Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon in response to the Shiite Hezbollah organization’s abduction of two of its soldiers must have pleased the Nepalese Maoists.Maoist supremo Prachanda must be drawing a sense of vindication from the fact that the Middle East’s principal democracy considers it fit to attack civilians and development infrastructure of the enemy just because it has the temerity to seize two of its soldiers.
But there is a more pressing reason why the Maoists should be thankful to Israel. Without the severity of its attacks on Lebanon, how many of us would have known that Hezbollah has managed to become part of the Lebanese government while still operating its own armed forces?
Now if such a formula could be used to end the Lebanese civil war, why should it be a bad prescription for Nepal? Maybe Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai should let Messrs Badal, Pasang and Prabhakar et al take charge of the negotiations pertaining to the arms issue.
