Seven terrorists infiltrated a bucolic mountain valley near the village of Pahalgam in Kashmir, India, last Tuesday. It is a popular and beautiful tourist destination. Armed with automatic weaponry, the terrorists accosted picnickers and other tourists and demanded to know who was Muslim and who was Hindu.
They forced their captives to recite Islamic prayers and checked to see if the men were circumcised. They then slaughtered more than two dozen Indians and a Nepali solely based on their religion. It was the worst terrorist attack in India in more than a decade.
While the scale was different, Indians drew immediate parallels to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which Hamas violated an established ceasefire to assault and murder Jews, Israeli civilians, and other non-Muslims. At Pahalgam, Pakistan-based terrorists violated a ceasefire systematically to murder Hindus and other non-Muslims. As with Hamas, the terrorists returned across the border to evade responsibility.
The Hamas action shocked the world. In response and in a moment of lucidity, former President Joe Biden flew to Israel to declare his solidarity with Israel.
“I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. You are not alone. As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone,” he declared from Tel Aviv.
Former national security adviser Jake Sullivan later took advantage of Biden’s dementia to roll back that solidarity, but Biden’s initial moral clarity still mattered.
Speaking from Vatican City at the funeral of Pope Francis, President Donald Trump addressed the aftermath of the terrorist attack in India.
“I’m close to India and Pakistan,” he said. “They have had that fight for a thousand years in Kashmir. There’s been tensions on that border for 1,500 years. They’ll get it figured out one way or the other.”
Put aside the fact that Pakistan is an artificial state and its illicit land grab occurred less than 80 years ago. Trump would not draw moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas, and so his willingness to do so in off-the-cuff remarks regarding India and Pakistan was a mistake.
Not only is India the victim and Pakistan and the terrorists it supports the aggressor, but morality is clearly on India’s side. Given the importance of the U.S.-India partnership, Trump should take inspiration from Biden’s initial response to the Hamas attack: Trump should fly to New Delhi, if not to Kashmir, and declare unwavering support for India in its fight against terrorism. He should order Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism and offer India any intelligence it needs to eliminate the terrorists behind the Pahalgam massacre, wherever they might hide. If the United States can kill al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in his Pakistan safe house, there is no reason why it or India should not conduct similar targeted strikes against those responsible for the attack in Pahalgam.
INDIA HAS BLAMED PAKISTAN FOR THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN KASHMIR. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Trump’s actions would be even stronger since, unlike Biden, Trump’s White House will support the president’s policy rather than quietly undermine it.
It is time to cement U.S.-India ties as a relationship of values and action rather than mere rhetoric. Trump’s response to Pahalgam could be that opportunity.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.