Israel’s Muslims reach out: strategy, desperation or appeasement?

In last month’s two things happen which could be interprerated as strange things to some extent. Ambassador of Israel to India Mark Sofer visited an Islamic shrine in Ajmer shrine of a sufi chisti and there he was greeted and warmly welcomed by local Muslim worshippers and encouraged with his warm welcome ambassador told the audience how Jews and Muslims are very much similar in their various traditions and they are twin sisters in some way or the other. This statement was marked with greater caution among others not only among Non-muslims but even larger part of Urdu news papers did not share the feelings of Mark Sofer as it may have anticipated by him. Usually Urdu press is always filled with medieval conspiracy theories for Jews and it was not less than shocking for them to witness an Israel diplomat visiting Islamic shrine and igniting the debate of some religious similarities between them. On the other hand other Non-Muslims in India, who don’t care much about Arab-Israel politics more than having a perception about it imposed by media outlets, were neither curious nor disappointed. But being a critique of Middle Eastern politics and political observer I thought it my duty to decipher the reasons and repercussions of this gesture. Read more

UN to probe Hamas for use of children

The United Nations is ready to address Hamas’s use of children as human shields during last month’s IDF offensive in Gaza, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday
“We have not yet dealt directly with the human shield issue, but we will now mention it in our reports,” Radhika Coomaraswamy said in an exclusive interview following a four-day visit to the region.

“It is still very difficult for us to say that it was actually happening and we still need to conduct a full investigation into what exactly took place… but we are not denying that it happened; it is absolutely possible that Hamas was using its civilians as human shields,” she said.

However, Coomaraswamy said that the UN’s policy not to meet with leading members of the Hamas government – because it was officially considered a terrorist organization – seriously hampered all types of humanitarian relief work in the Gaza Strip.

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Being politically incorrect

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. Read more