Why Israel Isn’t Angry

A very interesting articleabout the Iink between India and Israel despite politics. BUT: How can I actually know that Newsweek this time has presented an accurate, honest and balanced work of journalism and not just an ???article??? filled with one-sided, very disputable ???opinions??? a la staff writer Lisa Miller's cover story in Newsweek?

When a nation tries to offer assistance, that is what it means TRIES ASSISTANCE, like advice, given but not necessarily aacted upon. India mUBBAI IS A MASSIVE CITY AND EVEN THE HIGHLIGHTED LOCATION OF THE ATTACK ARE POORLY DOCUMENTED. Offer asistance by all means and offer trining, but don't be surprised if a sovereign state baulks at accepting. At least Israel offered.. How many other countries offered and meant it? CMGC. Spain

I quote from a report in the New York Times on 4 Dec 08 (titled 'Terror Attacks Traced to Two From Pakistan') : "Some of the six people killed at the Jewish center in the city had been treated particularly savagely, the police said, with bodies bearing what appeared to be strangulation marks and other wounds that did not come from gunshots or grenades." This indicates the hostages were marked for a slow, painful death by the Pakistani LET terrorists, and there was no hope of saving them by negotiation or indeed by using any specialist anti-terrorist force in the world. The Israelis 'security experts' need to understand & digest these facts before rushing in to mindlessly criticise Indian Forces.

I quote from a report in the New York Times on 4 Dec 08 (titled 'Terror Attacks Traced to Two From Pakistan') : "Some of the six people killed at the Jewish center in the city had been treated particularly savagely, the police said, with bodies bearing what appeared to be strangulation marks and other wounds that did not come from gunshots or grenades." This indicates the hostages were marked for a slow, painful death by the Pakistani LET terrorists, and there was no hope of saving them by negotiation or indeed by using any specialist anti-terrorist force in the world. The Israelis 'security experts' need to understand & digest these facts before rushing in to mindlessly criticise Indian Forces.

I think the israelis securtiy experts especially Defense Minister Ehud Barak are being totally unfair to mindlessly criticize the Indian Security experts. It should be noted that the terrorist did not come to take hostages for future negotiations. they were fidayeen who was willing to die so as to kill maximum people. It cannot be compared with entebbe hostage crisis or with all those raids where months of preparation are done. Israel should understand that india has huge density of population and buildings and it is difficult to have a blueprint of each building. Israel should realize that Indian security forces gave their lives trying their best to rescue Israeli citizens. The least Defense Minister Ehud Barak could have done is to empathize with Indians instead of callously criticizing.

bispectralman, how is RobJaff65s comment "touchy"? He's simply asking you to elaborate further into your claims.

Dear RobJaff--tsk tsk--touchy, are we ?? Sure, Sure the IDF'S job was 'much harder'---which is why a few raids 'did not end well', as you put it, with a wee dram of understatement. The point I'm trying to make, however, is not of relative superiority/ inferiority of IDF Vs NSG---I admire the IDF for its professionalism and its courage. My point is that armchair experts who have ostensibly served in 'anti-terrorist military units' should do a bit of navel gazing before trying to criticise operations they know very little about except what they've gleaned from BBC or CNN.

Its interesting to hear the Israeli 'experts' views regarding the handling of the Nariman House terrorist attack by the Black Cat commandoes---perhaps the aforementioned Israeli 'experts' will also care to share their expertise what went wrong with the IDF's raid against the Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon, 2006. Those who live in glass houses etc etc

Its interesting to hear the Israeli 'experts' views regarding the handling of the Nariman House terrorist attack by the Black Cat commandoes---perhaps the aforementioned Israeli 'experts' will also care to share their expertise what went wrong with the IDF's raid against the Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon, 2006. Those who live in glass houses etc etc

India should use the spydrones and AWACS to take out the known terrorist camps and all the venom spitting madrassas in pakistan. Trust me, the whole south asia will be at peace.

victor joseph -we're not just talking about 'gaza strip style' bombings. i believe the israelis are pretty well-known for -and justifiably proud of -their expertise in handling hostage-taking situations...and that includes those that happen in urban environments where civilians, whether as victims or bystanders, are inevitably involved.

One thing that we need to understand is that the commando force is only a means to execute the mandate of the political leadership of the country. Hence, in case the force to be effective in their mission, the mandate has to be very clear.

In case of India, it was not the commandos that were poorly trained, but our political class (I am an Indian). Indian leadership lacks the ability to think on their feet and provide clear decisions to the military about the objective of the mission. The priorities are usually very vague and influenced by inappropriate factors such as vote bank sentiments, trivializing common man's concerns and such other things. This is unlike Israel where the security forces are mandated only with neutralizing the targets.

Let us assume that we did have a political leadership that could provide a clear mandate, there exists no mechanism to plan and communicate it. There is no disaster management agency with security experts, technologists and others who could instantly take stock of the situation and prepare an action plan. We found commandos from the NSG, the Navy and the Army all in action while all these three forces are trained for different purposes. The NSG is the only force that is raised and trained to combat urban terrorism, the other two mostly trained for covert action behind enemy lines.

A clue could also be found in history, the very founding of our countries. Israel was born out of a long drawn struggle while India won its Independence mostly by a peaceful movement. Hence we are mostly complacent about our freedom and hence the inability to take indifference to whatever happens on our land.

Mr. Efraim Inbar has also rightly indicated that while Israeli forces mostly act against foreign terrorists, Indian commandos have to deal with terrorists who appear mostly local and hence need to be cautious during such operations to reduce collateral damage.

i wish indian army can do a little better now . they have always experienced a hard time in front of small forces. Even in wars with Pakistan, besides having a large military we were unable to crush them, and even today i feel bad that our sources quoted more losses on the Indian front than or enemy pakistan/. Even at the Nirmon House i think the NSG invaded with a poor strategy..we need to think over it

dast true that Indian counterpart of ISraeli Armed forces are more patient and defecsive. Even they were fughting inside the house not at the border. to lessen killingof innocent poeple ,which was main idea behind the attack, it was necesary to kep yourself low for that moment. And as far as the border fight is concerned ,Indian army has alwaz set an example in front of the wold. Israel's comments over India's commandos are awful.they should not copmare their border fights with internal terror attacks.

timothyone: Why does it bother you so much that a few Israeli military authorities expressed frustration with not being called to help out when they are amongst the highest-trained and most equipped anti-terrorist forces in the world? Israel is a military partner and ally of India, and after a few hours into the Mumbai attacks it was becoming overly apparent that the Indian military was less-than-effective in ending the ongoing sieges.