On November 1, 2008, I delivered the Arvind Ghosh Memorial Lecture to
the Human Empowerment Convention in suburban Chicago. The address
was interrupted more than a half dozen times with applause and received
a standing ovation at its conclusion. The following are excerpts
from that address.
“Some
years back, my mother, wife, and daughter were sitting in a Jerusalem
restaurant enjoying a meal. Not many weeks later, a Palestinian
terrorist entered the restaurant and blew himself up, [and] I realized
that had my mother, my wife, and my daughter been there that day, the
murderers would have considered their deaths something glorious….
Anyone who could glory in the deaths of my mother, my wife, and my
daughter is an enemy so vile that…there can be no quarter, no negotiation, no compromise; and in the fight against it there can be no rest….
“Why is there any question
about the need to fight them unrelentingly and to destroy them
utterly….Our enemy’s expressed goals are to destroy our faiths, our
values, our ways of life….Fuzzy thinking about this can destroy us,
and…no matter [who] tries to convince us otherwise, [we] must remain
focused on what we have to do to defeat them….This enemy has a name,
and we need to use it: radical Islam. Not terrorism, which is only a tactic; or unspecified radicals, militants, or whatever politically correct word is in fashion but Islamist radicals….If
we are engaged in a war on ‘terror,’ we are [merely] reacting to a
tactic [and] not engaged in a comprehensive effort to defeat the
terrorists and those who send them. If our enemies are merely
“the extremists,” we have [abandoned] the search for any ideology…that
unites those extremists and motivates them. [That] dilutes our
struggle, weakens us, and strengthens our enemies…radical Islamists.
“An
alliance of Israel, India, and the United States…can [easily] dispose
of the terrorists and the national leaders that support them…Look at
what each nation has done by itself. Ever since its 1948 birth,
Israel has been bedeviled by nation-states and terrorist groups
determined to destroy it. It is the only nation on
earth that has never known a day of peace….Invaded by multiple Arab
militaries in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973…Israel beat them all back so
thoroughly, that they had to change tactics and send terror proxies to
do their work…. But the terrorists have failed, too. Suicide
bombings [and rocket strikes from Gaza] have been virtually
eliminated….In a 2007 conversation with an Israeli insider, I noted how
the number of terror attacks dropped significantly, even though the
terrorists keep trying….‘Let me tell you a secret,’ he whispered,
smiling. ‘We stop most of them in their beds.’ Israel has
survived; more than that, it has thrived to become one of the world’s
technological giants….
“India was born with an enemy dedicated to its destruction
on its northwest border. For the last ten years, Pakistan has
been a nuclear power. It has supported anti-Indian terror for
decades, and since 1996, the entire Muslim ummah in the form
of the Organization of Islamic Conferences and its members stand with
Pakistan in claiming Kashmir. India faces a steady stream of
terror attacks [and] a steady flow of Muslim infiltrators trying with
some success to change the demographic realities in East and West
Bengal. As I rode through villages near the Bangladesh and Nepal
borders…I was told how each one has gone from having a mixed
Hindu-Muslim population to an exclusively or almost exclusively Muslim
one.…Yet India, too, survives and is becoming one of the new century’s
economic giants….
“The United
States remains the world’s only superpower and its largest
economy…[Its] efforts in Iraq are succeeding. Terrorist actions
are down, calm is returning, and Iraqis are taking on ever more of
their national responsibilities. [It] has defeated an Islamist
onslaught…conducted with no regard for the safety of innocents or for
any international conventions. It has done so despite a worldwide
ideological crusade by leftists and elites to demonize the United
States and its anti-Islamist efforts. They have called it a war
for oil, a war for Israel, and a war against Islam….
“Radical Islam threatens every country and people on earth but targets
these three nations specifically for extinction….Yet, all three nations
are told to negotiate with the enemy; to make concessions; to
understand their grievances and our
sins….Never mind that Israelis were being blown up on public busses;
Palestinians said they were ‘humiliated’ by Israel’s security
checkpoints. So the world leaned on Israel, not the Arabs, to
engage in what they called confidence building measures [that is]
unilateral concessions [that only built] our enemy’s confidence in our
weakness....
“India is the
key. Israel and the United States have had a strategic
relationship at least since the 1960s. [India] did not even
recognize Israel until 1992 and was a staunch ally of the Soviet Union
during the Cold War.…But the collapse of the Soviet Union and growth of
the Islamist enemy changed international realities and caused most
nations to take a new look at their strategic interests….
“This
has caused something of a generation gap among members of the India’s
media and government. Many remain tied to the ideologies and
policies of the past, while much of the younger generation does
not….The [leftist] Congress Party recently broke with its communist
allies over the…nuclear cooperation deal with the United States [and]
West Bengal [Communists] suffered some reverses in local elections for
the first time in its thirty-year, iron-fisted rule of that
state….Earlier this year, I addressed a group of journalism students at
the University of Lucknow [about] Islamist ethnic cleansing of
Bangladeshi Hindus. [They] voiced their opinions about how the
Indian media has failed to identify the true nature of this
genocide-in-the-making [but also] avidly drank in any detail I could
provide about life in the Jewish state…and about the way Jews and
Hindus share so many values and sensibilities. More than anything
else, however, these journalists of tomorrow wanted to know how tiny
Israel was able to ‘defeat the terrorists and jihadis…so India can adopt these methods and defeat our terrorists like the Israelis did….’
“Members
of [the] mainstream media…were quite candid about the media's leftist
bias, corruption in the Congress government…and about the severity of
the Islamist threat….But because, they told me…they "would surely be
sacked" if their editors or colleagues heard those candid opinions, we
met in out of the way hotels, coffee shops, and other inconspicuous
places….
“In the United
States…the political correctness police see a potential offense in
virtually every comment that calls our enemy what it is. In
Israel, it is the misnomered peace camp; misnomered because the only
peace their policies would bring is the peace of the grave. In
India, it is pseudo-secularism, a policy that legislates Hinduism to a
second-class status….The recent budget included millions to fund Muslim religious pilgrimages but not a penny for Bangladeshi Hindus
living stateless and abused in refugee camps. Even in its final
days in office, Israel’s Kadima Party is looking to strike a deal that
would give up ancestral Jewish lands on West Bank, but also part of
Israel’s capital, Jerusalem [and] Hebron, where Judaism’s patriarchs
and matriarchs are buried….There had been a continuous Jewish presence
in Hebron from biblical times until 1929 [when] Muslims with help from
local authorities rioted and attacked the ancient Jewish
community. Those who were not murdered were expelled [and] today,
the descendants of the murderers have the gall to say the descendants
of the victims have no title to the land, and the world disdainfully
calls them ‘settlers.’ So, tell me, at what point does the
statute of limitation run on genocide….
“We
are also fighting what I have termed the Red-Green Alliance… of
Communists and Islamists…In 2004, Al Qaeda terrorists were on the run
from U.S. forces that dislodged them from their strongholds in
Afghanistan….Friendly [Pakistani] border guards got them safely… to
terrorist-controlled sections of Kashmir and into Nepal where they set
up terror bases….Nepal is overwhelmingly Hindu and hardly a likely
candidate to become the next Taliban state, but the Nepalese King had
seized dictatorial powers in response to a decades-long communist
revolt. That made for social chaos and uncontrolled borders that
allowed Islamists in the Pakistan Embassy to engineered an agreement
with the communists to provide Al Qaeda with safe haven.
“The
Islamists were…interested in the world's third-largest Muslim country
just down the road: Bangladesh [where] Islamists had infiltrated
virtually all of the country's social institutions and had been part of
the government since 2001. They were all set to make further gains in
the upcoming January 2007 elections [until] a military coup stopped
them—for the moment. [But] the Islamists remain in the area ready
to seize power when conditions allow it….The Maoists’…reward was a role
in Nepal’s coalition government, which gave them enough legitimacy to
masquerade as a political party and run in the next election [and
seize] power. [We see Red-Green] collusion between West Bengal
communist government and Bengali Islamists [in] ongoing attacks by
local and Bangladeshi Islamists that the government tolerates. I
recall one village where the local commissar got there before I did to
intimidate the refugees into silence. It appeared to be working
until one elderly woman stood up in the public square and said, ‘I’m
not afraid of anyone,’ and with the red official looking on, proceeded
to tell me about the continuing attacks. [Its] less violent side
is even more influential in blocking a US-India-Israel
alliance….Leftists sympathize with Islamist goals, demonize Israel, and
oppose anything the United States does….
“Wherever
I went in India, I heard, ‘There are no democracies between Jerusalem
and New Delhi.’ India and Israel…have been able to maintain their
democracy without military coups or contrived states of emergency,
without the suspension of rights or elections, despite pressure so
continuous that few nations would be able to withstand it. In our
tripartite alliance, we have the world’s oldest democracy, the United
States, the world’s largest democracy, India, and the only democracy in
the Middle East, Israel…. Each offers something the others do
not….India’s greatest enemy is Pakistan; at least for now, the United
States maintains extensive relations with it. Iran is Israel’s
nemesis (America’s, too); and India has a good relationship with that
country. America’s greatest rival, China (also a threat to
India), has some serious ties with Israel.
“In
the area of energy, competition for resources between India and the
United States helped drive up the price of oil. [They accounted]
for one third of the world’s oil consumption ….We appeared dependent on
OPEC while they seemed independent of us [until] recent US actions to
increase drilling, dip into its oil reserves, and conserve energy…drove
down the price of oil [and] sent OPEC into a panic. If
these two giant oil importers could unite in deliberate action to
collapse the price—then take advantage of some extremely exciting
Israeli advances in alternate energy technologies—the three could turn
defeat and dependence into victory….
“Both
the United States and India now have troops training in Israel,
studying anti-terrorism tactics, urban guerilla warfare, and other
tactics. In January, an Israeli spy satellite was fired into
orbit on the back of an Indian rocket; and…India is now the largest
importer of weaponry from Israel….Intelligence sharing has also grown
with time, and Israeli intelligence is particularly active in providing
India with good information to keep Pakistan in check….
“To
make an India-Israel-US alliance a reality….First, we have to commit
ourselves to doing what it takes to achieve this…As I have found in my
own human rights efforts, there is nothing that can stop a committed
individual who continues to impress upon leaders the moral nature of
his or her claims. Second…we have to organize…identifying people
who are willing to put together structures, raise funds, and do the leg
work needed to convince people in Washington, New Delhi, and Jerusalem
to further these ties. Third…we need to make this an issue that
[politicians] cannot ignore. Bring it to their attention; tie
donations to it; take out ads; get media time [and secure] cooperation
of lawmakers from [all] parties…When I toured the Hindu refugee camps
earlier this year, it was a member of the Congress Party who stood with
me [even though] many in his party opposed his decision but….It is no
different in the United States. The last protest letter I asked
be sent to the Bangladeshi government was signed by four Members of
Congress: Trent Franks of Arizona, a conservative Republican;
Mark Kirk of Illinois, a moderate Republican; Steve Rothman, a moderate
Democrat from New Jersey; and Allyson Schwartz, a liberal Democrat from
Philadelphia….And work to defeat those who reject the seriousness of
the existential threat that all three nations face. Do it as if
your life depended on it because it does.
“Fourth,
there are many ways to build a corps of supporters in the United States
Congress and Senate. Networks of like-minded individuals exist in
all three countries and all over the world….Fifth, find the ‘good guys’
in the media. Although we rightly complain about a media tendency
to avoid naming the threat and to downplay its seriousness, there are
many writers and outlets that are not like that. We need to
identify them and cultivate those relationships….
“Over
the past couple years, I have become more and more involved in trying
to protect the Bangladeshi Hindus from the genocidal efforts of Bengali
Islamists, the corruption of Bengali leaders, and the shameful inaction
by India, the United Nations, Amnesty International and the other
so-called human rights groups…Some 20 million Bangladeshi Hindus who
should be here are not….As a Jew, I am extremely sensitive about the
Nazi holocaust against my people. I have family who survived it
and family who did not. There is nothing in history that comes
close to it [but this situation is eerily familiar]….Contact me….Work
with me….Do not let this opportunity pass.” You can help me
return to India in March to fight for the Bangladeshi Hindus by
donating at
http://www.InterfaithStrength.com.
For the complete report, please visit www.bhbcuc-usa.org go to ‘Report’ section & click |
