Being politically incorrect

Submitted by AT (India), Jan 10, 2009 at 12:25

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..

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