Parallels

It felt odd to be sitting in Israel, calling friends and business associates in India to make sure everyone was OK in the wake of a brutal terror attack... but that is exactly how I've spent my morning.

Despite its attractive and exotic 'strangeness' that draws Israeli tourists like a magnet, India and Israel share many parallels:

• We are both ancient peoples working the kinks out of our new/modern states.
• We both freed ourselves from the yoke of English rule and declared Independence within six months of one another.
• We both have had to deal with ongoing problems from a restive Muslim minority despite the creation of neighboring Muslim states (Jordan and Pakistan, respectively) that were explicitly intended to prevent such problems.

The hotel in Mumbai where I spent four days last week has now become ground zero for most of the hostages that are being held... and the Chabad Rabbi and his wife who hosted me for many meals (during last week's trip and my previous one) have both been taken hostage and are reportedly both unconscious. 

There is still reportedly fighting going on at the Chabad House and the most recent news is that one of the gunmen has just been killed 

The only small glimmer of hope in all this is that the Rabbi's (and his wife's, obviously) toddler son and nanny were released during the night.  It is from the nanny that they found out that the little boy's parents are unconscious.

Many of the international news outlets are still shying away from calling this series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai, 'Islamic'... but I can assure you that this terror is not the work of a Buddhist or Hindu group.  It is, once again, the religion of peace. 

The exact reasons for the attack remain unclear (at least to me), but the deliberate targeting of foreigners... and Jews... in a country that has been extremely welcoming to both, is the hallmark of Islamic extremists.

I join many others in expressing my deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in this brutal attack, and add my prayers to all those who are hoping for a peaceful resolution to the hostage scenarios currently playing out at the Trident/Oberoi complex, Taj Hotel and Nariman House (the name by which the locals know the Chabad House).