New rules of retaliation

ISRAEL'S PRECISION STRIKES AGAINST IRAN'S MILITARY AND NUCLEAR ELITE ARE REDRAWING GLOBAL RED LINES — SETTING NEW BENCHMARKS IN COUNTER-TERROR OPERATIONS AND OFFERING STRATEGIC LESSONS FOR INDIA

- STANLEY THEODORE

As the dust settles in West Asia following Operation Sindoor, which has left the ruling dispensation glowing, the point now is: what have those 12 days made the Indians think about our nation's ability to deal with the enemy?

Two things were clear: First Israel, the moment it sounded the war gong, went about blotting out the top brass of the Iranian military establishment. What they achieved at that crucial moment in the war was to deprive Iran of its decision-making leadership.

Second, the issue revolves around Iran being on the verge of acquiring a nuclear bomb. After taking out top nuclear scientists in aerial strikes, they went further, targeting and eliminating anyone with the potential to replace those killed, including through car bombings aimed at those rising higher in the hierarchy.

At this point, the issue of Israel having an ally with the US heft is not dominating Indians' minds. Yet, it ought not to be forgotten that Israel is more willing to break bread with India than with Pakistan. This is despite the fact that India has made it clear even to the US that, as far as Pakistan is concerned, there is no table for three.

India's tryst with contemporary terror began in 1993 when Dawood Ibrahim's crime syndicate detonated bombs across Mumbai. (This was distinct from the ones seen in Punjab and the Northeast as it was pan-Indian and pointedly communal.) When the government announced the D-Company's execution of the 12 bomb blasts that afternoon, the public was infuriated. Dawood, notorious as the don of the Bombay underworld, was seen regularly on live television watching cricket matches in Sharjah until days before the bombings.

Operation Wrath of God