Vantage | The two big shifts that changed India-Israel-Palestine ties

Hamas’ terror attack on Israel has shocked the world. India was among the first countries to condemn it. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a statement. He said: “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”. Israel has thanked India for this support. Hashtag “India stands with Israel” is trending on X.

What explains this strong support? India and Israel are more than 4,000 kilpmetres apart, but they’re united in their experience. They share a long and painful history of fighting terrorism. Indians are all too familiar with the pain that the ordinary Israeli is feeling right now. Our right to peaceful existence has been threatened time and again by the depraved actions of our neighbour. So, India understands Israel’s pain and plight. But beyond the unmitigated humanitarian tragedy is the geopolitics. What’s at stake for India in this conflict? A bit of history Before we answer that, a quick primer. In 1950, India announced its recognition of Israel. It was one of the last non-Muslim states to recognise Israel. But India was the among the first to recognise Palestine. That was in 1988. And that’s not all. In 1974, India became the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). New Delhi accepted this group as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. So historically, India’s ties with Palestine have run deeper compared to those with Israel. In the 1980s, Yasser Arafat visited India frequently. But beyond the optics, there was disquiet over India’s unabashed support of Palestine. Imperceptibly, the ground beneath was shifting and Pakistan played a role in it. Allow us to explain. While India supported the Palestinian cause, the Arab nations did not return the favour. They did not show such support for India. In 1962, India and China fought a war. What was the stand of the Arab nations in that conflict? Neutral. And it got worse. Both in 1965 and 1971, India was facing Pakistan on the battlefield. Guess who the Arab world backed? Pakistan. Geopolitics doesn’t quite work as a one-sided love story and India learnt that lesson over time. Do you know what Israel did in the meantime? It helped India with arms and ammunition -both in 1962 and 1965. But the relationship remained like a secret affair. The big shift The major shift came in the 1990s. Iraq had invaded Kuwait. Among Saddam Hussein’s few allies was Yasser Arafat. And that dangerous gambit alienated the Palestinian leader. In 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated. West Asia was undergoing a transformation, allies and allegiances were changing and India did not want to be shoehorned into a corner. In 1992, New Delhi established full diplomatic relations with Israel and over the years, the ties have become stronger. Today, India is Israel’s seventh-largest trade partner. Israel is India’s third largest defence supplier. Defence, diamonds and drip irrigation dominate the bilateral trade ties. This has come in handy for India, especially during the Kargil War in 1999. India issued an SOS and Israel responded. It supplied India with target bombs and this proved to be crucial in India’s victory. The second shift Then in 2014, the Narendra Modi government came to power and ties with Israel came into focus. In 2017, PM Modi visited Israel, the first Indian PM to do so, and he did not go to Palestine then. This was a major shift on India’s part. Modi dehyphenated Israel and Palestine. His personal equation with the Israeli leader has been much talked about - from the beach walk to the kite flying and spinning Gandhi’s charkha. One year later, in 2018, PM Modi did make a trip to Palestine and this time around, he didn’t visit Israel. The message was clear: India had not abandoned the relationship with Palestine, merely recalibrated it. Admittedly, this diplomatic manoeuvring is a difficult balancing act but sometimes, events demand that nations take a clear stand. This terror attack by Hamas was one such occasion. Hamas’ manipulation of religion – as political tribalism – has few takers. India certainly isn’t one of them. By calling it what it is - a terror attack – the Modi government has made its stand clear. 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.