tech should be utilised to revive the Palestinian economy.
Abbas will meet his Indian counterpart, Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President Hamid Ansari, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition L. K. Advani and Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed during his four day trip, briefing them on the developments in the Middle East peace talks and to discuss how to further strengthen contacts between India and the Palestinians.
The PA President will also lay the foundation stone of the Palestinian embassy in New Delhi which is being funded by the Indian government making it the first non-Arab country to do so.
On the domestic front, Abbas seems to have softened up his approach against Islamic faction Hamas, which vanquished PA forces in pitched fighting in Gaza last June taking complete control of the coastal Strip, favouring reconciliatory moves brokered by Arab nations 'in the interest of unity of Palestinians and their land'.
"In a few days the Egyptian will be meeting with Hamas' leadership and they will present to all the Palestinian factions their vision to come out of the current crisis in favour of re-uniting the Palestinian arena", he said.
We are Thirsty for new Blood. Dumber the better!
xoxo
Zionist parasite.
This is a classic find. First person experience is always appreciated. I like her descriptions of what she experienced.
Quote:
"USA and Russia are now dumping substandard planes on India–While billions starve in South Asia, corrupt South Asian politicians are happily wasting away Billions, garnishing kickbacks, fooling an illiterate & emotional population with the mirage of military might, portending the triumphalist media’s farce of “Great power status”."
Not only is the current policies of India hurting the Palestinians, its gravely hurting her own people.
USA, Russia dumping substandard military hardware on India!
Are the F-35s and the F-22s the Wild Wild West version of the guns, and the Nuclear agreements, the blankets and the alcohol. All this with a lot of kickbacks. A lot of kickbacks.
US predatory nuclear mafia chomping at the bits for Indian Dollars
India bought hundreds of russian Flying Coffins. Is it buying cremation discs again?
The Chinese ordered 250 kits of the Mig 29. After receiving 150 planes they canceled the order. At the point China became technologically independent and began manufacturing a superior version of the plane. Russia was angry at Russia but could not do anything.
The Indian defense establishment has poured billions into fake research and development and then asked the country to purchase expensive useless toys from Russia and the West. The much heralded “Transfer of Technology (ToT) remains an elusive and ephemeral goal. Neither Russia nor the USA is either committed to commercial suicide. US corporations which exist for profit are not prone to economic and technologicalal hari kari–keep the illusion of “local manufacturing” alive, but are constrained by investor interests to really give up the “Coca Cola formula” to the Indians.
There are several news items that lead us to analyze the defense procurement practices of the Indian establishment.
1) The 500th Flying Coffin of the Indian Airforce crashed a few weeks ago. This marked a world record for any Airforce. No other Airforce in the world has had so many crashes. Pilot error, equipment malfunction or just pure incompetence has led to this ignominious award to the IAF.
2) With the Indian embrace of Uncle Sam, Russia is peeved at the Indo-American relationship. Flush with Petro Dollars The Russian bear has is elided India in the development of new fighter jets and doubled the price of the aircraft Carrier that it is selling to New Delhi.
3) The Russians are now dumping a stripped down version of the Mig 29 to India without any participation in the development of the plane. Datapoints: Trials begin March 2009, and Indian Defense contractors will not be chosen ’till December 2008. Decision on which components to be made in India have yet to be decided.
The new stripped down version of the Mig29 being sold to India has already been designed by Russia. In years gone by, during the post USSR era, the penury stricken Russian arms industry was looking for buyers. It found few. India sanctioned by the USA at the time plopped down billions. Now the world stage has changed. India is snuggling up to the Russian nemeses– the USA. According to press reports, the Russiansare not very keep on using India as equal design partners in airplane development projects. Russia wants Indian Dollars for supply of kits which it had agreed to during lean times.
The Indians were furious that the Russians flush with Petro Dollars were not participating in a joint design of the aircraft. According to reports the decibel level of the meeting was “frank” (diplomatic euphemism for direct yelling at each other)
4) The US has signed a “Nuclear Deal” with India which in effect actually forces India as part of the Nuclear Proliferation treaty (NPT) even though successive Indian Governments have refused to sign the NPT. The Nuclear dealalso prohibits India from ever testing a nuclear device with intrusive inspection of more than half of India’s nuclear plants and heavy monitoring of the new ones. The Indian Left is wise to the dance of of death with the USA, but the Indian National Congress has forged through– with a tango with the US defense contractors (very lucrative for the politicians in power).
5) The Indian Missile program (Trishul, Agni etc) is a total failure and is being scrapped and substituted by purchase of advanced missiles from Russia.
6) The Indian Main Battle Tank (MTB) is a colossal failure and India has admitted to it by purchasing 500 new T-90 russian tanks for more than 1 Billion Dollars.
7) The Indian LCA fighter aircraft has been in development for more than a decade with no output. In normalcircumstances this would be considered a failed project. Now new engines have been ordered and the project has a perpetual life of its own. Like a Maruti which took a Fiat 124S and painted a huge Indian flag on it, the LCA will emerge as in import with a tricolors painted on it.
Indian politicians corrupt to the core are mischievously selling the vision of “India as World power” to the illiterate emotion population and a triumphalist press to busy covering soft porn in Bollywoodto investigate the truth.
8) India is purchasing $126 Billion Dollars worth of aircraft from the USA. Part of the new fleet of Indian aircraft will be the American plane called the F-35 which is pure junk and been unable to live up to any of its stated parameters. The ubiquitous criticism of the F-35 has led the USAF to cut the orders of the plane to half the original number. The Australians flying the plane are beyond furious.
END OF ARTICLE
kula - "let's hope something good comes out of that"
Do you really have a hope?
And yet you say...you doubt that India has much influence in "that part of the world", meaning Palestine and "israel", right?
There are about 154 million Muslims in India. I should certainly HOPE that India would have responsibility towards Palestine's Muslims.
As for India's influence as a whole, yes, there is quite a lot of influence. If India would cut off its ties to israel, that right there would serve the greater good to begin the unraveling of the zionist-neocon entity - the true perpetrators of world terror.
I have never said that Muslims have no responsibility. But the responsible ones with purpose and forthright effort are the ones always labeled as "terrorists".
In the meantime, I find it interesting that you link an item by this pro-jewish supremacy, pro-israeli, pro-zionist Francios Gautier. [your post node 8513]
He is exactly like the ever-hateful zionist Bernard Lewis. He pats Muslims on the back, throws them a few bones, then turns around kicks them hard, stabs them in the back. He sure writes some "cleverly obvious" articles, this Francios Gautier.
Are you a fan Francios Gautier, kula?
Is Francois Gautier "pro-jewish supremacy, pro-zionist"? I was not aware of that. Please let us know if you have any evidence of that.
Re Israel ... you suggest that India cut ties with Israel, but there are many Arab countries that have ties with Israel.
I think India sympathizes with the Palestinians and will do whatever little it can to be helpful. See for example this .
However, for the forseeable future, India's attention is likely to be fully occupied by problems within South Asia. See my latest blog post on Pakistan's school system to get an idea of what India is up against.
Zionist Divided
India & Pakistan and later on Bangladesh. You're having such hard to to believe all that Kulajii or you probably don't want to, either way so sad ......
If the Saudis are so powerful to control/influence Pakistan's education system - who are controlling the Saudis then? Saudis don't rule the world but the Zionists do. I do think that Saudis do all the dirty works for the Zionist Masters while good honest Muslims get kick in the ass.
"kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints..."
Even though I am not practicing, but as a Muslim, there is No need for a 3rd party to reach out to God. I can do that job myself very well, thank you! :)
I've seen people who waste too much time going to Ajmer Sharif& other places etc when they can do all that at home!
I read your linked article of francois gautier and I just told you he equals that of bernard lewis, a very wealthy zionist, whose books mix truth with lies about Arabs and Muslims.
That's what zionists do, kula. Oh, you have not noticed? Or do you prefer to leave that out?
I had to laugh when gautier gave concessions to Muslims when he said it is okay for them to pray to their Universal Allah in their mosques.
"their Universal Allah"....the typical US and THEM scheme...heh heh...so much for 'universality'. Oh but that was just one tiny piece out of the whole article.
And yeah, I read your incomplete, not very well-researched post, which, obviously is in dire need of revamping. Throwing on an article by this pervez hoodbhoy is not very smart.
You have mentioned trash on the internet. Your article by this pervez hoodhboy would be accurately called trash. And don't think I have forgotten your comment to Hamza when you said:
"I think you need to accept that there is evil in the world that doesn't come from Israel."
AS IF those "nasty evil "Islamists" in Pakistan can be equated with the evil of USA=Israeli foreign policy. Quite a cheap shot from you kula. Not only that, the evil going on in India and Pakistan most definitely is connected to israeli - usa foreign policy.
Here is another gem of yours to Hamza:
"there is a conservative Islamist core that has a very deep hatred for Hindu Kaffirs, possibly born out of insecurity regarding their ancestors' conversion to Islam."
That doesn't even make any sense.
And you have it backwards. Muslims do not have so much a deep hatred for Hindus, as Hindus that have a deep hatred for Muslims. Because why?
USA zionists, israeli officials, MOSSAD are the key items for causing tremendous dissension between Muslims and Hindus, as they work with Hindus to instigate and perpetuate trouble in India and in Pakistan.
===============================
About your pervez hoodbhoy:
"Stephen Cohen along with Selig Harrison are the seers of Pakistan's break-up.
They have since the late sixties and seventies written articles about the imminent break-up of Pakistan, from time to time, the actions of some Pakistani's lend credence to this prognostication.
Now, they are joined by Pervez Hoodbhoy and the Indo/Qadiani Website, "Chowk.com," in a relentless promotion of ideas about the flawed nature of the two nation theories.
Pakistanis should beware, where Mr.Hoodbhoy's sympathies lie.
After his rejection by the PAEC for a job in Pakistan's Nuclear Program, he has joined hands with Indians and Zionists like Mr.Cohen to promote the idea that Pakistan's raison d'etre is no longer valid. Its Army is in cahoots with Al-Qaeeda and its nuclear program is unsafe.
This article [see link below] is very cleverly crafted, where the villian is the Pakistan Army, which is gravitating towards fundamentalism.
Hoodbhoy is concerned about the weaponary of the Army. And of course the nuclear program, he took his rejection by PAEC to heart, and has become its inveterate enemy of Pakistan's nuclear program.
So much so, that he has no hesitancy to promoting the works of the enemies of Pakistan.
He is the darling of the speech circuit in Indian Think Tanks in Delhi.
He has also gained a foothold among the leftists and funded channels like GEO and ARY.
Little do these people realize his true motives and lionize him.
The Qadianis have found him a voice to promote in their cyberpropaganda through Chowk.com. the Indians love this site and swarm to it like flies to cow dung."
http://www.pakistanthinktank.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=117
You said he was "pro-jewish supremacy, pro-zionist". So it would be good if you could have produce any views of his regarding Israel or Palestine. There are lots of people who have opinions about Islam that are independent of the Zionist issue.
I think you underestimate the Pakistanis. In the 1971 genocide in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), some 3 million Bangladeshis were massacred. Please see this Bangladeshi website.
That is true in a sense - Pakistan was allowed to develop nuclear weapons with the express support of the NWO, so that it could carry on a policy of bleeding India.
That's your subjective opinion.
You say:
I'm afraid you discredit yourself by lashing out at Dr. Hoodbhoy. How much do you really know about South Asia?
To buttress your views you quote from a site that says:
This quote is what one would expect from somebody whose mind has been warped by the Pakistani educational system. Do you know how the Ahmadis or Qadianis are treated in Pakistan? Take a look at a typical incident.
Rhiannon, please read very carefully the article by Dr. Hoodbhoy. I'm afraid that it's the Pakistanis who have been willing tools of the NWO, deliberately whipping up a frenzy of religious hatred in their population.