India and Israel Security Cooperation

تنسيق-الكليات-لعام سكس نيك كس



I was recently contacted by by a friend who runs a private Israeli international security consulting firm about working with him on a project in India. To date most of the Israel-India security cooperation has been on a governmental level. This looks to be changing. Several private Israeli security firms are in contact with Indian businesses and are working on improving the Indian level of counter terror training.

All private Israeli security firms are required to receive permission from the Israeli government before they work abroad. The export of Israeli technology and know how is highly regulated.

Israel's training of Indian forces in counterterrorism, has been limited. "The Israeli-Indian relationship is more about technology and equipment and less about other activities," says Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former Israeli military chief of staff. Amos Yaron, a former director-general of Israel's Defense Ministry says there is "some intelligence cooperation" with India but no joint military training that he is aware of.

Israeli-Indian military, intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation is extremely close. Over the past several years, India has purchased an estimated $8 billion worth of military equipment from Israel, including the Green Pines radar system employed by Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile batteries. India’s defense-related purchases from Israel amount to some $1.5 billion annually.

Recently in Tel Aviv, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu (of Indian State Andhra Pradesh) had a meeting with a top Israeli company, about sprucing up security and police in Andhra Pradesh.

After an hour-long presentation in Tel Aviv, he asked the company representatives to come and study the police and the security situation in Andhra Pradesh and work out a strategy to upgrade them. ‘‘I want to modernize police in the state considering the threat perception in the state.’’

According to Indian counter terror sources, the Indian Govenrment has asked Israel to assist in the operational and intelligence planning of Indian commando cross-border strikes against Islamist terrorist havens in Pakistan - including al Qaeda, .

Israeli Reactions to the Mumbai attacks:

According to Israeli experts, they see even greater sophistication in the recent Mumbai attacks. More targets were involved, the targets were selected carefully to shut down a big city and the nature of the attack required a huge military effort to bring it to an end. The possibility of Hezbollah, Hamas or Global Jihad attempting something similar in Israel is a worst-case scenario that Israeli security specialists must consider.

What was new about Mumbai was the sheer size of the targets taken over by the terrorists. Indeed, the Mumbai attacks may serve as a game-changer in the way counterterrorist forces prepare for attacks.

Going room to room and floor to floor in a multistory, modern building to flush out terrorists who could be anywhere and to save hostages requires highly coordinated action by much larger special forces. For Israel, it means training more special forces abroad. It also means heightened surveillance at potential target sites to spot suspicious people, guests or customers trying to gather intelligence and prepare for an attack.

Israeli experts note that the attackers in Mumbai were highly skilled in the use of weapons and explosives, had detailed intelligence on their targets and used sophisticated navigation devices. In other words, they performed like soldiers in a regular army.