NEW DELHI: The bombs exploding: in Israel had their diplomatic reverberations in South Block last week when Israel’s Ambassador, Yehoyada Haim, forcefully conveyed to India his country’s unhappiness over New Delhi’s stand on the recent developments in West Asia.
Ata meeting with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the ambassador is said to have been aghast at a statement issued by India on the bombings.
The statement, released by the Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs (VIEA) is totally silent on Hamas, which is threatening the West Asia process that India claims to support.
Not only does the statement not name Hamas, it also underplays the disruptive role of the militant organization by attributing the current cycle of violence in West Asia to “a few individuals,” The ambassador is understood to have taken umbrage in particular to the one-sided and partisan manner in which MEA has heaped praise on chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat for what it calls Arafat’s “sincere efforts to combat militancy in the areas under the Palestinian authority.
While South Block has been unstinting in its praise of Arafat, there is no similar praise for Israeli Prime minister Shimon Peres for his restraint of his continued commitment to peace under very trying circumstances.
Nor is there any mention of India’s Support for Israeli efforts to fight terror although the statement docs acknowledge that India has “suffered from cross border militant violence.”
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1996
