AMERICAN POLITICS, TERRORISM AND ISLAM -V

Allegations of Israeli state terrorism

Habib Siddiqui

Israel plays an important role in US politics. So strong is the power and influence of the pro-Israeli Lobby that no politician can afford to appear anti-Israel by questioning Israel's state terrorism.
   The first recorded episode of terrorism can probably be traced back to Samson in the Torah. His is the classic case of what can be called suicide terrorism, now much practised in vast territories from Asia to Latin America by those who believe that they have been wronged.
   
   Jacob Israel Haan killed
   Probably the first victim of Jewish terrorism in the post-World War I period was Jacob Israel de Haan, the Dutch Jewish novelist, poet, lawyer, and legal scholar, who wanted a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Arabs for the recognition of a Jewish state and the establishment of an official Palestinian state in Jordan within a federation. This alarmed the secular Zionist leadership and De Haan was assassinated on July 1, 1924 by the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary force.
   It is worth mentioning here that for much of its existence (1920-1948), the Haganah, the precursor to today's Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), enjoyed cooperation and assistance from the British Mandate government in Palestine. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop weapon factories to create hand grenades and military equipment, transforming from an irregular militia force to a capable underground army. In 1936 the Haganah had 10,000 regulars along with 40,000 reservists. During the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, it participated actively to protect British interests and to suppress Arab rebellion.
   
   Three terrorist gangs
   In 1931, the most militant elements of the Haganah splintered off and formed the Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi (National Military Organisation), better known as the "Irgun," under Avraham Tehomi. In 1940, the Irgun also split over the issue of whether or not to attack the British during WW II and their off-shoot became known as the "Lehi", more commonly known as the "Stern Gang" after its leader, Avraham Stern. The Stern Gang members were ardent students of violence, great admirers of Mussolini who steeped themselves in the terrorist traditions of the pre-1917 Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the Macedonian IMRO, and the Italian "Black Shirts". They sought a Greater Israel as defined in Genesis 15:18, plus building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.
   These three terrorist gangs, as noted by Scott Bidstrup, "operated with little restraint, targeting Arab civilians, often setting up snipers to shoot at innocent Arab civilians waiting at bus stops, shopping in the markets and in doing business in other public places. The deaths of innocent Palestinian Arabs began to mount."
   Before we go any further, some basic information on the past history of some leaders of the Jewish state is useful here. Yitzhak Rabin joined Haganah in 1941. Ariel Sharon joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth battalion, in 1942 at the age of 14. Later he joined the Haganah.
   Menachem Begin became a close disciple of Vladimir Jabotinsky, the founder of the militant, racist, Revisionist Zionism movement, and its youth wing - Betar, in the mid-1930s. Upon arrival in Palestine in August of 1942, he received a proposal to take over a position in the Irgun (which was also inspired by Jabotinsky's views), as Betar's Commissioner. In 1944 Begin assumed the organisation's leadership, determined to expel the British government from Palestine.
   Hundreds of attacks on British forces
   Begin issued a call to arms; and from 1944 to 1948 the Irgun launched an all-out armed rebellion, perpetrating hundreds of attacks on British installations and posts. Begin financed these operations by extorting money from Zionist businessmen, and running bogus robbery scams in the local diamond industry, which enabled the victims to get back their losses from insurance companies. The British government considered Begin a terrorist and its Security Service MI5 placed a 'dead-or-alive' bounty of 10,000 pounds on his head after the Irgun threatened to kill Sir John Shaw, Britain's Chief Secretary in Palestine.
   Yitzhak Shamir, like Begin, joined Betar in his youth. After immigrating to Palestine in 1935, he joined the Irgun. Later he joined the Lehi, which proposed to intervene in the WW II on the side of Nazi Germany. Lehi offered assistance in "evacuating" the Jews of Europe, in return for Germany's help in expelling Britain from Palestine.
   As noted by Arie Perliger and Leonard Weinberg, during the Arab Revolt (1936-1939) the Irgun carried out sixty attacks against the Palestinian Arabs resulting in the death of at least 250 Arabs, reflecting its world view that "political violence and terrorism" were "legitimate tools in the Jewish national struggle for the Land of Israel".
   The Irgun and Lehi targeted British policemen and soldiers, United Nations-personnel, Jews suspected of collaborating with the British, and Arab civilians. Both the Irgun and the Lehi were described as terrorist groups by the British government.
   On 25 November 1940, the Haganah, sunk the ship Patria by planting a bomb that killed over 200 Jews and some Britons and Arabs, and injured 172 people.
   
   David Hotel bombed
   Other notable terrorist acts by the founding fathers of the State of Israel include: the assassination of Lord Moyne (November 6, 1944) by two Stern Gang terrorists, masterminded by Yitzhak Shamir; the bombing of the King David Hotel (July 2, 1946), masterminded by Menachem Begin of the Irgun, resulting in 91 dead (including 41 Arabs); the bombing of the British Embassy in Rome by the Irgun on October 31, 1946; the bombing of the central police station in Haifa, Palestine, killing four and injuring 140, by the Stern Gang members who drove a truckload of explosives on January 12, 1947. Three months later (April 1947) the Stern Gang repeated the tactic in Tel Aviv, blowing up the Sarona police barracks with a stolen postal truck filled with dynamite, resulting in five casualties. On July 25, 1947, the Irgun murdered two British sergeants, who had been taken as prisoners, in response to the British execution of two Irgun members in Akko prison.
   Unhappy about the UN Partition Plan because of its failure to deliver Eretz Israel to the settler Jews, the Stern Gang decided to hit hard Palestinian positions. On January 4, 1948, dressed as Arabs, two Stern Gang members drove a truck ostensibly loaded with oranges into the center of Jaffa and parked it next to the New Seray Building, which housed the Palestinian municipal government as well as a soup-kitchen for poor children. Twenty six Palestinians were killed and hundreds were injured; most were civilians, including many children eating at the charity kitchen. The bomb missed the local Palestinian leadership who had moved to another building, but the atrocity was highly successful in terrifying residents and setting the stage for their eventual flight.
   The Stern Gang members planted mines on Cairo-Haifa rail track several times that killed 28 soldiers and wounding 35, north of Rehovot on February 29, 1948, and killed 40 and injured 60 civilians, all Arabs, near Binyamina on March 1, 1948.
   During April 9-11, 1948, Irgun and Stern Gang massacred some 260 Arab civilians in Deir Yassin, as part of Operation Nachshon. As has been noted by many historians, the massacre in Deir Yassin set the final stage for the flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.

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Sam H.F.J. Manekshaw expires

Haresh Pandya

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, India's best-known soldier and the architect of the country's victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan that gave birth to Bangladesh, died in Wellington, India, on 27 June. He was 94. The cause was pneumonia, India's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
   Field Marshal Manekshaw first drew notice as a captain in the British Indian Army during World War II. He was severely wounded on Feb. 22, 1942, in a counteroffensive against the Japanese on the Sittong River in Burma, now known as Myanmar. But he kept exhorting his soldiers, and he continued fighting until he collapsed.
   Fearing the worst, the English commander, Maj. Gen. D. T. Cowan, pinned his own Military Cross on Captain Manekshaw and was quoted as saying, "A dead person can't be awarded a Military Cross." But the young officer survived, and a storied military career began. He not only recovered from his wounds but went back to Burma later in the war and was wounded again.
   In 1947, as colonel in charge of operations, he oversaw Indian forces in fighting that broke out between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the territory claimed by both new nations.
   With a military mustache guarding a genial face, he was known as a stern disciplinarian with a common touch. He instilled a sense of duty, efficiency and professionalism in the Indian Army, and he taught officers to stand up to political masters and bureaucratic interference. His wit, sometimes bordering on sarcasm, did not go over well with many in power.
   In 1961, he had a falling out with the defense minister, V. K. Krishna Menon. But by then a general, he was vindicated late the next year when Indian troops were overrun by Chinese forces that swept down from the Himalayas. Mr. Menon resigned and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who had been close to Mr. Menon, rushed General Manekshaw to the front. There he rallied the retreating Indian forces until a cease-fire was declared.
   He became the eighth chief of the Indian Army in 1969, and in 1971 led India's forces in the war with Pakistan that ended with the creation of Bangladesh from East Pakistan. According to articles published in Indian newspapers after his death, General Manekshaw firmly resisted demands by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the spring of 1971 for an immediate invasion of East Pakistan in support of rebels there. He insisted that a campaign be put off until after the monsoon season ended and the armed forces were better prepared.
   Just before the conflict began that December, the prime minister asked him, "General, are you ready for the war?" He replied, "I'm always ready, sweetie." Less than three weeks later, Pakistan was defeated.
   General Manekshaw became a national hero and a household name after this triumph, and in 1973, two weeks before his retirement, he became India's first field marshal. He had already received India's highest civilian awards - Padma Bhushan in 1968 and Padma Vibhushan in 1972.
   He was born into a Parsi family, his father a doctor, in Amritsar in Punjab on April 3, 1914.
   He briefly pursued a degree in medicine and studied at Sherwood College, in Naini Tal, and Hindu Sabha College, in Amritsar, before joining the first class of the new Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun in 1934.
   He met Siloo Bode at a gathering in Lahore, in what is now Pakistan, in 1937, and they were married in 1939. She died in 2001. He is survived by his daughters, Maja Daruwala and Sherry Batliwala, and three grandchildren.
   Like many officers of his generation, he had an affection for British military traditions. A 1971 article in The New York Times noted that upon waking at 5:30 every morning, he liked drinking a small glass of whiskey, listening to the BBC news and puttering in his garden before going to work.
   - @ New York Times Obituary

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Jehan Perera in Colombo

A top Indian delegation visited Sri Lanka on 20 June. The visit of a high level Indian delegation to Sri Lanka barely a fortnight ago has given rise to much speculation regarding its purpose. The delegation consisted of National Security Adviser, M K Narayan, Defence Secretary, Sri Vijay Singh and Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon. The three visitors were all senior members of the Indian administration, and not politicians, which indicates the broad consensus and continuity that India seeks in its policy towards Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the key persons they met in Sri Lanka were President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his two brothers, Senior Adviser Basil and Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya, and the President's secretary. Lalith Weeratunga. The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry was entirely left out of the deliberations. This shows the Indian perception of the narrowing power structure in Sri Lanka.
   For days there were fevered speculations about the purpose of the Indian visit. One interpretation was that the Sri Lankan armed forces were on the verge of capturing the LTTE strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu and its leadership. The hope was that India was coming to give some crucial support, by way of military equipment and intelligence, and this to a friendly neighbouring country that is fighting against a deadly foe that has been banned internationally on account of terrorism.
   
   Indian intervention in 1987
   However, there has also been a continuing fear that there could be a replay of history. The memory never faded when the Sri Lankan military was poised to flush out the LTTE from Jaffna way back in 1987 there was Indian intervention that put a stop to the Sri Lankan offensive.
   Now two decades later the indications are that the Sri Lankan military is making steady, if slow, progress in its multi-pronged offensive into the heart of LTTE-controlled territory in Wanni. The most recent success to be reported is the capture of the rice bowl area of Mannar from the LTTE. What is not known for sure, and can only be guessed at, is the cost of this and other military advances. At present, the only accounts of the progress or otherwise on the military battlefields comes from the statements of the Sri Lankan security establishment. Unfortunately independent accounts of the war in the north by journalists are few and far between owing to the death threats and physical assaults they have been subjected to with impunity. Hearsay accounts suggest a high level of casualties in harsh circumstances, but these individual accounts fail to give a composite picture of the prevailing situation.
   Also not being disclosed from the battlefront is the fallout of war on the civilian population. The battles taking place in the Wanni, and the lines of advance of the fighting forces, are not all through uninhabited jungle. Some of it, and perhaps most of it in the rice bowl area, would be taking place through populated areas. In the Mannar district alone nearly 40,000 people were displaced and move from place to place to avoid the fighting. Those who have fled from LTTE-controlled areas at the risk of being shot dead by the LTTE and come to government controlled areas have been confined to specific camps, on account of the suspicion of LTTE infiltration. Large parts of the Wanni are inaccessible to even international humanitarian organizations. This very high cost to the civilian population is being projected as a necessary cost of the war.
   
   Indian visit
   Giving emphasis on the significance of their meeting, neither the Indian delegation nor the Sri Lankan government issued an official statement about the contents of their discussions. Recent media reports about the meeting suggest that the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka received top attention. The Indian concern could reasonably be that the reports from Sri Lanka of mass displacement, restriction on the movement of Tamil refugees and the continuing stream of abductions, extortions, killings and roundups of Tamil civilians can create problems within India itself. With India going into an election period in the not so distant future, no political party that seeks Tamil Nadu votes would like to be seen as being insensitive to the plight of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.
   One of the first issues raised by the Indian delegation reportedly was that the Sri Lankan government should minimise civilian casualties in the course of the ongoing military operations. In particular there was reportedly a call for restraint in the utilisation of air power to which the LTTE has still not found an answer, but which can also inflict heavy casualties on the civilian population in the event of inaccurate targeting.
   
   Further advances
   There is no reason to believe, as some media have reported, that the Indian delegation put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to halt its military offensive in its entirety, as they did in 1987. It is significant that barely a week after the visit of the Indian delegation, the Sri Lankan military reported further advances into the Wanni.
   The problem for the Indian government is that some of the small opposition parties in Tamil Nadu state have made the Sri Lankan conflict their main platform for mobilising electoral support. It is reported that some of them could even be funded by the LTTE to keep the Tamil issue alive in Indian politics. Some of these parties have started to make calls for an Indian boycott of the SAARC Summit that is scheduled to be held in Colombo at the end of July on the grounds of the war situation in Sri Lanka.
   Indian absence would effectively scuttle the SAARC Summit and cause a great deal of embarrassment to Sri Lanka. The conduct of the SAARC Summit specifically requires the presence of all heads of state or heads of government of each of the eight SAARC member countries.
   As the Sri Lankan government has put much emphasis on its relationship with Asian countries, the SAARC Summit has taken centre stage in the government's international strategy. India's bargaining strength comes from the fact that India's attendance is crucial to the SAARC Summit being held at all.
   
   SAARC summit
   Reports of a soaring civilian casualties in Sri Lanka could certainly put the Indian government in an embarrassing situation, especially if they take place nearer the time of the SAARC Summit. Therefore, it is understandable if India requested the Sri Lankan government to take greater care in its military operations in the period prior to the SAARC Summit. However, the media reports indicate that the visiting Indian delegation went much beyond merely expressing their concern about the wellbeing of the Tamil civilian population in the run up to the SAARC Summit. It can be concluded that they utilized the opportunity presented by the SAARC Summit to try to get Sri Lanka back to some extent within the Indian sphere of influence.
   In the present advantageous situation to it, the Indian delegation is reported to have brought up several issues of concern to India. The most controversial of these is likely to be the reported insistence that India should share the responsibility for ensuring security in Sri Lanka during the period of the SAARC Summit. Whether this will include the entry into Sri Lanka of armed Indian security personnel, the manning of radars to guard against possible aerial attack by the LTTE and additional surveillance at sea, as reported by the media, remains to be seen.
   
   Significant issues
   Other significant issues brought up by the visiting Indian delegation include those that can be construed as interfering in Sri Lanka's internal affairs. These include speeding up the formulation of the government's political proposals to resolve the ethnic conflict, inviting the largest Tamil political party, the TNA, which the government has been marginalising to India for discussions, the growing closeness between Sri Lanka and India's main neighbouring rivals, China and Pakistan, and issues concerning major Indian investments where Sri Lanka has taken a tough line. For a government that has given top priority to affirming the importance of national sovereignty these Indian demands might be a bitter pill to swallow if such demands have indeed been made.
   What the Indian visit reveals is the vulnerability of Sri Lanka to external pressures. Over the past two years, the government has gained the admiration of nationalists for taking up strong and often belligerent positions in favour of the country's national sovereignty. This, despite becoming increasingly dependent on foreign commercial banks to prop up the ailing economy. The government has often taken punitive actions against international organizations that it sees as meddling in the country's internal affairs, especially with regard to humanitarian issues and human rights violations. The government has also not been averse to criticizing powerful countries, especially those from the West, on numerous issues in international forums even at the risk of alienating these economic aid-giving countries.
   However, the problem that is becoming apparent is that Sri Lanka is too small, and too dependent on the international system, to wage a lone battle against the international system and the powerful countries that sustain it. It has been recently reported that the French-based NGO, Action against Hunger (ACF) which cruelly lost 17 of its staff in a massacre in Muttur in 2006 is campaigning for an international inquiry on the matter, having lost confidence in the Sri Lankan system of justice. In addition, the European Union is soon to decide on whether or not to continue with the economically important GSP+ privilege to Sri Lanka. International pressures may soon come to snag Sri Lanka's efforts to solve problems in its own way, unless a different approach to conflict resolution is adopted.

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ISLAMABAD DIARY

Jonaid Iqbal

What were the two deafening boom sounds that were heard in the city Monday? The bang was loud enough to create panic, send window panes clacking. No one has been able to explain what really happened but hospitals increased blood stocks, re-did emergency rooms and the police set up road blocks to upset many commuters.
   The air force reported the noise could be the sound of supersonic barriers being broken but none of the air force planes was up in the sky at that moment. It could be one of the NATO planes at high altitude of about 50,000 feet or more, which is out of reach of our ack ack guns.
   That is a general picture of public confusion, intensified more at this time by reports coming through of fights going on near Peshawar garrison town. The town is reported now to have fallen within the grasp of local Talibans, who have now been driven out by the Frontier Constabulary.
   Actually, big wigs, such as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, and his adviser on Interior, Dr. Rahman Malik, were happy at the result and said the criminal hordes, of the likes of Haji Mangal Bagh, have been driven out.
   The two leaders said they have not launched an army operation at Peshawar or the border town of Bara. But the action has been initiated with the help of police and the local militia (Frontier Constabulary). Latest reports, as of today, speak of at least 81 people being killed so far during clashes that have continued in the area since 11 days.
   On the other hand, Mohammad Malick, a columnist, who writes in the News, questions these reports. The so-called grand operation to "protect" Peshawar from the marauding troops of the Lashkar-e-Islami of militant leader Haji Mangal Bagh and others entered its third day. The government has already claimed victory to the extent of ridding the Khyber Agency of the so-called criminal extremists who ostensibly have been sent scurrying to the farther valley of Tirah.
   We may stop here, to reflect if it is a real battle. We might remember that the battle is going on at a time when the US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Boucher is visiting us again. The timing is just fine because a few weeks ago we learnt that the US was unhappy about deals the new ANP government concluded with local Jirgas in the Frontier (Pakhtunkhwa).
   The Americans were said to be unhappy with this deal and doubted whether it would work. Just at that we heard more reports of Taliban cruelties, and also saw published pictures of local Talibans, inside Pakistan, busy at mass beheading of a few Afghan American spies alleged to be spying for the Americans. On the other hand the tribals say they are not fighting Pakistan, but had actually acted against American troops using the route.
   However, we must get things right. The Talibans play on our sentiments for our religion and mislead us with an image that they were fighting the Americans and, understandably, the campaign might win public support for them. But enough is enough.
   Some people think it is a mistake since we couldn't afford Talibanisation, at home. According to these people, "A Taliban victory would transport us into the darkest of dark ages. These fanatics dream of transforming the country into a religious state".

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