Relayed to the world by Steven Plaut
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
My heartfelt sympathies to you and the Indian people for the Bombay/Mumbai
unrest and protests against occupation this week.
But we must really speak about how to deal with these forms of activism in
India, perpetrated by these misunderstood Islamic militants. Mister Prime Minister, I have a great deal of experience in dealing
successfully with terrorism and violence, and this is why I wish to come
to your rescue.
The first thing you must realize is that one can only make peace with
one's enemies. With one's friends there is no need to make peace. There
is no military solution to the problems of terrorism, and this is why you
must seek a diplomatic solution. "No Justice, No Peace?" as they say. You
must invite the leaders of this Islamic organization responsible for the
bloodshed in Mumbai to New Delhi to meet with you and perhaps tour the Taj
Mahal together. You must learn to feel their pain and understand their
needs.
But most importantly, you must end the illegal occupation of territory
that does not belong to you! First, you must withdraw from Kashmir and
Jammu and remove all the Hindu settlers there. But that is just a
beginning. Large sections of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Gujarat and Hyderabad contain local Moslem majorities. Lakshadweep
is 95% Moslem. You cannot continue to coerce these people into living as
demographic minorities. The solution is to create two states for two
peoples, inside India itself. Indian Moslems are entitled to
self-determination and national sovereignty!
You must bear in mind that India was conquered by the Moghuls and that
makes all of India the homeland of Moslems. The fact that India was
partitioned with Pakistan and Bengladesh granted independence does not
solve anything. What about the right of return for Punjabi Moslem
refugees and other Moslems? These demand that they be allowed to exercise
their sovereign rights inside India in the lands of their forefathers and
have their one-time homes restored to them!
Then there is the matter of the status of New Delhi. It was a Moslem city
for centuries, and served as the Moghul capital. Your selfish insistence
that New Delhi remain Indian is racist. You must end the apartheid regime
inside Delhi and turn it into the shared capital of two states, or maybe
three. I have no doubt Pakistan will applaud your efforts.
You must meet all the demands of the militants in Mumbai in full. In
addition, you must offer them Internet web services and five-star tourist
hotels in exchange for their promising to abandon violence. After all,
that is how we turned Yasser Arafat into a peace partner. You see,
military force serves no role any more in the post-modern universe. It is
passe. It is archaic. Today, consumer interests dominate the world, and
the Islamist activists of the earth will surely make peace in exchange for
some profits from participating in global trade.
The attacks on Mumbai came because you have been insufficiently sensitive
to the needs of the Moslem Other. You took their rhetoric at face value,
whereas we in Israel know that all this rhetoric is empty and in fact
these people truly want peace. Sure, they praise Hitler and celebrate
genocidal atrocities, but what is it that they really want?
You must negotiate with them even while under attack. Conditioning
negotiations on an end to violence is a no-win situation. It will simply
extend the bloodshed! You must put your own house in order, and eliminate
inequality and injustice inside India, and then the terrorists will no
longer target you.
The key is to build a New Middle Asia, one in which everyone is so busy
with the important matters of developing tourism, infrastructure
investments and high-technology that they will have no time to pursue
violence.
Moreover, if you strike at the perpetrators of the Mumbai protests and
their supporters, you will simply expand and enlarge the cycle of
violence. Your retaliation bombs will no doubt injure some innocent
children and civilians alongside any terrorist activists you strike. That
will enrage the rest of the world and make the victims seek revenge. Your
violence against these militants and activists will cause them to hate the
Hindus and it will drive the separatists to embrace terrorism. Moreover,
if you refuse to negotiate with the Moslem separatists, then their leaders
will be toppled and a really violent extremist group will take charge. In
that case, you will have lost the window of opportunity to make peace.
Begin by declaring a unilateral ceasefire! Mister Prime Minister, blessed
is the peacemaker. Remember Mahatma Gandhi (but not Rehavam "Gandhi"
Zeevi). The entire world will support you and congratulate you if you
respond to these horrific attacks by disarming India and opening serious
dialogue with the terror activists.
All we are saying is give peace a chance. Yitzhak Rabin would have
approved. Yes, chaver, what you need is shalom, salaam, peace. You will be
awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition. Do not allow yourself to be
drawn down into the gutter of retaliation. Violence never achieves
anything. History has no lessons. History is the dead past.
Follow my example! Provide the Bombay bombers with anti-aircraft and
anti-tank missiles so that they can battle against the true radicals and
extremists. And they will do so with no ACLU or Supreme Court to restrain
them!
Demonstrate your humanity by paying pensions to any widows and orphans of
the terrorists who blew up the hotels.
Mister Prime Minister, my own peace policies have eliminated war,
bloodshed and terror from the Middle East. We now have only peace
partners. If you follow in my footsteps, you can achieve the same lofty
goals.
Peacefully yours,
Shimon Peres, Peacemaker-at-Large
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