The Price

What a great subject for a movie.But Indo-Pak slaves dare not make movies about Jews & Christains unless in lovey-dovey sops.They have mortgaged their behinds as an annuity in perpetuity(for generations to come)



TWO REMAINING JEWS IN KABUL-----AT EACH OTHERS` THROATS.

Last two have one enemy each

[ Mr Simantov, left, and Mr Levy cross paths without speaking in their home Photo: AFP]

By Francois-Xavier Harispe in Kabul

In the heart of town on Flower Street, in what was the Afghan capital`s synagogue, live the two remaining Jews of Kabul.

And they hate each other.

Isaac Levy, with a long white beard, says he is 60 but looks 75. Zabulon Simantov admits to 41 and only a few days ago shaved off a beard that was once de rigueur under the ousted Taliban regime.

The two men have been at each other`s throats for years, with quarrels so intense they sometimes had to be settled by Islamic courts.

Three years ago Zebulon joined Isaac in a compound on Flower Street in Kabul that had been built by the Jewish community in the 1960s.

It seemed like an ideal arrangement. The two men, both Afghan Jews from the western province of Herat, could help each other deal with the Taliban, which repressed religious and ethnic minorities and sided with the most fervent enemies of Israel.

It did not turn out that way. Both had their run-ins with the Taliban. But their biggest problems, they agree, were with each other.

Both Isaac and Zebulon said they spent time in jail under the Taliban - because of something the other had done. Each accused the other of theft, of falsely telling the Taliban that the other was an Israeli spy, and of spreading calumnies and rumors of immorality.

Today the last known members of Afghanistan`s once-thriving Jewish community do not speak to each other, except to exchange curses across a courtyard. Each maintains his own synagogue in the dilapidated compound, while accusing the other of abandoning the faith.

Their stories illustrate the hardships of belonging to a religious minority distrusted by a hostile Muslim movement that enforced strict codes of dress and behaviour, destroyed ancient Buddha statues to prevent the worship of ``idols`` and banned movies, television and music in the name of Islam.

But on a more personal level, the two men`s accounts also seem to manifest the sad truth of the French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre`s renowned dictum: ``Hell is other people.``

``My trouble was because of this person,`` Isaac said, referring to Zebulon. ``I have good relations with my Muslim neighbours. My enemy is this person.``

Zebulon said: ``I had no problem with the Taliban, aside from Isaac.``

The squabble, it appears, started over a Torah, an old handwritten edition of the Jewish holy book, that was particularly prized. Each claimed ownership and accused the other of stealing it.

As a result, the Taliban police confiscated the Torah and hauled both men off to jail. After that, the dispute grew even more bitter.

Zabulon lives alone; his wife and two daughters, aged eight and seven, left for Israel six years ago.

Isaac has lived in Kabul for 26 years and his family is from Herat. He shows off the synagogue for which he has the key.

The synagogue was built in 1964. Fifteen years later all the Jews had left.

Re: Romair #290

``...After the pipeline, Gwadar will be the party town of Asia...``

While you enjoy your life in the USA, please do not crack jokes at the expense of the poor people of Pakistan. For a dose of reality, check out these pictures of environmental devastation of a city less than 200 miles from Gwadar

http://villagevoice.com/issues/0148/kamberphotos.php

We must all, Indian and Pakistanis, applaud the courageous and principled action of Benazir Bhutto in visiting New Delhi. She has built bridges with various Indian leaders from Advani Sahab to Farooq Abdullah Sahab, Sonia-ji, reached out to the Indian masses through the media, recognized that foreign militants in Kashmir are terrorists, and has had productive discussions with Khalili.

This bold statesmenship is what is needed to establish peace in South Asia. Imagine a democratic Pakistan headed by Harvard educated Benazir negotiationg with India at Agra...how different the results would have been. Perhaps Kashmir dispute would be history.

No leader in India and Pakistan is courageous enough to accept that both Indian and Pakistanis overwhelmingly favor the LOC as an international border. It is only Benazir who can break the stalemate by proposing something like that. In fact it is rumored that she was able to calm the nerves of even that most vehement anti Pakistani leader..Farooq Abdullah,the man who is pushing for military action by India in Kashmir (a sure recipe for war).

We Indians hope that Benazir comes back to power after the Dictator steps down as he has promised.

May God Bless Her for the bold and vigorous move of coming to Delhi.

Dr. Ali Akbar Poonawala

Doctors for the Poor

Jammu, India.

Regarding:Wadera

It is exactly this kind of arrogant unfeeling callousness that has led Pakistan to where it is. The hope that Pakistan represented in 1947 is now in tatters.

To laugh and joke at the plight of innocent victims of terrorism betrays an utterly immoral character.

Obviously, growing up in Pakistan, a country where murder is rife, has led you to regard human life as cheap and expendable.

Perhaps if you had spent time in Kashmir as I have, you would understand that human lives are being ruined by the Power Politics of Pakistan and India.

The United States must take action against the Pakistan backed Al Qaeeda operatives functioing in the Valley. My organization`s US Headqquarters has already been assured by informed sources in Capitol Hill, that Musharrar has agreed to rein in the terrorists in Kashmir. The Quid Pro Quo from India is that it will provide Musharraf ample time to do so and will not pursue the policy of hot pursuit. No less an Indian journalist than AllahRakha Khan also told me this.

So Mr Wadera, your humorous post betrays your utter lack of humanity.

Ali Akbar Poonawala

Dead lie crushed or shot, in the dust, in ditches, amid the willows

Uzbek warlord and western forces deliver a hellish martyrdom to Taliban who courted death

Luke Harding in Mazar-i-Sharif

Thursday November 29, 2001

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0%2C3604%2C608657%2C00.html

There can be few episodes in Afghanistan`s history where so many people have died such a futile death. The first Taliban body lay sprawled in a ditch next to the front gateway of the 19th century fort yesterday. After a short walk through an avenue of splintered pines and outbuildings full of bullet holes, there were more bodies.

The blackened and shot-up remains of mini-vans and a Red Cross vehicle sat in the gravel car park. Around a corner, it got worse. In the main courtyard of the small citadel that served as a prison for Taliban fighters - who decided to stage an insurrection on Sunday that turned into their last stand - some 40 foreign volunteers lay dead in the dust.

Few of the castle`s soldiers showed much pity for their dead Taliban adversaries, about 400 of whom had been taken to the fort on the muddy outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces in Kunduz at the weekend.

I watched as one soldier gingerly eased the trainers off a Taliban corpse; by early afternoon there were few pairs of shoes left. Other soldiers looted the armoury and helped themselves to dozens of second world war rifles.

``We don`t think the Pakistanis should have come here. We would be delighted if America dropped its bombs on Pakistan next,`` Anamraj, a plainclothes policeman said, wandering among the ruins beneath the high mud battlements.

``If we had allowed the Taliban to surrender they would simply have started fighting again. We had no alternative but to kill them.``

Several had their hands tied behind the back. They had been shot before they had been able to take cover. Why, I wondered, had they had been executed?

``Many of them were concealing grenades. They could explode them and kill us,`` one soldier said. ``We are sorry that they were killed, because they were Muslims. But you also have to remember that they were terrorists.``

In the stable area, fires still smouldered. The bodies of 20 grinning horses lay bloating in the dirt. One had survived; it rolled on the ground, its leg broken.

Against a wall, fin-tailed rockets had been piled neatly. Next to the shattered remains of what was once the kitchen, a rocket lay mounted on a tripod. It was here, hidden among sylvan avenues of pine, that the Taliban prisoners had made their final stand.

There were few clues as to why the foreign volunteers who rioted in the Qala-i- Jhangi citadel on Sunday had refused to give up. But fluttering amid the pinecones and the bombed-out remains of a house where the Taliban had been sheltering in the compound, were several Koranic primers written in Arabic.

They offered advice on how to pray; how to behave in the mosque; and the promise of a better life in eternity. In short, they offered certainty. ``Trust in Islam and there will be life after death,`` one encouraging verse read. It was clear enough that the Taliban volunteers had been alternately reading the Koran and lobbing mortars at the enemies who surrounded and finally engulfed them.

The uprising was apparently provoked by the sight of two CIA agents who entered the compound to look for al-Qaida men, the core loyalists of Osama bin Laden. The CIA have been liaising closely with the local Uzbek strongman, General Rashid Dostam, over the treatment of prisoners, but its two operatives had apparently failed on entering the fort to observe the first rule of espionage: keep a low profile.

The fighters had wanted martyrdom; and after a barbarous four-day battle almost all of them had got it. Everything seemed to be over yesterday morning. But, incredibly, two Taliban turned out still to be alive at 9am.

The pair, almost certainly Pakistanis, had hidden in the deep basement of a military classroom. When a government soldier peered down the stairs early yesterday, they shot him in the hand.

``They are hungry and they are thirsty. But they are still fighting,`` one solider, Mohammad Asif, confirmed. ``We listened and they were speaking to each other in Urdu. We couldn`t understand what they were saying.`` He added: ``They are speaking right now. We are trying to kill them.``

Over the next three hours, I watched from the battlements as government troops came up with increasingly inge nious strategies to finish the pair off. They poured oil into the building and set light to it. They rolled grenades down the stairs. They fired shots every few minutes: as a reminder, just in case they had forgotten, that death was very near indeed.

Finally at 12.30pm a genial commander, Din Mohammed, manoeuvred a 6ft rocket into a drainage chute that led directly to the subterranean hideout. The rocket fizzed orange. Then it exploded, sending a furious back-blast of dust into the trees. There was a tomb-like silence.

``We are certain that they are dead. But we will explode a few more rockets just to be sure,`` Din Mohammed said.

Beyond the gazebo, next to where the Taliban had set up a makeshift mortar factory, were the corpses of several well-off Arab volunteers.

Unlike their Pakistani counterparts, dressed in flimsy salwar kameezes, the Arabs wore expensive fleece jackets and trousers. One Talib corpse sported a San Francisco 49ers football sweatshirt; another a zip-up Dolce &Gabbana top.

Osama bin Laden`s fighters may have rejected the west`s relativist ideology, but not its fashions. Concealed under their outer garments, however, many of the dead Taliban fighters were wearing combat fatigues. After a few hours it was hard to take it all in.

The dead turned up everywhere: in dense thickets of willows and autumnal poplars; in waterlogged ditches; and in storage rooms piled with ammunition boxes. Some had been crushed by tanks; others, covered in dust - with their hands flung up as if in astonishment. It was a death scene that Dante or Bosch might have conjured up.

Sitting on the balcony of his wrecked headquarters, Gen Dostam yesterday said he had lost 40 men in the battle, including three of his top commanders. Another 200 had been wounded. ``I`m very upset that my commanders had been killed,`` he said. ``They all had children and families.``

``We tried to treat the Taliban humanely. We gave them a chance to wash and to pray. But they attacked us. We could have tied their hands and legs but we didn`t,`` he lamented.

The Taliban commander who had brokered the foreign fighters` surrender from Kunduz, MullahFaizal, turned up yesterday to survey the damage. It is still not clear whether he had tricked the men into surrendering, or whether they had genuinely wanted to give up their weapons, only later to change their minds.

As Red Cross workers armed with masks and stretchers began carrying off the dead, it became clear that perhaps fewer Taliban had died than was previously assumed. The Red Cross yesterday cleared away 118 bodies, rolling them into a tractor-pulled cart before dumping them in a mass grave. Many others have yet to be dug out of buildings pulverised by American missiles.

But the body count seems lower than the 400 prisoners who arrived at the Qala-i-Jhangi last Saturday afternoon. In the confusion that broke out after several prisoners overpowered their guards and grabbed their weapons, several Taliban volunteers may have slithered down the castle`s precipitous outer walls and escaped across the fields.

There was no sign yesterday of the British SAS and American Special Forces, for whom this operation can scarcely be counted a triumph. Before the revolt began, the theory was that all the prisoners would be treated according to international law.

Instead there was an avalanche of death from the sky. Walking away from the compound, the smell of death mixed with dust hung in the air. The minah birds were swooping among the pine trees. I washed my hands with a bottle of water, but the smell lingered.

Romair:

Arrey if people like UrsTruly constitute the religious extreme, then even 5% is of them is 5% too much. Because, either the 5% will survive or the 95%. You cannot co-exist with them.

Re: Urstruly #313

``... The constitutional amendment in the 1975/76 declaring Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority and thus protecting their rights as such is another milestone...``

That is a very imaginative interpretation -- I wonder if the Ahmediyas will agree with you in declaring that their `rights were protected`?

Your point on `mainstream non-religious` parties is well taken, though. They are not really non-religious in the Western, secular sense. When NS tried to pass the Shariat Bill, could anyone say that his party was non-religious? Also, what is the point in having `non-religious` parties fight each other to form a government when the state itself is religious? Either you are, or you are not. Or does being religious come in varying degrees?

Re: Romair #303

``...The harder these countries attempted to ban religious parties, the more popular these parties became...``

True. I agree with you. However, something is amiss. Why is it that of the 500+ suspects arrested in the US after 9/11, the largest contingent by a long shot (208 to be exact) are Pakistanis? Egyptians are a distant 2nd with only 74.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/international/asia/29MAZA.html

Pakistanis should be ashamed of themselves. Anybody who condones their youth being used as cannon fodder by religious bigots should rot in hell.

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2nd attempt:

Did anyone notice the Reuters wirestory today?

``U.S. Plans `Unprecedented` Military Ties with India``

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command said on Thursday Washington was seeking to raise military cooperation with India, a former Soviet Cold War ally, to ``unprecedented`` levels.

Spelling out for the first time the possible scope of the new ties, Admiral Dennis Blair said they could include such areas as combined special operations, joint military training, small unit ground and air exercises and navy personnel exchanges. END OF QUOTE

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011129/ts/india_us_exercises_dc_1.html

I wonder what`s in it for India? Washington may dangle military hardware sales, but that appears to be a small reward for any shifts in India`s traditional non-aligned stand. Does India really need any military support from Washington? What it needs is politico-diplomatic support, more than the military hardware.

JEHOVAHS WITNESS REFUSE TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM OF HINDIAN

National anthem row takes new turn

K S Dakshina Murthy

(Bangalore, November 28)

The controversy over the refusal of three students to sing the national anthem at a school in Madikeri, Karnataka, has taken a new turn. They refused to accept a show-cause notice from the school authorities. The local Bajrang Dal and BJP Krishi Morcha have organised a rally on November 30 to protest the refusal of the students to sing the anthem. They have threatened to go on a hunger strike from December 3 if the three students are not expelled. The management of Blossom High School, Madikeri, issued a notice to the students last week giving them three days time to explain why they refused to sing the national anthem. School secretary H.M. Annappa told the Hindustan Times that one more attempt would be made to serve the notice, failing which it would be pasted on the doors of their houses. Jitin, Nitin and Raja, studying in the 8th, 9th and 10th standards, refused to sing the anthem saying they belong to Jehovah Witnesses, a worldwide sect that shuns religion, politics and nationalism and believes only in the Almighty`s supremacy. Parents of the three students completely supported their stance provoking the English-medium school to issue a show-cause notice. Pending a `satisfactory` reply, the students have been suspended. The district administration and the State government have expressed inability to intervene as no one is clear what action should be taken against the `errant` students. Last week, the Supreme Court`s Constitution Bench refused to give an opinion on whether singing of the

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Romair # 303

I think this is a week of logical fallacies and misconceptions. Despite the fact that you have inferred wrong conclusions from wrong examples/indicators I agree with the sum total of your post. I agree with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th paragraph (excluding excerpt from my post). Usually I am very appreciative of your logical analyses but recently you have changed your normal course and started believing and creating myths. Unfortunately these myths are not only self serving but self beguiling as well. I am referring to your 1%-strength-of-religious-party myth. Lets examine it:

First of all, the strength of religious parties, in elected bodies is not 1%. Historically, it has been around 5-6% in national assembly, 9-12% in provincial assemblies, and around 3-5% in Senate. (These numbers are from memory, from an analysis I read after one of the elections; these numbers are verifiable though). Even with these %ages their strength does not seem to be very impressive. So if we want to go into more depth of this subject we will have to analyze the way they run in the elections. There are two ways they (religious parties) run in elections:

1. Direct candidates
2. Alliance with one of the mainstream
parties, PPP or ML ANP etc.

Although the number of their direct candidates is also small yet the success rate is phenomenal as compared to the mainstream parties. The directly ticketed candidates usually win at the rate of 85-90% when they compete against non-religious mainstream parties. As compared to them the success rate of the candidates of non-religious parties hangs somewhere between 55-65% if you analyze the composition of the seats in elected bodies.

The second factor i.e. when they run their candidates by making alliance with other political parties or independent candidates, they have always been successful in this strategy as well. They have proven themselves to be a formidable pressure group. In some constituencies the mainstream political parties desperately seek to make an alliance with them.
With the combination of above two factors they get a status of a unique pressure group, which may effect the policies of the governments of any political party. This proves the point that they are small yet strong and so strong that they cannot be ignored or sidelined.

Now we analyze why they are small. For this you have to understand the sectarian demography of the country. The first divide is the Shia and Sunni ethnicity. Shias who constitute about 30-38% of the population usually side with PPP but their geographical dispersion has prevented them from becoming a pressure group as strong as their sunni counterparts yet they cannot be ignored. On the other hand there is a main fault line between the sunni group which is the divide between Deobandi/ Wahabi/jamaati vs. Brelvi. But usually these two groups are not in direct competition with each other. Deobandi/Wahabi/jammati group is usually constituted of urban middle class whereas Brelivi group has their power base in rural and urban lower middle class.

Usually in the matter of national interest the religious parties have historically been able to overcome this sectarian divide. This breaks several myths; One being that the religious parties will never agree on one thing. And second myth being that they resort to violence to get the things their way. Lets see:

The first such milestone is the passing of the Objective Resolution through a DEMOCRATIC process, which defines the very meaning of the nation state of Pakistan. It has formed the basis of all our future constitutions and later it was added as a preamble to our constitution. If you look at the list of Ulema who participated in its formulation under the leadership of Allama Shabir Ahmad Usmani you will see that they belong to all sects. Another defining milestone is when constitution of 1973 was made and the sovereignty of state was submitted to the sovereignty of Allah thus giving the state and constitution its Islamic character. The constitutional amendment in the 1975/76 declaring Ahmadis a non-Muslim minority and thus protecting their rights as such is another milestone; most of the Islamization i.e the jurisprudence part of it was done in Jonejo`s time when parliament was an elected body on non-party basis-it has more to do with Zia`s policies of self-preservation than the wishes of religious parties who opposed non-party elections-yet they took part in ground breaking work in establishing ground work for Islamic law and jurisprudence through a democratic process. The passing of Shariat Bill through the national assembly by an absolute majority was another milestone-done through a democratic process. As compared to these accomplishments which were done by a democratic process the religious parties did resort to violence for an insignificant number of times, one such occasion being when Blasphemy Laws were enacted, but reason for such violence was an external factor (Rushdie) rather than internal.
Now we come to the current crises. First we analyze the violent protests. The first question that comes to mind is how do you distinguish between the composition of the protestors. Did they show their party cards before entering into the protests? Or did you judge them by their beards? But again most of the footage that was shown on TV and where the protests got violent were mostly the areas near or in tribal belt in NWFP and Baluchistan where 80% of the male population keep beards anyway. No footage has been shown in the 100s of peaceful protests throughout Punjab and Sindh in all small and big towns. So it is self-beguiling for Mr. Musharraf and you to give or get an impression that since not all protests turned violent and since protestors were not able to shake the government, it has something to do with great statesmanship of General Musharaf. Do not forget that Pakistan almost lost its Northern Areas when tribesmen seized control of the Korakuram highway. Do you really think that tribesmen let go of that seizure because of the great statesmanship of General or because they like general very much ? think again. They only let go of the highway because Taliban told them that it wasn’t necessary. Know it, that the hate for America`s war of vengeance in Afghanistan and their complete defiance of all International Laws and United Nations, is absolute in the heart and mind of each and every Pakistani. Know it, that each and every Paksitani despises the fact how US bullied, threatened, and coerced Pakistan into this war. The reason that Pakistanis did not come out of their homes to protest in a way that could have shaken Musharaf`s government was not because they had suddenly fallen in love with Musharaff or Americans but because of:

1. The psychotic somersaults of Indians (and Isrealis) when they tried to implicate Pakistan in the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

2. They (people of Pakistan) did not expect any justice, fairness or reason from US to take this case objectively with them.

3. Absolute power of Martial Law.

In all respects it was an instinctive reaction for self-preservation and self-defense and not the great statesmanship and love of our General or because US was fighting a just or moral war.
Now when the war in Afghanistan is almost over it brings forth new questions. Either General is going to go ahead with the American mandated phase II of this war and crush religious parties or dissent with one pretext or other or he will try to form an alliance with the most formidable pressure group that cannot be ignored, cannot be crushed, and cannot be sidelined, to save his Presidency. Tough choices.