Nagas are not unaware of other people’s sufferings from the devastations of wars. I for one had read “O Jerusalem” and “Anne Frank’s Diary” as well as Corrie Ten Boom’s books while still in High school in the late 1960’s. The history books that all educated Nagas have read are not from another planet so that we were ignorant of other people’s histories and their struggles. So don’t insult Naga nationalist as well as all Nagas saying: “The Nagas view themselves as victims because they have no education of the outside world to compare themselves to…” (Nagaland Post, Dec.29, 2016)
As for the Indo-Naga conflict, just how would you- an Israeli Jew- react if your immediate neighbours Syria or Jordan invade your country tomorrow and call you Syrians and Jordanians? Would you meekly surrender because their geographical area and population is much bigger and higher than your own country? Would not such a surrender on your part, end in the self-nullification of your own national identity and also condemn future generations of Israelis to become subjects of some other nations? Would you rather honour Syria and Jordan’s claims over your existence just so that your people can live on in “Surrendered Peace” accumulating Jordanian Dinars and Syrian Pounds? By the way, sometimes, I even wonder whether you even know your own heroic history. After all you were born in Canada and are now an American citizen.
But for your information, nationalist Zionist of Israel never surrendered their honor and their identity to the Nazi hordes or the overwhelming Arab hordes that sought to destroy Israel from the very face of the earth.
Therefore, if you know your own history, you should be ashamed to call on Nagas to surrender to India and be content with India’s money and occupation of their country. I am compelled to ask you, as to just on what premises, your suggestions to the Nagas are based on. Tell us why you are belittling our fallen national heroes who sacrificed their own lives so that today, we can hold our heads high as a nation-unconquered and still on our own feet. Are you just an opinionated arrogant individual who thinks he knows what will be best for the Naga nation? Or are you even an Indian agent planted to support the present so called “Shared Sovereignty” concept offered by India to once again seduce?
Finally, please know this of us, that Nagas we are not some “Post Modern Pragmatic Opportunist” who would build their national identity on somebody else’s “Ideas” emanating from his own pragmatic personal opinion. Our struggle on the contrary, is based on concrete factual, historical, political and legal truths.
So Silverstein, go your own way and leave us alone.
But on the other hand, God bless Israel and Nagaland.
Kaka D. Iralu
