Israel has said it was 100 per cent behind India, which has been a victim of terrorism from Pakistan, and strongly pitched for "concerted and unified" international approach to deal with "Islamist" terrorism, maintaining that there cannot be any "ifs" or "buts" while dealing with the menace. Making it clear that Israel will "stand behind" India "all the way down the line", Israeli Ambassador to India, Mr Mark Sofer, said his country welcomes New Delhi's recent initiative of holding talks with Islamabad.
"Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism, period. Killing people at a train station, Chabad house or at Taj or Oberoi hotel is pure simple unadulterated terrorism and there are no ifs and there are no buts. There is no reason for it and it must not have happened," Sofer told PTI. He said the "attempts of negotiation going on now and beginning of discussions initiated by Indian side, we welcome that, of course we do that. We certainly believe that we will stand behind you all the way down the line" and ruled out any expectation of "quid-pro-quo" by his country from India. The Israeli envoy also made a strong pitch for "concerted, unified, international" approach to deal with "Islamist' terrorism, saying that these terrorist groups don't discriminate between Muslim or non-Muslim.
"So, it (terrorism) is not only a problem of Israel or India or Arab or non-Arabic world, it is a major issue which needs to be dealt with concerted, unified, international help and it is not a struggle which we have luxury of losing," he said.
"I mean, can you imagine if we lost to these extremist groups, if the bin Ladens of the world took over, where we would be. If the supporters of the prime evil medieval forces like Taliban with its backward, medieval, awful view of life, of women, of everything really...... It is not a struggle civilised world can afford to lose. So it needs international help," the envoy asserted.
He also said that the situation in South Asia and West Asia were different due to various factors, including some states having nuclear power.