…During the secret discussions prior to the Entebbe operation, Rabin, who agreed to the mission after much persuasion by intelligence and ministry planners, effectively established the principle that is still followed by all Israeli leaders facing hostage situations: if the necessary intelligence is available and the operational circumstances allow, force — even a great deal of it — will be used to free hostages; if not, Israel will negotiate a prisoner exchange.

Rabin signed off on the Entebbe plan only after intelligence agents assured him that aerial surveillance showed Ugandan soldiers guarding the terminal where the hostages were being held, indicating that the building was not booby-trapped.

…Thirty-five years later, many who took part in Operation Entebbe at the highest levels were also involved in the negotiations to bring home Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was abducted by Palestinian commandos on June 25, 2006, and whose capture has consumed Israeli society for the last five years. Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defense minister and now its president, signed the pardons for the Palestinian prisoners who were released in exchange for Shalit. Ehud Barak, a planner of the Entebbe raid, is today Israel’s defense minister. Tamir Pardo, who is currently the chief of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad — and whose support helped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu push the Shalit deal past skeptics in his administration — was the communications officer for the commander who led the raid in Entebbe. That commander, Yonatan Netanyahu, was the only Israeli military casualty of the operation, struck by a bullet while advancing with his men toward the terminal where the hostages were held. In the command bunker in Tel Aviv, when Peres learned that Yonatan Netanyahu had been killed, he told those present that Israel had lost “one of most wonderful people there has ever been in this country.”

It was at the antiterrorism foundation established by the Netanyahu family in honor of Yonatan’s memory that his younger brother Benjamin began his career. In 1986 he edited a book titled “Terrorism: How the West Can Win,” which argued intensely against negotiating with terrorists under any circumstance. In one of the two articles he contributed to the book, Netanyahu wrote: “This is a policy that in effect tells the terrorists that we will not give in to your demands. We insist that you free the hostages. If you do not do so peaceably, we are ready to use force. We are offering a simple exchange: your life for the lives of the hostages. In other words, the only ‘deal’ we are prepared to do with you is this: If you surrender without a fight, you will stay alive.”

Today, when explaining how he, of all leaders, could sign the agreement that marked a new record of acquiescence to a terrorist organization — the release of 1,027 prisoners, many of them with Israeli “blood on their hands” — Netanyahu falls back on the policy that was laid down by Rabin in the deliberations leading up to Entebbe: the intelligence and the operational circumstances left him no alternative but to make a deal.

…

Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror served as a senior officer in military intelligence for decades and today serves as national security adviser to the prime minister. “I believe that it is right to endanger the lives of soldiers in operational actions in order to bring about the release of a living hostage or to get information,” Amidror told me in an interview in 2009. “But the important principle is not to conduct any negotiation for the bodies of abducted soldiers or for living hostages. Israel has trapped itself in an impossible position, in which it sacrifices vital security interests in order to return hostages or their bodies, and this exceeds all the limits of reason. If, for example, it was clear to Hamas or any other organization that we do not pay anything and do not negotiate, the motivation to kidnap would be significantly lower.”

Do read the article in full. It is long but intensely thought-provoking.

Related Posts:

Somewhat related: Tackling Terrorism: One Step at a Time . || Satyameva Jayate ||

I’m still trying to collect more information and put the pieces together (motive, suspects etc). In the meantime, latest reports suggest 8 killed in 3 separate blasts..Will update this as and when I get some time and fresh information..In the meantime, please share your thoughts and comments below...(pl keep it civil, polite and no blanket abuse please; no personal attacks either; also look at my comments policy under “Disclaimer” if you have not already done so).  Please spare a moment to remember the innocents who were killed and the many who were caught up in this..My prayers are with their families..

*** Update at 11pm IST (13th July ’11): 21 dead(?); 100+ injured. Still no clues about the group(s)/individuals behind this.

Meanwhile Obama described the blasts as “outrageous attacks”. Do you remember the last time an Indian politician used such strong words?

Meanwhile friends of Pakistan appear to have undertaken an early-damage control exercise in case the finger of suspicion does point to a “neighbouring” country (in this context, pl read: “We know its Pakistan but we hope its not!”). Good night all. Stay safe wherever you are…and have faith. We shall overcome.

*** Update at 9am IST (14th July ’11): Pl see my comment below. Pl contribute links and share thoughts via comments section below. Thanks.

Related Posts under Terrorism in India including: Open thread on attack in Varanasi* , Another year, another anniversary – “Kuch nayee baat batao yaar”* , Pearl Harbour, 26/11 & Another Day of Infamy..

Pre-drafted, cut-and-paste statements begin:

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, the Government and the people of Pakistan, have condemned the blasts in Mumbai and expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries.
The President and the Prime Minister have expressed their deepest sympathies to the Indian leadership

Vice-President Hamid Ansari condemns the attacks.
“He expressed deep shock at the scale of the attacks..He said that such terrorist acts are aimed at destabilizing the nation and urged all citizens to unite in this critical hour.

The Supreme Court had in January 2006 dismissed Guru’s appeal against the death sentence after which he filed a mercy petition. A convict on death row can seek clemency from the President, who acts on the cabinet’s advice to arrive at a decision. The plea is processed by the home ministry.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on February 23, home minister P Chidambaram had said Guru’s plea had not been forwarded to President Pratibha Patil.

गृह मंत्री पी. चिदंबरम ने हाल ही में कहा कि याचिकाओं को राष्ट्रपति के पास भेजने के लिए एक नई प्रक्रिया अपनाई गई है। इसके तहत सजा की तारीख व गृह मंत्रालय में याचिका पहुंचने के दिन के आधार पर इन्हें राष्ट्रपति को भेजा जाता है। चिदंबरम ने बताया कि अप्रैल 1998 से अब तक राष्ट्रपति को 28 याचिकाएं भेजी गई हैं।इनमें केवल दो पर फैसला हुआ है।

7. (C) Comment: The case raises electoral problems for Congress at a national level. Outside of Kashmir, public opinion — still raw from Mumbai — is strongly in favor of Afzal’s execution. A journalist commented that Congress can’t be seen giving a pass to both Pakistan in the Mumbai case as well as giving clemency to Afzal or else the BJP will subject them to withering attacks. On the other hand, Congress does not want to anger the Muslim population in Uttar Pradesh just ahead of crucial elections in February 2007.

This is bad, no? Mixing religion with politics…and worse, assuming that the Muslim population in UP sympathises with convicted terrorists?

Related Post: Afzal-giri vs. Gandhi-giri

Simply put, the notion that the radical Hindu threat to India is comparable to that posed by radical Islam is ludicrous. First there’s the question of scale. Alleged Hindu terrorists—not one of whom has been convicted—are accused of bomb blasts in 2007 and 2008 in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra that killed 17 people. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the toll in India from about two dozen radical Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11 stands at more than 950 dead and many hundreds more injured.

The principal Hindu groups accused of the bombings—Abhinav Bharat and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti—are ramshackle outfits with few members and scant popular support. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, by contrast, is part of a powerful international network and has close links with both al Qaeda and Pakistan’s notorious military intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

Nor can radical Hinduism—such as it is—claim anything approaching the ambition or ideological rigor of radical Islam. From Morocco to Mindanao, radical Islamists are motivated by the desire to replace man’s law with God’s law by ordering every aspect of society and the state by the medieval dictates of Shariah law.

In ideologues such as the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) and the Pakistani Abul Ala Maududi (1903-79), they find religious justification for terrorism. In Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, they see the possibility of making their dream a reality. In the oil rich kingdoms of the Middle East, they find deep pockets to tap. None of these is true of Hindu groups.

Sadanand’s conclusion is telling…

Finally, they (Rahul Gandhi’s comments) raise the uncomfortable prospect of India being led by a man out of touch with the dominant ethos of the country he seeks to lead, one that may be flawed but remains essentially liberal, humane and resistant to any kind of radicalism.

In the long run, it’s this ignorance, not a handful of Hindu zealots, that poses the greater threat to India.

Related Posts:  Exploding the Myth of “Hindutva Terror”

Exploding the Myth of “Hindutva Terror” – Part II

A few inconvenient questions for the “Youth Icon”

Image courtesy: Associated Press via WSJ

The Urdu paper theory is, in brief, that 26/11 was organised to kill Hemant Karkare, a brave police officer, because he was on the verge of exposing Hindu zealots. This implies that Hindu zealots came to a deal with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose leader Hafiz Saeed was so delighted that, with the help of ISI, he armed and trained 10 young men, and sent them on Jihad to India so that Hindu zealots might be protected!

I am not a votary of the exclamation mark, but rarely has it been more necessary. You have to be scarily bonkers to believe such utter nonsense. It is one thing when an editor desperate for circulation takes recourse to stupidity.When a man who has been chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and could be home minister of India promotes such rubbish, we have to worry about the health of our politics.

A historic event such as 26/11 creates a national narrative that might blur at the edges but is essentially consistent with the truth. Digvijaya Singh compromised the Indian narrative in order to flirt with rabid sentiment.

The irony is the Congress is losing the Muslim vote because it no longer understands the Muslim vote. Indian Muslims have seen through the deception of decades. They are, at long last, rejecting the politics of fear and demanding development. Check out Bihar.

Somewhat related: Why Antulay should think before he speaks and First Shashi Tharoor, next Kathlal now Nitish Kumar and the NDA alliance…