Sharon146;s roaring goodbye

It would have been the wrong time to engage him on the genesis of terror because even as he sat across a long table with a group of Indian journalists, his military secretary, Yaav Galant, kept walking in with slips of paper, presumably with more details of the suicide bombings in Tel Aviv which had taken a toll of 15 lives and prompted Israeli retaliation. 8216;8216;It is common knowledge that in wars innocent people do get killed but we will not tolerate terror.8217;8217; He shuffled with the determined look of a man possessed. He was cutting short his visit to be back in Jerusalem to personally supervise the continuous counterpunch to 8216;8216;terror, Arab terror8217;8217;.

All corridors leading to the Taj had been closed. Almost half a kilometre from the hotel driveway, in an improvised shamiana sat the best and the brightest of the Indian security apparatus, checking identification. Across the roadblocks were security-cleared cars to ply you to the hotel portico. From here onwards, all security had been taken over by the Israelis, layers upon layers of them, efficient, precise and curt, leading up to the Villa Medici on the roof-top where the off-the-record rendezvous with Sharon had been arranged.

The Israeli PM was still preoccupied with slips of paper that kept updating him, possibly with the developing story back home. I am only guessing, because his face grew more stern with each slip. Then, following up on his own train of thought: 8216;8216;I am a Jew; the most important thing to me is being a Jew.8217;8217; One sensed he was trying to control anger at the news from home.

For details of talks with the Indian president, prime minister and other Indian officials one had to fall back on quoting 8216;8216;high officials8217;8217; accompanying Sharon. They were quite precise. Yes, the Phalcon deal had been cleared. Since the Phalcon technology has to be mounted on one of the larger aircraft manufactured in the US, Europe or Russia, India had settled on the Russian platform. Delays in Moscow were circumvented with Sharon directly talking to President Putin. All roadblocks were removed in a jiffy.

Remarkably, Sharon8217;s 8216;8216;high officials8217;8217; would have us believe Iraq was not discussed at all. There is a reason. The defeat of Saddam8217;s Ba8217;athist regime had been a great boon to Israeli security. 8216;8216;Our eastern front had been secured.8217;8217; But Israel has, obviously, ducked into a 8216;8216;very low profile8217;8217; on the current difficulties in Iraq. Any Israeli affiliation with the project would raise Arab anger exponentially. So, not a word on Iraq.

Since Sharon8217;s pet theme is 8216;8216;terror, terror, terror8217;8217;, what about the 8216;8216;terror8217;8217; directed from Pakistan against India? Not many views on this either, possibly because Israel would not like to be out of sync with the US on an area it is deeply involved in. It is also possible that because of its current preoccupation with itself, Israel8217;s vision does not extend beyond the Persian Gulf. One Israeli official said General Musharraf was himself fighting terrorism. This line must have startled Indian officials.

Talk about Iran and the Israelis smack their lips like they have dipped into jars of jam. 8216;8216;We regard Iran as the centre of world terror.8217;8217; Israel8217;s anxieties are on two counts. It considers Iran an exporter of terrorism, and it would like New Delhi8217;s assurance that fancy technology would not be passed on to Teheran. 8216;8216;We are satisfied with what New Delhi has told us.8217;8217; Syria, likewise. What about Saudi Arabia? Their links with Al-Qaeda and Hamas are known. But military exercises with the new Islamist regime in Turkey are proceeding satisfactorily. Israeli pragmatism all over.

It is common knowledge that Israel is training India8217;s anti-terrorist units and supplying surveillance and other sensitive equipment. Deepening of Indo-Israeli relations, cooperation in space, desalination, solar energy, agriculture, education, health 8212; these are promising areas for future cooperation. Trade already crossed 1.5 billion.

Meanwhile, those who thought that a Washington, Jerusalem, New Delhi axis was firming up against terrorism may be inclined to pause. Terrorism is terrorism, of course, and there will be exchange of data and surveillance technology, but in the ultimate analysis every nation having to cope with terrorism will have to fight 8212; or more intelligently, defuse 8212; it on its own, by its own lights.