From: Feroze Mithiborwala <feroze.moses777@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 3:54 PM
Subject: 40,000 Israeli's in India & counting - proportional to rising terror in India.
Shlomo Breznitz, a director of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group in Israel, says: ``India is about to become one of Israel's biggest trading partners. `And we have 40,000 of us down there who have no idea when or if they will come back. Their attitude has already fuelled very real anti-Israeli elements within the Indian government. `India has the world's second-largest Muslim population. it's not a question of if something might happen, but when it will happen. I read the security reports.''
From: Eddie <gdigest@btinternet.com>
Date: 22 July 2011 23:00
Subject: Could Israeli-Americans be behind the Mumbai blasts?
To: bharat-chintan@googlegroups.com
Cc: Feroze Mithiborwala <feroze.moses777@gmail.com>
1. What began in 1994 as the great post-military escape to India has turned into a new-age Diaspora of young and embittered men and women looking to flee their country's armed turmoil with the Palestinians and the spiritual emptiness of Judaism.
Many of the revellers on the sands of Anjuna Beach and elsewhere along what's known as the Karma Kosher Trail say they have no intention of returning to Israel, despite the efforts of four local rabbis and a $200,000 joint government-private sector campaign funded by Israeli banking and telecommunications magnate Nochi Dankner, chairman of IDB Holding Corp.
2.
``Our souls need a permanent break from Israel,'' says army veteran Tomel Basel, 24, who has bought a Hindu swastika trinket. ```There's nothing for us back in Israel. We're all runaways,'' Basel says before filling his lungs with drugged smoke on the squalor of Anjuna Beach. Draped in garlands strung with jasmine blossoms, the pulsating Israelis are freshly decommissioned from the military and seeking a cheap retreat to unwind from their obligatory two- to-three years of safeguarding the Jewish state. The conscripts find sanctuary in the thousands of dilapidated wicker seaside shacks and dozens of isolated jungle ghettos that weave along a 78-mile coast and snake up treacherous dirt tracks into the impoverished mountain villages of Goa.
3. Leanna Peled-Rosen, 27, abandoning a promising military career decided to travel to India. aware of the growing economic ties between Israel and India in telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, construction, real estate and military hardware. ``Those who have been forced to return from Goa because they've run out of money are vocal critics of the political and religious status quo. We won't back down.''
4. Shlomo Breznitz, a director of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group in Israel, says: ``India is about to become one of Israel's biggest trading partners. `And we have 40,000 of us down there who have no idea when or if they will come back. Their attitude has already fuelled very real anti-Israeli elements within the Indian government. `India has the world's second-largest Muslim population. it's not a question of if something might happen, but when it will happen. I read the security reports.''
PART 2
What about visas? Lapsed Israelis say it often requires skirting Indian visas, residency permits and making side trips to ``friendly'' Indian consulates in Beijing and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Some fly to Sri Lanka and jump a boat for the short ride across Pamban Channel, blending in among locals who are mostly exempt from Indian immigration checks.
``It's easy to pull off,'' says Anjuna Christian, a 66- year-old Frenchman who renamed himself after the beach he has lived on since moving here in 1977. ``The Israelis are Goa's next generational wave. They're coming no matter who likes it or not.''
Those who manage to secure a legitimate visa from the Indian Consulate in Tel Aviv pay $629 for a round trip that begins with a rickety bus ride to Amman and a Gulf Air flight to Bahrain and Mumbai. From there it's a sweltering and crowded nine-hour train ride to Panaji, Goa's capital.
The cost of deliverance is initially underwritten by the Israeli Defense Force. Combat veterans leave the army with a maximum cash bonus of $2,100. Combat support staff walk away with $1,800. Everyone else pockets $1,452. Breznitz's apprehension can be heard during conversations on the porch of a crumbling stone villa in Anjuna. It's from this old Portuguese house where Rabbi Meir Alfasi, 22 and an envoy of the powerful Brooklyn-based Hassidic group Chabad- Lubavitch, cheerfully spends his days tending two goats, three chickens and riding a motor scooter equipped with walkie-talkies around Goa, trying to bring Jews back to Judaism.
What do they think of India?
``India is the lowest place on Earth, an impure place in the middle of idolatry. Lots of idols and lots of Jews looking to be assimilated in the local culture. Our mission is to prevent that from happening.'' The Chabad outpost includes a kosher kitchen and a room for a synagogue that holds Goa's only Torah; it opened its doors in 2000. A dozen Jews for Saturday service is considered a good crowd. The chocolate cake is delightful. ``It's a big draw,'' Alfasi smiles.
Alfasi says Israelis generally remain in India for five to 10 years, adding that the Indian government is now quietly trying to help him reduce that time by limiting the number of visas it issues to Israelis and the period they can legally remain in the country. ``It will be hard for them to find us here, Meir,'' says Yomtov Yoni, 23, an air-conditioner repairman and Israeli air force fireman whom Alfasi is trying to bring back into the fold. Says Yoni: ``India is huge. `Israel is the size of Anjuna Beach. We are free here, Meir.''
Does the Indian government care about the abuse of visa laws?
Between 1992 and 2006, trade between Israel and India grew to $2.7 billion from $200 million and is poised to top $3 billion annually.
Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said; "Forty thousand over-enthusiastic Israelis in India are not going to get in the way of more than $3 billion of bilateral trade,''. ``And there's enormous scope for increasing that trade.''
``I'm not concerned about the drug use,'' says Indian Industry Minister Nath. ``The presence of Muslims in India is also not a concern. India is not just the world's biggest democracy, it's the world's rowdiest democracy.''
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Well, Feroze, that's the typical attitude of a high Indian official – proclaiming his laxity about European abuse of Indian laws.
Eddie
--
Feroze Mithiborwala
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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