Nexus of Evil
Mamoona Ali Kazmi

RECENTLY, India has launched an Israeli spy satellite named TECSAR, designed to gather intelligence on the Islamic countries from Iraq to Pakistan. Both India and Israel have common interest in launching this satellite. All over the world there is trend that countries used to launch satellites in the eastwards to take the advantage of the eastward rotation of the earth. But Israel has unfriendly countries to its east and therefore finds it unable to launch its satellites eastwards. India has such facilities in Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) and therefore it is practical for Israel to seek India’s assistance. India has her own reasons for launching an Israeli satellite as this is capable of surveillance over the areas from Iraq to Pakistan. It is interesting that India is pursuing a dual policy; at one hand it claims to be sympathetic towards the Palestinians against Israeli occupation while on the other it is forwarding defence relations with Israel on a high pace.
Similarly, India’s decision to jointly develop a new generation of surface-to-air missile with Israel is a quantum leap in the two countries’ relations. Manmohan Singh approved the US $ 2.5 billion defense project with Israel. The development of missiles capable of intercepting aircraft and other aerial targets at a range of 70 kilometers is to be undertaken by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries. In recent years, service chiefs and other senior military officials have been periodically visiting one another. In May 2007, the Indian Defense Minister informed the parliament that from 2002-2007, India obtained over US$5 billion worth of military weapons and systems from Israel.
India has already become Israel’s largest defence customer, with purchases worth $ 1.5 billion in 2006 alone. Tel Aviv is poised to grab a major chunk of the whopping $ 30 billion that New Delhi will spend on defence purchases over the next five years. The showpiece under this is the Rs. 100 billion ($ 2.5 billion) joint project to develop an advance Barak medium-range surface-to-air missile system for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Army. This comes after 14 Barak-I anti-missile defence system was bought for the navy, at around Rs. 130 crore a piece, after 1999 Kargil conflict. After buying Python air-to-air missiles and crystal Maze Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) for IAF fighters, India is now on course for Derby air-to-air missiles, Delilah-II air-launched cruise missiles and Gabriel-III sea-skimming anti-ship missiles for both the IAF and the Navy. For the Army, after the Lahat laser-homing attack missile, the Spike multi-purpose anti-tank guided missile is on the cards. The Indian Army will also get SpyDer quick-reaction anti-aircraft missile systems.
Although India had recognized Israel in September 1950, diplomatic relations were only established in January 1992. Between this period, India covertly conducted its relations with Israel as it did not want to annoy its Muslim population, the Arab world as well as its strategic ally, Soviet Union. Israel helped India with arms and military hardware during her wars with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965&1971). After the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi India sought Israel’s help to improve the protection of its important people. Since the early 1980s, Indian army and military intelligence officers received anti-terrorist training in Israel. In the late 1980’s India and Israel were engaged in a secret dialogue over destroying Pakistan’s nuclear facility in Kahuta and signing military agreements, In all these contacts, strict secrecy was maintained to give an impression to the Arab world and Soviet Union that India had no ties with Israel.
After the end of the cold war India’s biggest supplier of arms, Soviet Union disintegrated and crucial supplies of arms and military spare parts were interrupted. At that time India wanted to diversify its defence suppliers and was understood to have undergone a post-Cold War rethink as ties with Soviet Union no longer served as an obstacle to relations with Israel. The decision of the Indian government to upgrade diplomatic ties with Israel was influenced by different factors. First, Delhi understood the importance of military cooperation with Tal Aviv. Israel’s developed and research-oriented industrial-military complex was viewed by India as a good option answering some of its defence and security needs. Israel’s sophisticated expertise in manufacturing and upgrading high-combat aircraft; anti-tactical ballistic missiles, electronic warfare and communication equipment, as well as security technology were of particular interest to India. Indian military officials were not only interested in Israeli weapons and technology, but also in the Israel Defence Forces’ warfare strategies and concepts.
Secondly, both Israeli Government and BJP share repressive beliefs concerning the neighbouring Muslim countries as part of their political ideologies. The former claims the whole of Palestine to be Promised Land of Jews alone and the later considers India as a land where Hindutva should reign supreme. These similar ideological beliefs have led to a meeting of minds between the two extreme right-wing governments. No wonder both countries are known for their antagonism towards their neighbours for religious/ political reasons and a repressive regime for the Muslim population living within. Seema Mustafa wrote in Asian Age, New Delhi, on 16 June 2002, “The Vajpayee government has shifted its foreign policy focus from Arab nations to Israel. High level visits leading to defence cooperation at all levels, and intelligence sharing marks the new friendship between India and Israel”. According to the Telegraph of 25 June 2002,” Both BJP and Israel believe the two countries, surrounded as they are by hostile Muslim neighbours, should stick together to fight Islamic fundamentalism. With the BJP in power in Delhi, the relationship has taken wings”.
Lastly, Indo-Israeli collaboration aims to assist each other in order to terrorize and subjugate Palestinians along with Kashmiris forever. India and Israel want to control South Asia and Middle East respectively. Thus, the Middle Eastern Arab states are greatly threatened by Indo-Israel defence collaboration as both are anti-Muslim, terrorist, hostile states engaged in suppressing Muslims for centuries. India is seeking Israeli experience of crushing Palestinian “intifada” in order to employ the same in Jammu and Kashmir to squelch the freedom struggle. From 1993 onwards, this “counter-terrorist” collaboration became quite open. Israel has trained India’s border security forces personnel, notorious for their human rights abuses in Kashmir in exchange for the toning down of India’s backing of the Palestine cause.
Israel itself accorded a high priority to, relations with India, and developed cooperation in sensitive areas of military technology in addition to economic and cultural cooperation. The Israeli quest for qualitative superiority in arms over its neighbors was closely linked to its tapping of more markets, and India was the biggest attraction in this regard. Today after China and Turkey, India is the third largest importer of Israeli weapons.
The growing strategic ties between India and Israel and their cooperation in the nuclear field have created serious concerns in Arab world. During his visit to Israel in May 2000, Indian Home Minister L. K. Advani said, “I support the expanded cooperation between Israel and India in all fields, including this [nuclear] field”. India is also acquiring chemical warfare technology from Israel, which it imported secretly from the West in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Domestically India is facing severe criticism from different segments of society for its increasing collaboration with Israel. For the communist parties, seeking “strategic ties” with Israel represented a betrayal of the Palestinians and was harmful to India’s interests. They even argued that closer military ties were the result of the “anti-Muslim agenda” of Israel and the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Indian government is working to remove the political constraints hampering military cooperation with Israel. To dispel apprehensions of the Left and silence the critics, a few days after the missile cooperation was approved on 23 July 2007, Indian Defense Minister A K Antony told the media,” Successive governments since 1992 have had defense ties with Israel. This is not new. And the relation is not ideological, but purely based on our security requirements.” The Muslims of India apart from the left are also the hurdles to the strategic partnership between the two countries. The Muslims of India tried time and again to voice their concerns. India is trying to split the Indian Muslim community which harbours the cause of Palestinian resistance. For this purpose the present Indian Government has sent a delegation of Muslim scholars to Israel.
India and Israel are engaged in hostile activities with their neighbouring states. Their defence deals are a threat to peace and stability in the South Asian and Middle Eastern region. There is a dire need to impose a definite check and control on Indo-Israel defence nexus before it destabilizes the strategic balance in the region and peace efforts be hampered.




China freezes
Li Li

Heavy snowstorms throughout the central and southern provinces of China are the result of extreme weather conditions at a global level and the occurrence of La Niña, said Xu Xiaofeng, Vice Director of the China Meteorological Administration, in an interview with the China Central Television (CCTV). In snow-devastated regions people have been busy clearing roads and restoring suspended electricity supplies. Their work is likely to continue as snowfalls are expected to last until the end of January.
As the worst hit province, Hubei had reported 14 deaths up to January 21, including nine who died in traffic accidents. At least 7.8 million people in Hubei, over one eighth of its total population, had been affected by the heavy snowfall as of January 21. Of the 481,300 hectares of farmland damaged by the weather, 37,900 hectares have been rendered fruitless. Thousands of houses were also toppled by the snow. The direct economic loss in Hubei so far is estimated to be around 1.43 billion yuan ($199 million). In the central province of Anhui at least 3 million people have been affected by the continuous snowfall, including residents of dozens of townships in the mountainous areas, where traffic, power supplies and telephone services were cut off.
Since January 10, Shaanxi Province has witnessed its heaviest snowfall in the last five decades. A total of 27,760 vegetable greenhouses have been damaged by the snowstorms. While some greenhouses with plastic roofs collapsed under the weight of snow, the growth of plants in the remaining ones has been retarded by low temperatures, high humidity levels and weak sunlight. Freezing temperatures have caused numerous accidents involving the failure of public infrastructure, which is not designed for the unusually harsh weather. Frozen water pipes burst in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, causing drinking water shortages for more than 100,000 people. To restore supply, the city’s water bureau deployed nearly 4,000 water tankers and 15,200 workers to repair broken pipes.
According to a report on CCTV on January 22, road traffic in 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had been affected by heavy snowfall. Freeways in these affected regions were closed down so that sand and salt could be dispersed on the ground to remove the ice on the road. Snow and icy weather has also delayed over 600 flights taking off from 17 airports. The CCTV report said the General Administration of Civil Aviation had intensified safety supervision at airports, making sure that there is no snow or ice on the take-off and landing runways in operation. Paralyzed freeway networks and closed airports have made many people flock to railways, which are less affected by bad weather. To deal with the surge in passenger numbers, the Ministry of Railways has used temporary trains, which are not listed on the official train schedule but are usually added during holiday travel periods. Wang Yongping, a spokesman of the Ministry of Railways, said a total of 910 temporary trains were added during the five days between January 18 and 22. Railway stations in snow-affected regions have also taken temporary measures to facilitate the purchase of tickets and to provide more space for passengers to wait for their trains.
Residents in southern provinces, most without public heating systems, badly need electricity to heat their homes through the freezing nights. Some families have had to weather the cold nights without power due to widespread blackouts. According to a conference organized by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission in January, skyrocketing power demands and insufficient coal supplies to thermal power plants have led to a gap in power supply of 69.63 million kilowatts in the national grid; power grids in 13 provinces and autonomous regions have closed down part of their supplies. The power pinch has been worsened by snowstorm damage to power transmission facilities. Heavy snowfall disrupted a major power transmission line linking the Three Gorges hydropower plant to the electricity grid serving the most power-hungry eastern provinces, although the State Grid Corp. of China quickly replaced the broken line with backup facilities. Frozen ice on electricity transmission lines in southwestern Guizhou Province handicapped the provincial grid, causing power blackouts in nine counties and the suspension of telecommunication services in some areas. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have earmarked 3.19 billion yuan ($443 million) as a relief fund for affected people. On the afternoon of January 22, the Ministry of Civil Affairs activated the highest level of alert in the natural disaster response mechanism and sent working groups to different snow-devastated regions to coordinate relief work that night.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)






A vote is mightier than words
Sadaf Yunus

Optimistically speaking, free and fair, elections provide an opportunity for renewed efforts to put the country back on the track of progress, and gain respect and regard in the international community. The past decades have seen a dramatic global expansion of democracy, which has led to an extraordinary focus on the institution of elections. In countries around the world, elections have served to help resolve long-standing conflicts and to initiate or consolidate transitions to democracy. For states recovering from recent conflicts, elections have often been central to peace agreements. Fair elections have become an increasingly critical requirement for governments to have legitimacy in the eyes of the international community and their own, citizens.
As the elections were held in Pakistan on 18th February 2008, the process was under scrutiny by the international community and the media. The interior ministry had stated that the army and the paramilitary troops would not be deployed at the polling stations, although they were available for any kind of emergency. The government had taken adequate security arrangements for -peaceful polls. Nobody was allowed to disrupt the polling process. Anyone who tried to hinder the process would be dealt with sternly. Over 1000 international observers and media persons and about 20,000 Pakistani observers were allowed to monitor the elections. The government made sure that the entire process was well-organized and foolproof. The election process has been well appreciated abroad as well as within the country. Even though the entire world community and even our own people put forth their accusations that there would be a lot of rigging and fraud in the polls, but as the results have come up, it is evidently apparent that no such accusations were proved to be true. And all such false notions have fallen flat on the faces of the accusers.
Now, most importantly it is up to the winners to reconcile with others in order to work for the stability of Pakistan. These polls have helped us to determine the will of the people. From this point onwards we should move forward in good spirit of cooperation and good will. The new establishment should be accepted with open arms and trust should be faced on them as the future of Pakistan is of vital importance. The losing party should gracefully make room for the winning combination without creating a commotion. Such is the true democratic spirit which should be adopted. Preference should be accorded to the prosperity of the country and for the betterment of the people. Politicians and political workers need to reassess their attitudes and approaches and they need to be fair and decent. It is impossible to ask them to act like buddies, but it is possible to stop them when ever they start berating each other and the system.
Also the new dispensation should make concerted efforts not to start demanding abrupt changes to the system especially when they are demanding that the President should step down and that they would undo all his decisions pertaining to the country. Such an attitude is simply not acceptable and is totally uncalled for. They should instead focus their energies towards working for a strong democratic regime which would eventually be beneficial for the country. By and large Pakistan is still facing a multitude of problems including terrorism and extremism and is still in a crucial stage. There is a dire need to redefine our political outlook from within and -from the outside. There is a need to discuss the rampant poverty and rising unemployment in the country. We need to find political solutions to the crisis of power, gas, water and food. We also need to identify and implement a positive outlook in the sectors of education and health and that must be our aim throughout the entire evolution of political process.