New Delhi
2 January 2009
"India is faced with the choices which as a responsible government it has to take [post-26/11.] This is the choice, this is the situation that we find ourselves in these very days in Gaza," Mr Sofer said here in an exclusive interview to this newspaper.
He refused to draw parallels between the situation obtaining in the Indian sub-continent post-26/11 and the developments in West Asia, saying "no two situations anywhere in the world are identical". All he would say in response to a question about 26/11 was that it was "pure, utter, unadulterated terrorism" and that organisations such as Al Qaeda, Hamas and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) posed "a danger and a threat to us all".
Israel stood "unambiguously and completely behind India" in her struggle against
terrorism, he elaborated, without wanting to sound condescending or patronising.
The envoy maintained that the only way to fight terrorists was not to give in to them,
adding that Israel "gives no truck whatsoever to terrorists".
"Resolve is the order of the day. Once we start buckling under, once we start finding one
way or another to let it carry on in one form or another, we are all doomed. And this isn't
just Israel," he said.
Mr Sofer categorically ruled out a return to status quo ante in Gaza.
"Whatever happens now we will not go back to status quo ante in which we will have
about 20 per cent or so of our population under constant threat of murder by a fanatic,
racist killer organisation of the type that you have in Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. It's exactly the
same. Supported by Iran in our case," he said.
He said Israel tried its utmost but the restraint failed. "We tried everything we could but
there comes a time when enough is enough. There comes a time when clearly the
attempt at trying to stop the terror by peaceful means don't work and this time it arrived
when the Hamas refused and rejected utterly the renewal of the truce," he said defending
Israel's actions in Gaza.
He insisted that the Hamas was "responsible entirely" for the developments. "What did
they expect? That we would sit quietly by and continue just to be bombarded by shells
continuously until Kingdom come? We won't do that and no civilised country will do that.
We have a duty to defend our people," he said.
"We are not interested in as somebody said once, kicking the can down the street. This
is to throw the can into the waste paper bin. This is what we are doing right now and
nothing less than that must be achieved right now. It must be at least that," Mr Sofer
hastened to add.
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