"I might draw a parallel between the Middle East and the India/Pakistan situation. "

Nicholas Kristof with a good post:

"The Gaza mess, and a question for readers

By Nicholas Kristof

One of the paradoxes of the Middle East is that all sides tend to be drawn to military solutions, even though they have a terrible record( TRUE ). History suggests that each side empowers its enemies when it turns to firepower( THE EXTREMES PROFIT ). Hamas’s reckless terror attacks and rocket attacks( THEY ARE WAR CRIMES ) gave strength to Israeli hard-liners, and if Bibi emerges as prime minister, it’ll be because of Hamas. Conversely, Hamas is a power in Gaza today largely because of Israeli excesses, including attacks on Fatah police infrastructure in earlier years — and of course Hezbullah was born after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.( HOW TRUE )

Granted, this is easy to say, and Israeli leaders feel enormous pressure to do something, anything, when their southern towns come under rocket attack( THAT'S FINE. BUT THIS RESPONSE IS WAY TOO BLUNT. ). But the first rule of government is not to make things worse, and I’m afraid that the assault on Gaza will indeed aggravate the situation( ME TOO ).

My concern is that the big losers will be Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority itself. When the Arabic cable channels are full of scenes of bloodshed from Gaza, Arab public opinion always turns against the moderates who are Israel’s best long-term hope for the future. I just wish that Israel tried as hard to bolster Abu Mazen( I BELIEVE THAT HE IS THE REAL DEAL. ) and the P.A. as it does to hurt Hamas.

I’ve been running around Cambodia, Thailand and Burma and so haven’t been able to write a column about Gaza, though I hope to soon. So let me throw out a question to blog readers. If I do write about the issue, I might draw a parallel between the Middle East and the India/Pakistan situation( I DID WHEN THIS OCCURRED. ). The idea would be that both India and Israel have suffered violent attacks that created enormous political pressure for a response, but that India — to its credit, and rather to my surprise — so far hasn’t taken military action after the Mumbai attacks because it knows that would make things worse. India has simply been a model of restraint, particularly with elections coming up in which Indian nationalists are screaming for a tougher approach, and it should get credit for that( I AGREE ). Granted, Israel has suffered tremendous provocations, and the democratic pressure for retaliation is enormous, but I wish Israel showed the same restraint as India, for the same reason( SO DO I. ). So what do you think: Is that a fair or meaningful comparison( YES. IT IS. )? Suggestions, thoughts?

“The solution to the problem of the region, the solution to the problem of Pakistan, is politics, is dialogue,”

From Bloomberg, Zardari on the tension with India:

"By Aaron Sheldrick

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari sought to ease tensions with India after a standoff over last month’s terrorist attack on Mumbai raised the prospect of war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

“The solution to the problem of the region, the solution to the problem of Pakistan, is politics, is dialogue( PLEASE ),” Zardari said live on Geo Television Network at a memorial service for his late wife, former Prime Minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

The attack on Mumbai from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29 brought to a halt five years of reconciliation started after India and Pakistan went to the brink of a fourth war( THAT'S RIGHT. THREE WARS IN 60 YEARS ) since independence. Zardari said he’s committed to fighting terrorist networks that may be trying to force Pakistan’s hand( LET'S HOPE HE IS ).

“We have non-state actors. Yes, they are imposing an agenda on us( AS IN THE MIDDLE EAST ),” Zardari said at the memorial service yesterday. “We ourselves have accepted we have a cancer. We will cure this cancer ourselves.”

Pakistan on Dec. 25 began diverting troops from tribal areas near Afghanistan to the border with India, the Associated Press reported, citing Pakistani intelligence officials. The Pakistan army’s 14th division is being sent to the towns of Kasur and Sialkot, AP said.

The number of troops being redeployed may be as high as 20,000, according to domestic and foreign media reports.

The deployment was a response to a build-up by Indian ground and air forces near the border, the U.K.’s Independent newspaper reported on its Web site, citing Pakistani military and government officials it didn’t identify.

Calming Fears

Pakistan “can’t ignore certain developments on the ground and in the air,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the Independent today.

That said, Pakistan is “pursuing a policy of defusing tensions,” Qureshi was quoted as saying. “We do not want to escalate the situation. Pakistan has no aggressive designs.”

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, divided between the two and claimed by both.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Nov. 26 that he had spoken with several foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Yang Jiechi of China and Iran’s Manouchehr Mottaki, since Dec. 25 to persuade their governments to ask Pakistan to tackle terrorist groups.

Building Consensus

India has been seeking to build a global consensus on action against terrorism since the Mumbai attack, which killed 164 people. India blamed the assault on “elements” in Pakistan, and Pakistan has asked for evidence to back up that accusation.

“We have indicated to them that there is ample evidence -- from log books to satellite phone records -- that elements from Pakistan were responsible,” Mukherjee said.

India and Saudi Arabia on Nov. 26 called for global coordinated action against terrorism.

“Global terrorism has to be dealt with by joint action among all countries,” Mukherjee said at a briefing in New Delhi with his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Saud al-Faisal. “We agreed that whatever action has to be taken should be taken without delay.”

India’s foreign ministry advised its nationals not to travel to Pakistan following reports that several Indians were arrested in Lahore and Multan and had been accused of being terrorists.

The Indian government said that the detention of its nationals may be the work of organizations outside civilian control, without elaborating.

The U.S. called on both nations to lower tensions.

“We continue to be in close contact with both countries to urge closer cooperation in investigating the Mumbai attacks and in fighting terrorism generally,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in an e-mailed release. “We hope that both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times.”

This is no joke.

"The answer is to increase cooperation between the two countries, and to deal with the problems more proactively"

I'm someone who believes that the Mumbai attack was intended to derail Zardari's Peace feelers to India. Here's Anwar Sher on PostGlobal:

"The killing of any human being is not something one should gloat over, justify or otherwise praise, and in this vein the attacks in Mumbai are horrific to say the least. It would also seem, based on evidence so far, that some militant groups based in Pakistan carried out this attack, and Pakistan has offered to prosecute these people and some arrests have been made.

While India may suggest that Pakistan is not doing enough, the fact that there has been a state of turmoil within Pakistan for over a decade suggests that reining in these militant groups is not exactly as easy as it sounds. The charge that elements within Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have had inks to militant groups could well be true -- but is not necessarily proved beyond a shadow of doubt.

I do not think war-mongering or taking a page out of U.S. policy of retaliatory strikes is the answer in this situation.

First of all, Pakistan has its own problems with its home grown terrorist threat, losing a Benazir Bhutto to one such attack, the culprits behind which still remain at large.

Secondly, Pakistan's society is fragmented, and divided, especially in the northwest, where more of the population lives in fear of the next terrorist strike than of the next U.S. missile strike. In this atmosphere of strife, it is easy both for militant groups to operate with relative immunity and for militants wanted by foreign governments to hide.

Thirdly, while this tragic attack against the people of Mumbai was perhaps largely carried out by Pakistani men, one cannot simply say India's entire history with terrorist attacks rests on Pakistan's doorstep, as we would be forgetting that earlier bombing attacks on the Mumbai stock exchange and elsewhere were carried out by India's own home grown brand of terrorists. In 2007, a terrible bombing of a train linking India and Pakistan, in which 63 people were killed mostly Pakistanis, was linked to an Indian group in Indore.

Sensible people on both sides of the border have to accept that terrorism is not a state sponsored act insofar as these two countries are concerned. While Pakistan has not been able to control the groups operating within its own territory for the reasons cited, it would be naive to assume cross border raids will achieve much more than to raise tensions between two countries who can ill afford a war at this stage.

The answer is to increase cooperation between the two countries, and to deal with the problems more proactively, and to create a framework of trust between each nation's secret service organizations. In reality, Pakistan gains little from sponsoring terrorist attacks against others when when its own militants are harassing the country from the inside. We must understand and appreciate that militant attacks of this sort are a problem for both India and Pakistan and that dealing with them by more saber rattling will achieve nothing but tension.

Pakistan must also work harder to clamp down on these groups, which have caused so much damage within and outside the country. It cannot just go on hoping the problem will go away with time. It is important that sanity prevail at moments like. We must find peace at these moments, not more deaths."

I find this a sensible view.

"The Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan’s new democratic government and the peace process with India "

When the Mumbai attacks hit, I wrote that I believed that it was an attempt to derail the peace initiative that Zardari had made to India. It had the feel of similar terrorists attack that have been so effective in derailing the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. I hoped that India and Pakistan would not let extermists have as much power over the peace process as in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. Here's Zardari in the NY Times:

"THE recent death and destruction in Mumbai, India, brought to my mind the death and destruction in Karachi on Oct. 18, 2007, when terrorists attacked a festive homecoming rally for my wife, Benazir Bhutto. Nearly 150 Pakistanis were killed and more than 450 were injured. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai may be a news story for most of the world. For me it is a painful reality of shared experience. Having seen my wife escape death by a hairbreadth on that day in Karachi, I lost her in a second, unfortunately successful, attempt two months later.

The Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan’s new democratic government and the peace process with India that we have initiated. Supporters of authoritarianism in Pakistan and non-state actors with a vested interest in perpetuating conflict do not want change in Pakistan to take root.

To foil the designs of the terrorists, the two great nations of Pakistan and India, born together from the same revolution and mandate in 1947, must continue to move forward with the peace process. Pakistan is shocked at the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We can identify with India’s pain. I am especially empathetic. I feel this pain every time I look into the eyes of my children.

Pakistan is committed to the pursuit, arrest, trial and punishment of anyone involved in these heinous attacks. But we caution against hasty judgments and inflammatory statements. As was demonstrated in Sunday’s raids, which resulted in the arrest of militants, Pakistan will take action against the non-state actors found within our territory, treating them as criminals, terrorists and murderers. Not only are the terrorists not linked to the government of Pakistan in any way, we are their targets and we continue to be their victims.

India is a mature nation and a stable democracy. Pakistanis appreciate India’s democratic contributions. But as rage fueled by the Mumbai attacks catches on, Indians must pause and take a breath. India and Pakistan — and the rest of the world — must work together to track down the terrorists who caused mayhem in Mumbai, attacked New York, London and Madrid in the past, and destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September. The terrorists who killed my wife are connected by ideology to these enemies of civilization.

These militants did not arise from whole cloth. Pakistan was an ally of the West throughout the cold war. The world worked to exploit religion against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan by empowering the most fanatic extremists as an instrument of destruction of a superpower. The strategy worked, but its legacy was the creation of an extremist militia with its own dynamic.

Pakistan continues to pay the price: the legacy of dictatorship, the fatigue of fanaticism, the dismemberment of civil society and the destruction of our democratic infrastructure. The resulting poverty continues to fuel the extremists and has created a culture of grievance and victimhood.

The challenge of confronting terrorists who have a vast support network is huge; Pakistan’s fledgling democracy needs help from the rest of the world. We are on the frontlines of the war on terrorism. We have 150,000 soldiers fighting Al Qaeda, the Taliban and their extremist allies along the border with Afghanistan — far more troops than NATO has in Afghanistan.

Nearly 2,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives to terrorism in this year alone, including 1,400 civilians and 600 security personnel ranging in rank from ordinary soldier to three-star general. There have been more than 600 terrorism-related incidents in Pakistan this year. The terrorists have been set back by our aggressive war against them in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Pashtun-majority areas bordering Afghanistan. Six hundred militants have been killed in recent attacks, hundreds by Pakistani F-16 jet strikes in the last two months.

Terrorism is a regional as well as a global threat, and it needs to be battled collectively. We understand the domestic political considerations in India in the aftermath of Mumbai. Nevertheless, accusations of complicity on Pakistan’s part only complicate the already complex situation.

For India, Pakistan and the United States, the best response to the Mumbai carnage is to coordinate in counteracting the scourge of terrorism. The world must act to strengthen Pakistan’s economy and democracy, help us build civil society and provide us with the law enforcement and counterterrorism capacities that will enable us to fight the terrorists effectively.

Benazir Bhutto once said that democracy is the best revenge against the abuses of dictatorship. In the current environment, reconciliation and rapprochement is the best revenge against the dark forces that are trying to provoke a confrontation between Pakistan and India, and ultimately a clash of civilizations.

Asif Ali Zardari is the president of Pakistan."

"warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region."

Zardari on Mumbai in the FT:

"Zardari urges united stand

By Farhan Bokhari in London, James Lamont in New Delhi and Joe Leahy in Mumbai

Published: November 30 2008 19:41 | Last updated: November 30 2008 19:41

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, made an urgent appeal to India on Sunday not to punish his country for the terror unleashed on Mumbai last week, warning that militants had the power to precipitate a war in the region.

As the government in New Delhi faced mounting domestic recriminations after the three-day terrorist rampage in Mumbai, Mr Zardari urged Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, to resist striking out at his government should investigations show that Pakistani militant groups were responsible for the attacks.

Speaking exclusively to the Financial Times, Pakistan’s president warned that provocation by rogue “non-state actors” posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

“Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-i-tayyaba, [a prominent militant group linked to previous attacks against India] who do you think we are fighting?” asked Mr Zardari, whose country is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants on its shared border with Afghanistan.

“We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated [the] 9/11 [attacks on the US] or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq,” said Mr Zardari.

“Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace.”

I said that I believed that the Mumbai attacks were in response to Zardari's attempts to ease tensions with India. I hope that cooler heads prevail, because the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has shown us what happens when you give fanatics the power to derail peace efforts.

"The Mumbai attacks have rekindled a debate in Israel over the safety of Israeli and Jewish institutions abroad."

I hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did. A wonderful day, where I took my two usual walks, read and posted, and had an amazing meal with my family. I'm extremely lucky. Does that mean that I'm all bright and chipper? Sadly, no, because that's just not me.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about Mumbai. Not because I've some great knowledge to impart about what's going on, because I don't, but because it has to do with a few personal issues I've wanted to address. Of course, I pray for the innocent lives which have been taken in this terrorist attack, and, also, that no more innocent lives be taken.

If I were tempted to address the larger issues about this atrocity in Mumbai, I would wait for it to end, and then, when I had more real information, I would comment about it. There are far too many people who comment on these kinds of events while they are still ongoing, in a reckless and uninformative manner, and who are generally not even called to account for their words.

So, allowing that I'm talking about something personal that occurs to me in the Mumbai situation, that it took this tragedy to bring an issue up, I want to say something that occurred to me.

When I read that Zardari of Pakistan was putting out peace feelers to India, I wondered, if, as in the Israeli-Plaestinian conflict, terrorists would use the moves towards peace as an occasion to try and derail any such peace prospects by mounting an attack. I've no idea if that's what happened, but that's what occurred to me.

Then, when I read this in the FT:

"The Mumbai attacks have rekindled a debate in Israel over the safety of Israeli and Jewish institutions abroad. Israeli security officials have long warned that militants could target places such as Israeli embassies and Jewish cultural centres outside Israel, rather than strike inside the country.

The foreign ministry said on Friday that it was too early to draw conclusions from the Mumbai attacks, but that it was unlikely that Israel could shoulder the burden of securing all Jewish institutions around the world. ”We offer security for Israeli institutions abroad, but anything more is probably unrealistic,” the spokesman said.

A similar conclusion was drawn by Amos Harel, a commentator for Haaretz newspaper, who wrote on Friday: ”Since last February, the defence establishment has been involved in a worldwide effort to protect Israeli citizens and Jewish centres from attack by Hezbollah as revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh [a senior Hebollah commander killed in Damascus].

“Serious attacks have been thwarted during that time. But the terror attack in Mumbai, in which the local Chabad House was a secondary target, indicates that Israel will never quite cover local Islamic terror in developing nations.”

The connection seemed confirmed to me. I've jumped to a conclusion. That Jews were targeted in a terrorist attack in a foreign country, and a connection between the two conflicts has been drawn. A symbolic connection, if you will.

So, when I heard the news of the attack in Mumbai on Wednesday, I was saddened, but I wasn't surprised. That's a part of the ongoing Pakistani-Indian conflict, which needs to be solved.

But, I was also not surprised to hear that Jews had been targeted in a foreign country by terrorists for being Jews. Sadly, that's an everyday concern of being Jewish. Just a personal thought, brought on by an ongoing human tragedy.