Author: P. Jayaram (IANS)
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: November 30, 201
An Israeli parliamentarian has warned
about the possibility of terrorists gaining control of Pakistan's nuclear
arsenal and using it to "destroy three countries" -- India, Israel and
the US
"If there is a coup d'etat in Pakistan
and extremists and terrorists get hold of their nuclear weapons, they will
use them to destroy three countries -- you, us and the US" said Joseph
Lapid, member of an Israeli parliamentary team currently visiting India.
At a joint press conference by the
team, Lapid, a survivor of the Holocaust, said the September 11 attacks
had demonstrated what the terrorists were capable of.
"If you don't take terrorism seriously,
then it will be too late. Today, they are using only knives and planes,
tomorrow they will have chemical and nuclear weapons," he said.
The four-member team arrived here
after what team leader Amnon Rubinstein described as an "unforgettable
visit" to Kochi.
"We want to go back," he said, adding
that the visit to the historic synagogue there and the interaction with
the small, local Jewish community were memorable, just as a cruise in Kerala's
backwaters was "out of this world."
Many shopkeepers in Kochi's "Jew
Street" spoke to them in Hebrew and "we were very moved," he said.
The team is on a weeklong visit
to India at the invitation of Parliament to mark the 10th anniversary of
establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Responding to a series of questions
on Jammu and Kashmir, Nawaf Mazalha, an Arab and a former deputy speaker
of Knesset (Israeli Parliament), said it was not correct to compare the
violence in the state with the Palestinian agitation against Israel.
"Kashmir is an Indian state and
what is happening there is part of an attempt by somebody to split it.
In Israel, it is not the same problem. They (Palestinians) want independence;
we are saying they can't do it by terrorism," he said.
But it was evident that there were
differences in perception among the four members along party lines -- two
of them represented the ruling coalition and the others, opposition --
on the Palestinian issue, with Mazalha and Gideon Ezra, deputy minister
of public security, arguing over Tel Aviv's handling of it.
But the members were uniformly impressed
by the great strides being made in India-Israel relations in various spheres,
including defence.
"There is a total fusion of interests
between India and Israel because our two countries are so much similar
in so many respects" despite the differences in sizes, Lapid said.
While both countries had significant
Muslim minority populations, which are loyal to the state and moderate
in their view, some extremists with terrorist links were endangering the
unity of the countries, he said.
Rubenstein said relations between
the two countries were progressing by "leaps and bounds" and was confident
that the two-way trade that stood just under $1 billion last year would
cross the $2 billion mark by the end of the decade.