ISRAELI CONNECTION: SURPRISE AND SHAME

Sunday, January 02, 2011 Israeli Connection: Surprise And Shame Hameed Abdul Karim The news that Sri Lanka is to boost relations with Israel in the agricultural field comes as a surprise considering the treatment we have received from the Zionist state in the past. Way back in 1991 Commodore Douglas Ivan Attanayake told an inquiry the Israelis had tampered with the engines of the three Super Dvora boats the government had purchased thus preventing the boats from travelling at its rated speed. The Commodore said if the tampering had not been detected the engines would have seized and would have had to be thrown away. Initially Israel refused to entertain our complaint and it was through Lloyds that Israel agreed to replace the engines. Why did Israel tamper with the engines? In his lid blowing book By Way Of Deception, Victor Ostrovosky said the Israelis described our army personnel as monkeys. After a hard days work they were probably having fun at the expense of our boys. That they trained the LTTE whilst training our army personnel at the same time is no secret. India’s Subramaniam Swamy is on record boasting it was he who had introduced the LTTE to the Israeli Mossad. The Jain Commission probing the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi reported there were links between the LTTE and Israel’s spy agency Mossad. Evidence for this report was provided by RAW and IB.  On July 15, 1995 the Lanka Guardian edited by the legendary, fearless and irreplaceable Meryn Silva, reported ‘hard evidence of Israel supplying arms to the LTTE’ under the headline ‘Australian Police Confirm Israel Supplied Arms To The LTTE’. Add to this the fact that an Israeli arms shipment to the government was conveniently hijacked by the LTTE. In 1994 the Israelis abused Sri Lanka’s port rules when they were nabbed with four containers of chemicals they use to manufacture nerve gas. There was no apology. That’s how much they respect our sovereignty. In 2007 a Sri Lankan expert on defence died under mysterious circumstances while on a trip to Israel where he was to inspect arms and attend a workshop. Dr. D.A. Munindrasa’s family does not accept the cause of death, according to media reports. More recently the Israelis humiliated a government minister who had to travel via Tel Aviv to attend a Palestinian trade conference. He was refused the VIP lounge even though the Palestinians had paid for this facility. The Israelis even refused his diplomatic vehicle from entering occupied Palestine via the Allenby Bridge at which point he was compelled to take a taxi to reach his destination. But you can be sure when the Israeli agricultural minister arrives in Sri Lanka in January our reporters will go gaga over his visit. In fact four reporters from different newspapers in Sri Lanka are currently on an all expenses paid jaunt to Israel on the invitation of the racist regime.  This trip may be the result of the Israeli ambassador’s recent visit to prominent media organisations in Sri Lanka where he lectured journalists on the purity of the apartheid state fitting perfectly with Lord Acton’s description of ambassador’s lying abroad for their countries. It is often said Israel helped us defeat the LTTE. But this ‘help’ was actually trade in arms and ammunition and it didn’t come cheap. When our High Commissioner to Pakistan went to Gen. Yahya Khan to find out how much we owed the country for the arms and ammunition Pakistan supplied to fight an armed insurrection here, he said Pakistan doesn’t take money from friends when they are in trouble. Now that’s help! It is also possible the Israeli push to entrench themselves in Sri Lanka could be to act as an agent for the US which wants to counter China’s influence in Sri Lanka. The fact that we have to seek assistance from Israel in the field of agriculture comes as a shame. We have been an agrarian society for well over 2500 years and Jews have never been known for their prowess in agriculture. The Israelis’ claim to ‘making the desert bloom’ is an absolute myth. What they have done is steal the arable land from the Palestinians and cultivate it for themselves. The Palestinians were exporting jaffa oranges to France long before the establishment of Israel. If at all we really need help in agriculture we could always turn to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh – all SAARC countries. After all they grow enough food to feed their near 1.5 billion people. Or do we think it would be below our dignity to ask for help from our neighbours and instead go to those we have been trained to think are superior to us?