India Must Be “Disentangled” From US-Israel Axis – Left Leader

Text of report by Indian news agency PTI

New Delhi, 15 June: Linking left parties’ opposition to “strategic alliance” with the US to the cause of Palestine, Communist Party of India – Marxist leader Prakash Karat Sunday [15 June] said India will have to be “disentangled” from a trilateral axis with America and Israel to help the Palestinian struggle.

Slamming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for “continuing to pursue strategic ties with Israel,” Karat said the common minimum programme deliberately did not mention any strategic alliance with the US or the Jewish state as the Congress [leading party in ruling coalition] said it would break with policies of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

“But the UPA did not fulfil what it said on paper,” the CPI-M general secretary said, addressing a meeting to remember 60 years of “Nakba” – the creation of Israel and the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland.

“The strategic alliances with the US and Israel are interconnected. To support Palestinian cause, it is important to disentangle India from this Indo-Israel-US matrix… [ellipsis as published]. We are fighting for this for the last four years and it will go on.”

He said there will be “no compromise” on this.

“India has been drawn to US strategic designs… [ellipsis as published]. We will have to rededicate ourselves to the struggle for changing the course of India’s current foreign policy,” Karat said without specifically mentioning the Indo-US nuclear deal, which the left is vehemently opposing.

Referring to the military ties with Israel, he cited the Barak missile deal and said it was one example of how such alliance can “subvert” India’s security establishment.

Karat also flayed the launch of an Israeli spy satellite from an ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization] vehicle, saying this might help Israel if it wants to carry out missile strikes on Iranian nuclear establishments.

Israeli Communist Party leader Issam Makhoul, in his keynote address, sought to buttress the point that military ties with Israel is not in the interest of Indian government and is in “glaring contradiction” to its independent foreign policy of nonalignment.

“The over-normalization of ties, the over-hasty strategic cooperation with Israel is a departure from the traditional support of the people of India to the Palestinian cause,” Makhoul, a former MP and an Arab-Israeli leader fighting for equal rights for minority Palestinians inside Israel and against the occupation of Palestinian territories, said.

India is the biggest buyer of military hardware from Israel, which helps the Jewish state’s defence establishment, he said. Close collaboration with Israeli military and intelligence establishments has serious “implications for victims of Israeli occupation” and “casts doubt on independence of foreign policy”, he said.

US policy of backing the Israeli “aggression” is an “obstacle” to peace, he said. “Israel’s legitimacy cannot be achieved unless Palestinian rights are secured”.

Communist Party of India leader A. B. Bardhan said the policy of support to Palestinians has been abandoned. “We can understand friendship but the government is developing military ties.”

“We are not against the Jewish people or Israel, but we are witnessing the suffering of Palestinians… [ellipsis as published] Those who suffered Holocaust should have known better,” he said.

Originally published by PTI news agency, New Delhi, in English 1659 15 Jun 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.