From Jeffrey Blankfort:

OutlookIndia.com
May 19, 2003

Lost Tribes, Reunited

Brajesh Mishra gets tips from American Jews on how to win friends and
influence people--the right ones
By Seema Sirohi <seemasirohi@yahoo.com>

It was a pretty public enunciation, made in front of 1,200 dinner guests

of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), never mind the euphemisms from
National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra and subsequent caveats from
nervous Indian diplomats. Last week, India spoke out, leaving little
ambiguity in positioning itself besides Israel and the US in terms of
shared interests and common dangers. Short of using the term "alliance"
for the triangular bonding, Mishra proposed, offered and expounded on
just about everything to make the case—that the three countries must
fight terrorism together.

It was the context that lent his words their full import. His only
evening in Washington was spent addressing the annual dinner of the AJC,

one of the most influential Jewish bodies. What's more, Mishra was the
featured guest, with Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar, for an evening
that was themed 'A Tribute to US Allies'. And he came after a
"substantive" 20-minute meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office
centred around India's recent peace initiative.

But whether Mishra's trip to the US was thought up to accommodate the
dinner or the confluence was mere serendipity would be splitting hair.
The Indian embassy and AJC officials had been in touch since February to

find a big Indian guest for the evening. Mishra obliged and in one
splash painted a picture where India, Israel and the US walk into the
sunset together. All three democracies.

The AJC dinner is a significant event in Washington's political and
social calendar, the list of guests often extending to presidents and
prime ministers. Bush addressed it in 2001, giving the group "special
credit" for being a guiding light of foreign policy. Vaclav Havel, the
Czech philosopher king, has praised the AJC for helping to create "an
order of security and peace in Europe". Former secretary of state
Madeleine Albright almost hung a halo on the group when she said,
"Around the equator and from pole to pole you have done more than
preach; you have taught. The benefits of your teaching have spread like
manna upon the water." The edgy Indian representatives are in exalted
company.

Israel and the American Jewish community reciprocate, to a degree,
India's kindred aspirations. They see in India's predicament an echo of
Israel's: the picture of a lonely, modern lighthouse in a sea of
instability, Islamic radicalism, semi-democratic and fully autocratic
regimes is what fills out this shared territory. Moreover, India has no
history of anti-Semitism, nothing to hamper the "natural affinity" felt
by a people who have been hounded by history.

All this bonding has an urgent, practical utility too. For India,
influential Jewish groups can do some heavy-lifting with Washington's
bureaucracy, which hasn't embraced the Indian gestalt quite yet. New
Delhi has long envied the easy acceptance of Israeli interests as
America's own. The intellectual, methodical work by Jewish groups to
spread their wings across legislative and executive branches of the US
government is being eagerly emulated by Indian Americans.

Indian strategists hope to harness the budding Jewish goodwill so as to
penetrate the recesses of established thinking on South Asia from
another direction. It will require some deft footwork to reconcile this
proximity with New Delhi's historic support for the Palestinian cause.
For instance, by not abjuring its old line, and saying it is only
against US "double standards" on terrorism. But that is not much of a
damper.

The Jewish side is beginning to cotton up to this partnership. Says
Jason Isaacson, AJC's director of government and international affairs:
"In time you'll see an evolution in US government thinking. The threat
of terrorism is a strong point for the alliance.We have raised it at the

highest levels. We are doing our part to emphasise the common thread."
He feels there is now "an increased sensitivity from the time when
talking about Kashmir or India-Pakistan issues meant everything was
carefully balanced, spoonful by spoonful." In the public realm too, the
debate on India is better informed and has gone beyond official
Washington ambivalence.

The chumminess will grow when the AJC opens an office in New Delhi in
the next few months, though no date has been set. An Indian figure who's

been helping AJC liaise with key ministers in the NDA government will be

formally named the representative, Issacson said. Established in 1906,
the AJC today is an NGO with a $35 million annual budget, 33 regional
offices, 1,25,000 registered members and four international offices in
Jerusalem, Warsaw, Geneva and Berlin. It has consultative status with
the UN. It is a 'policy guru' of sorts in the spectrum of Jewish groups
that range from the hardcore political action committees to hardline
anti-Muslim outfits. A common objective is to keep American policy
squarely pro-Israel. Any deviation warrants swift retribution at the
polls.

It is this network that the bjp covets and would like the 1.8
million-strong Indian American community to replicate. "The bjp has
taken a special interest in cultivating us but it was the Congress that
established full diplomatic relations with Israel. I have been to India
seven times in the past eight years," Isaacson said. "This was the most
public acknowledgment of the relationship between India and Israel," he
added.

It seems India's coming-out party had been in the works for a year.
Mishra took the plunge—softening the impact only by not naming or
denouncing other countries. He recalled the prime minister had declared
India and the US "natural allies," that Bush had asserted the two
countries had common strategic interests. He noted that many Congressmen

present at the dinner were friends of Israel and that "they are also
friends of India". He announced to applause that India will "receive
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon soon on an official visit".

"India, the US and Israel have some fundamental similarities. We are all

democracies, sharing a vision of pluralism, tolerance and equal
opportunity. Stronger India-US relations and India-Israel relations have

a natural logic," Mishra offered, going on to say that as "the main
targets of international terrorism, democratic countries should form a
viable alliance against terrorism" that should have the "political will
and moral authority" to take action. From the existing anti-terrorism
coalition, "a core of democratic societies has to gradually emerge"
which can take the problem head-on, he said.

Clearly, the subtext was: certain partners in the war on terrorism with
dubious credentials may stay out. Hopefully his message was delivered to

the White House by Andrew Card, the chief of staff, who sat on the dais
listening carefully. The audience also had nearly 30 Congressmen,
several former US ambassadors, the current Chinese ambassador, Jewish
representatives from 46 countries, key lawyers and Wall Street deities.

Moving along new foreign policy avenues, Mishra covered considerable
ground in a short, well-crafted speech. He pleased his Jewish audience
when he said no distinction should be made between "freedom fighters"
and terrorists. It was a fallacy, he added, that terrorism can only be
eradicated by addressing its root causes. "This is nonsense. Terrorist
attacks against innocents have no justification." It was a googly
designed to please Israel and to remind the Bush administration to look
the problem square in its face vis-a-vis Kashmir.