by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso – Sun Nov 30, 3:38 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to do everything necessary to protect Jewish centres across the world after nine Israelis were killed in assaults by Islamist militants in the Indian city of Mumbai.
"Israel is doing, and will continue to do anywhere, whatever it takes to protect Jewish institutions," Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting.
Israel's embassies and official representations across the world are always heavily guarded by Israeli and local security forces.
But other than issuing warnings on possible attacks, Israel does not guard Jewish centres such as the Chabad centre that was targeted in Mumbai.
"The pictures of the Jewish victims, especially the scenes of those who ran the Chabad House, wrapped in prayer shawls, even as their blood-covered son was miraculously saved from the inferno, are shocking and take us back to events that we pray never recur," Olmert said.
"The hatred of Jews and the hatred of Israel and the hatred of Jewish symbols still continue to be a source fuelling these acts of murder."
Israeli embassy officials in India have said that they did not believe that Chabad House, a cultural centre run by the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement where eight of the Israelis were killed, could have been targeted by accident.
"We will act, also in cooperation with the Indian government, to protect as much as possible the many Israelis and Jews in these areas who want, and are entitled to, full security," Olmert added.
An Israeli air force plane took off for Mumbai on Sunday evening to repatriate the bodies. On the flight were representatives of the army, the rabbinate and foreign ministry, as well as forensic experts.
Israeli media highlighted the case of Sandra Samuel, an Indian woman who worked as nanny for the toddler son of the slain Chabad House director and his wife, and who rescued him from the cultural centre after hiding from the militants for 12 hours.
News websites reported calls for her to be given leave to come to Israel indefinitely or even be declared a so-called righteous gentile for her role in saving two-year-old Moshe.
"We didn't get any application yet but that doesn't mean we won't approve it," said interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.
"If we get the application, I am sure that we will consider all that took place."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had praised the nanny's "heroic" rescue of the son and said that "during a time of terrible sadness, her courage reaffirms our faith in the capacity of good to triumph over evil."
Nearly 200 people are now known to have died in the attacks which ravaged the Indian commercial capital, hitting five-star hotels and other targets frequented by Westerners as well as Chabad House.
Israeli newspapers gave blanket coverage to the Mumbai carnage in Sunday's editions, their first since the confirmation of the Israeli dead late on Friday.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily devoted more than a dozen pages to the attacks, while Maariv used its first 17.
Yediot carried extensive criticism of the Indian commando operation and the length of time it took to overcome the militants.
"Ten terrorists, who, according to the findings of the investigation, arrived by rubber raft at the shore of Mumbai carrying machine guns, grenades and dry rations in their luggage, succeeded -- almost inconceivably -- in keeping almost 1,000 commando troops and counter-terrorism combat units occupied for three days, in several battle sites," one article said.
But the Israeli foreign ministry put out a statement to domestic media distancing itself from such criticism.
"We are convinced that the Indian forces did everything they could to prevent harm from coming to the captives and civilians during the storming of the Chabad House," Yediot's website quoted ministry spokesman Yossi Levi as saying.
