Excessive Reliance on ‘Muscularity' is Likely to Cramp National Power

New Indian Express

9 hours ago

India, particularly under the present regime, has fetishized 'muscularity', and in this it has often focused on Israel as a model to emulate. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in the wake of the Baisaran massacre, echoed past Israeli proclamations, as he declared, 'India will identify, track, and punish every terrorist and their backers. We will pursue them to the ends of the earth.' Operation Sindoor, we are told moreover, is now the 'new normal', and every act of terrorism traced back to Pakistan will provoke comparable reaction. Actual Indian responses, of course, suggest that this is substantially rhetoric, unlikely to be backed with corresponding action. Nevertheless, there have been, in the relatively recent past, clumsy attempts at imitation that have borne dubious fruit.
Of course, Israeli actions against enemies have long had a dramatic impact, perhaps unmatched by any other nation. Most recently, the assassination of high-profile military, political and intellectual leaders in Iran, the earlier and coordinated 'pager and walkie-talkie explosions' targeting the leadership as well as the rank and file of the Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as an unending series of targeted assassinations and theatrical operations over 75 years of Mossad's extravagant history, are undeniable evidence of tactical brilliance and success. These successes do, however, obscure a significant history of botched operations and of strategic failure. In his book, Rise and Kill First, Ronen Bergmen argues that Israel's campaign of assassinations constitutes 'a long string of impressive tactical successes, but also disastrous strategic failures,' and further, that Israel paid a 'high moral price for the use of such power.' Within the context of a rising global Right, questions of morality are seen as increasingly irrelevant to the choice of violence to secure desired ends. But questions of morality are often intertwined with issues of efficacy. Crucially, 75 years of Mossad operations, as well as successive—and, in the past, immensely successful—wars, have failed to bring Palestinian terrorism to an end.