Continuing anguish over Mumbai

The Telegraph

By Lisa Hostein · December 3, 2008

In the aftermath of last week's terror attacks, an Indian journalist expresses empathy for Israeli losses in an essay in the Jerusalem Post.
This, in a way, is a shared experience, a shared tragedy, for India and Israel. Israel has suffered on account of Islamist terrorism for long. India has been bleeding since 1989. If we go back in history, we will find that the sword of Islam has been wielded with as much ferocity against Hindus as against Jews.
The Nariman House attack is no deterrent for Israeli backpackers, who flock to India and elsewhere.

There’s hardly any place left in this world which has not been dented by terrorism. The attack on the Jewish hub in Mumbai is very unfortunate and it has definitely affected me. But that doesn’t mean that one stops visiting India, or for that matter any other place in the world which has been a victim of terrorism, says one Israeli tourist.
Those who wreaked havoc in Mumbai were not thinking of Kashmir. They were brainwashed by an ideology of hatred, writes a columnist in the Times of London.

Kashmir is bad. Hindu communalism is bad.Poverty is bad. You can see the reasons for warfare in Kashmir, for riots in Hyderabad and for Maoist uprisings in the deep rural areas of India. But why kill the rabbi? Why invade the small headquarters of a small outreach sect of a small religion, which far from being even a big symbol of anything, you would almost certainly need a detailed map and inside knowledge even to find?

David Ignatius of the Washington Post asks: Could it happen here?
For Americans watching the carnage, the obvious question was: Could it happen here? U.S. officials say the answer, unfortunately, is yes. And then comes a second question: If America is hit with another Sept. 11-style terrorist assault, how should the country react?