India-Israel ties

Ever since India established formal diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, the two countries have had a close relationship, particularly in defence. India is the world’s largest buyer of Israeli military equipment and gives more in defence to Israel than even the US does. That relationship is going to become even friendlier with the extremist BJP and Likud governments in power. The visit of Israeli president Reuven Rivlin to India – the first by an Israeli president in nearly two decades – emphasised the already-strong security partnership. Narendra Modi, as is his wont, used his meeting with Rivlin to further demonise Pakistan, accusing it of being the origin and spread of terrorism and called on action to be taken not just against terrorists but the states that supposedly harbour them. This is part of Modi’s global campaign to have Pakistan isolated, and in Israel he will find a receptive partner. Every Israeli government is predisposed to denounce the governments of Muslim-majority states, all of whom stand in solidarity with the oppression of Palestinians but the Likud government is ideologically extreme even by Israeli standards. Rivlin is a staunch advocate of Greater Israel, where the West Bank and Gaza would be subsumed in the Israeli state and Palestinians treated as second-class citizens in a Jewish state.  It was no surprise then that he echoed Modi’s call and talked of defending the two countries values, which always end up involving aggression against their Muslim neighbours. It is bitterly ironic that two countries that have colonised and brutalised unwilling peoples are the ones who talk about peace and values. The impunity with which India and Israel wage unending war on Kashmir and Palestine respectively should, had they any shame, preclude their      hypocritical preaching

The ideological bonds between the likes of Modi and Rivlin go back decades. Even when India had voted against the partition of Palestine and the admission of Israel to the United Nations, the decision was criticised by Hindu nationalists like the RSS, who felt an affinity with Israel. Even as recently as 2014, when Israel launched a brutal attack on Gaza, current External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj blocked a parliamentary resolution condemning Israel. Hindutva and Zionism go hand-in-hand and that is something Pakistan will have to counter as Modi builds up a global alliance of religious chauvinists. So far, we have not been up to the task. There may be little we can do to disrupt Indian-Israeli ties but proof of our diplomatic failure lies in the fact that many Muslim states continue to have close ties with India and do not get overly involved in Kashmir.         These countries are drawn to India’s economic might and, combined with likeminded countries like Israel, have given India disproportionate power in its international campaign to malign Pakistan.