QOTD

Actually this is from 2002. In a story on how Israel aided Hamas as a means of weakening the PLO, only to find Hamas refusing to acquiesce in Israel's existence; and yet to find advantage in that ("But even then, some in Israel saw some benefits to be had in trying to continue to give Hamas support: "The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the others, if they gained control, would refuse to have any part of the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place," said a U.S. government official who asked not to be named."), we have the following:

According to former State Department counter-terrorism official Larry Johnson, "the Israelis are their own worst enemies when it comes to fighting terrorism."

"The Israelis are like a guy who sets fire to his hair and then tries to put it out by hitting it with a hammer."

"They do more to incite and sustain terrorism than curb it," he said.

Aid to Hamas may have looked clever, "but it was hardly designed to help smooth the waters," he said. "An operation like that gives weight to President George Bush's remark about there being a crisis in education."

Lot of Indians see Israel and India fighting a common Islamic foe. Not so. Israel's Islamic foe (like America's Islamic foe) is much of its own creation. In fact, to some extent, India's foe is a colonial British and post-colonial American creation.