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Pakistan is a bigger threat than Hezbollah: Shlomo Ben Ami
In a candid admission of churning that is taking place inside Israel, Dr Shlomo Ben Ami, foreign minister in Prime Minister Ehud Barak cabinet in 2000-2001, said Israel should not take on the burden of global war on terror waged by the United States and the West.Speaking at a meeting organised by a local think-tank he advised his country's leadership to separate its war against militant organisations Hamas and the Hezbollah and the global war on terror, headed by the United States and the West. Ben Ami was in India to apprise the Indian government and to take stock of bilateral issues. He advised Indian government to "understand the ground realties." He was of the opinion that the Indian parliament resolution condemning Israel's war against Lebanon will not affect bilateral issues. Israel is the second largest exporter of weapons and military equipment to India. Talking on 'Israel's two-front war: The current conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah' organized by the Observer Research Foundation, the former foreign minister said Israel should focus on fighting its two major challenges �Hamas and the Hezbollah. Even this is not an easy task, he said. Ben Ami, who was also Israel's chief negotiator at the Camp David Summit in 2000, said Israel should not be seen in the world as a US partner in the war against terror, as "it is beyond its capacity". "Nowadays, there is hardly any war between states. But wars between militant organisations and states are increasing," he pointed out. In what could be termed as a reality-check in post-Lebanon war Israel thinking, Ben Ami also disagreed with the policy of the Bush Administration in promoting democracies across the world. Preferring secular dictatorship to unstable Islamic democracy, he said democracy itself need not be the solution for problems. Instead, in many places, it created more problems. "Iraq is the best example of this. The former government was any day better than the so-called Shiite Republic," he said. He also mentioned, as a case in point, how the democratically-elected Hamas was working against peace in West Asia. He said Hamas was elected not because Palestinians did not want peace but as a protest against the corruption and inefficiency of the Yasser Arafat regime. Ben Ami, however, claimed that Israel achieved its purpose after the war in Lebanon -- deployment of an international force and application of the UN Resolution 1559 of 2004. But he felt that Lebanon would not be able to disarm the Hezbollah. Expectedly, he accused Iran of sponsoring, financing and training both Hamas and the Hezbollah. He said the threat of Hamas and the Hezbollah was smaller compared to the challenges posed by the "world-wide export of terrorism" by Pakistan. Posted by: john 2006-08-24 |
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