Haaretz (www.haaretzdaily.com) reports that Israel's Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, is currently on a visit in India:

India and Israel join the United States in the global war against Islamic mass murderers

Speaking to business leaders, Shalom also said that India and Israel must work together to fight terrorism, underscoring the growing ties between the two countries.

"With the escalating threat of global terrorism, there is a need for closer cooperation to combat terrorism," Shalom told 50 top industrialists at a meeting in Mumbai.

"India and Israel should work together to put this element out," Shalom said in a statement released by the Confederation of Indian Industry, which organized the meeting that was closed to the press.

As Al-Qaeda, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the killers from Lashkar-e-Taiba (who murder Indian women and children in Kashmir) and other Islamic mass murderers will face an increasingly bigger coalition. This coalition, created by the need of a global war on Islamic terrorism, is led by the United States and as we can see from today's news includes Israel and India.

Expect other victims of the Islamic mass murderers to follow (such as Russia and true Western Democracies, e.g. Australia and Canada, but not France).

Shalom: Israel to reopen consulate in Mumbai
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press, 09/02/2004, Link

Israel will not lower its guard against terrorist attacks as it pursues peace with the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday.

At one end we move towards peace [with Palestine]. But at the same time, when there are no partners for peace, we will fight against terrorism and we will prevail," said Shalom, who is on a three-day visit to boost ties with India.

"Palestine still continues to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel. They believe terrorism will enable them to achieve their goals and demands, but [the] Israeli people are strong," Shalom said. "We will beat terrorism and terrorist attacks."

Shalom's comments came during a speech at the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue in downtown Mumbai, where he prayed for peace with more than 700 members of Mumbai's Jewish community. The majority of India's 5,000-odd Jews live in Mumai.

Children and women sang Hebrew songs to greet Shalom at the yellow-columned synagogue. "It was a great feeling for the Jewish people to hear him," said Elijah Jacob, country manager of the Bombay-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Shalom also announced that Israel will soon reopen its consulate in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai.

The consulate was closed late last year as part of cuts to the Foreign Ministry's budget.

Speaking to business leaders, Shalom also said that India and Israel must work together to fight terrorism, underscoring the growing ties between the two countries.

"With the escalating threat of global terrorism, there is a need for closer cooperation to combat terrorism," Shalom told 50 top industrialists at a meeting in Mumbai.

"India and Israel should work together to put this element out," Shalom said in a statement released by the Confederation of Indian Industry, which organized the meeting that was closed to the press.

He said trade needs to be improved in pharmaceuticals, defense, biotechnology and health care.

"The bilateral trade between India and Israel has gone up from 200 million to 1.5 billion in the last five years," he said. "But India and Israel have not explored [their] full trade potential still."

Earlier, Shalom visited a museum filled with memorabilia of Mohandas K. Gandhi, India's nonviolence leader who led the country to independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

"He was very much interested in how the nonviolence struggle worked and asked about how Gandhi's non-cooperation movement against the British was successful," said Dhirubhai Mehta, vice president of the Gandhi Trust.

"I am very happy to be here and to see the history of India. Leaders like Gandhi are always strengthening us," Shalom wrote in the visitors' book.

"India got its independence in almost the same year that Israel got it. That is one more reason why we feel so close to Gandhi."

Shalom was to meet Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha in New Delhi on Tuesday. Meetings with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Defense Minister George Fernandes are scheduled Wednesday.

On Sunday, a defense source that said Israel and India would sign a 1.1 billion deal for the sale of three Phalcon early warning aircraft systems in the coming month.

India wants to strengthen its defenses by acquiring the Phalcon systems, which can detect aerial threats and serve as a platform to direct combat planes to targets.

An agreement in principle for the Phalcon systems was signed in October. Last month Israeli, Russian and Indian officials completed the required diplomatic protocol for it to go through.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited India last September, the first such trip by an Israeli head of state. The two countries began diplomatic ties in 1992, in the wake of the Madrid conference which marked the start of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Posted by David Melle
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