Many Israeli journalists who were part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage admitted the average Israeli is worried about his safety

"Let me admit that we are petrified to venture out and buy even bread from the supermarkets because you never know when a Palestinian human bomb is going to appear from nowhere and explode himself and kill you," said Shalom Yerushalmi, political correspondent of Maariv, an Israeli daily newspaper.

Complete coverage of Sharon's visit

Samuel Tal, of Israel Radio, wondered why thousands of Muslims did not take to the streets to protest against the visit of Sharon.

"We thought that there would be violent protests against Sharon considering the fact 150 million Muslims live in India," he said.

The Israeli journalists took great pride in telling stories about how their army has been handling terrorism and killing Hamas militants with laser guided bombs and helicopter attacks.

"You send in tanks and they send suicide bombers. Is this what you call containing terrorism?" asked an Indian scribe. "If we were not handling terrorism ruthlessly the Palestine terrorists would have caught us by our necks and killed us instead," argued Samuel Tal.

"What about Kashmir?" asked Shalom Yerushalami.

"Don't compare India with Israel. You cannot stop terrorists sneaking across and blowing up your places when your country is so small. India is one hundred times bigger than Israel and an odd incident here and there should not cause so much concern world over as is being done in international media," a senior photojournalist replied, hurt by the question.

"We have not crossed the international borders nor have we bombed the terrorist camps across the line of control yet our security forces have done a commendable job in containing terrorism," said another Indian journalist.

Many were concerned about bomb blasts in Mumbai and wondered if it was a good place to visit.