Off-centre | A tale of two wars: Why India openly supports Israel

Within hours of the Hamas attack and invasion of Israel on 7 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel. Our thoughts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour.” Three days later, after his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu appraised him of the developments on the war front, Modi tweeted again: “I thank Prime Minister @netanyahu for his phone call and providing an update on the ongoing situation. People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.” In the previous column I argued that these statements, albeit from his personal X account, rather than from @PMO, signalled a significant pro-Israeli shift in India’s foreign policy. The reasons, I suggested, were manifold, better understood by comparing India’s response to another ongoing war occasioned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. India has shown principled loyalty in both instances. Despite tremendous pressure from the United States and its Western allies to condemn Russia and join in the economic sanctions against it, India stood firm. Quite sound, if not shrewd, giving the long-standing defence and strategic ties between the two countries. Similarly, India has also stood with Israel in the latter’s hour of need because Israel has helped India in all its previous wars with Pakistan. But there is more to India’s stance than principled loyalty. For one, a rising conservative alliance across the world against Islamist radicalism and other destabilizing extremist ideologies. In India’s case, the ruling party’s alignment with Hindutva makes it Israel’s natural ally in this fight. As one commentator, apparently in an unintended slip, called it India’s popular reaction to “Pakestine.” No surprise that thousands of would be jihadis in Pakistan have asked their government’s permission to fight for Hamas in this war. Also true that hundreds of Indians, or should we say Hindus, have also volunteered to fight on Israel’s side. Thankfully, the Israel embassy in New Delhi and consulate in Mumbai have politely declined these offers. What is clear is that Hindus the world over feel a close kinship with the beleaguered Israelis surrounded by hostile Muslim neighbours. But we must be cautious drawing lines of opposition merely on religious lines. The Hamas attack has, once again, exposed the inhuman savagery of religious and political radicalism. The world itself, the Middle East included, has moved away from religious extremism and violence. In other words, neither the similarities between the historic injustices meted out to Jews and Hindus nor the similarities between the ruling BJP and Likud parties in India and Israel respectively account entirely for India’ pro-Israeli tilt. Instead, we must understand it in terms of a larger geo-strategic transformation in the region and the world. Hamas’s murderous attack on Israeli innocents has only served to bring this shift into sharper focus. The question on everyone’s mind is whether the Israel-Hamas war has accomplished what the Russia-Ukraine war could not. Namely move India much closer to a world-wide Western-led alliance. The answer is possibly, but not definitely, in the affirmative. Even though the West, even its leader the United States, has not desisted from destabilising India with what some have called its “dirty tricks” department. We must recognise that the West is itself deeply divided and internally fractured. Take the case of the United States. We have seen on several occasions that the White House and the State Department are sixes and sevens. The Department of Defence is a third spoke in the wheel. Generally speaking, it is the latter which is most favourable, seeing India as a vital strategic counterweight to an increasingly belligerent China. The State Department, on the other hand, has a history of needling India. The White House has oscillated, depending on which administration is in charge. In such a scenario, India must play its cards carefully. While it is in our long-term interests to align ourselves more closely with Israel and the Western bloc, it is also important to distinguish between our condemnation of Hamas and our support for the Palestinian cause. The latter, in a calibrated and cautious manner, must continue. Not to appease Muslim states in the region nor the large Muslim population within the country. But because Palestinians too have a right to their own state; they too, who themselves were displaced victims in their own lands, have a right to live in dignity and peace. India’s fight is against terrorism, religious radicalism, and ideologies of hatred and violence. In making common cause with Israel, India is telling the world that in our own neighbourhood, we have nations which create and export terror. To put it plainly, politics and terrorism must be separated in the social and geo-strategic imagination of the world. A rule-based order cannot permit non-state actors to run amuck to achieve the political ends of their patrons without the latter having to pay a price. India, as a rising power with a huge population, a growing economy and a nuclear arsenal, also has a major moral role to play in shaping the new world order. We must assure our Arab and Muslim friends, from UAE to Indonesia, that India is neither anti-Muslim nor blindly pro-Western. Rather, for the stability in the Middle East, as well as the global balance of power, the Muslim world itself would be better off dialling down its overt or tacit support for jihadis and religious radicals. This is precisely what Saudi Arabia, led by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has done. India has bolstered his—and others—efforts to encourage a moderate and tolerant Islam. The world situation is dynamic and rapidly changing. Though the West has proved itself to be both selfish and fickle in the past, India’s long-term interest lie in close economic, technological, and strategic ties with Western democracies rather than dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, especially of the Communist, pseudo, and ex-Communist kind. The sooner Indian Left-Liberals realise this the better. More importantly, the sooner India’s right-wing nationalists also understand this the better. Else, a fifth column within the country, with strange bedfellows from the Left and the Right, will continue to undermine our national interests as it has in the past. In return for our support, we must ask Western, especially Anglophone democracies, to crack down on anti-Indian forces within their own borders, whether these are pro-Pakistani jihadis or neo-Khalistani. That would be the minimum quid pro quo for our support. _Click here to read Patrt 1 of a 2-part series._ The writer is an author, columnist, and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.