India-Israel and their Diplomatic Relations

India-Israel Diplomacy 

by Aalap Trivedi

Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi broke protocol to visit his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu at the airport in New Delhi in January 2018. They hugged and lifted their joined hands in the air showing solidarity. India has come far from its early stance in regards to Israel, but is this just a marriage of convenience or a sign of a tectonic shift in New Delhi’s foreign policy.

The History

People of both these countries have their own rich, vivid and ancient culture, albeit one which didn't see a lot of mixture between the two. Some historical evidence suggests that unlike any other place they went, the small number of Jewish refugees who came to the ancient Indian shores, were historically faced with no oppression in India.

But things changed when Israel became a sovereign country. Israel gained independence from the British in 1948 and immediately captured the Arab Palestinian lands they used to share, making the Palestinians refugees in their own country and all of the Arab world declaring a war against Israel. India, who had experienced first hand, the problems of colonisation, was opposed to this move by the Israelis. India also strongly suggested that Israel should not become a member of the United Nations. India, a shining leader of the non-alignment movement, also could not be pressurised into accepting Israel. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were both against Israel.

It took till 1950 for India to recognise Israel as a sovereign nation, but India did not establish diplomatic ties with Israel. This was in some part also owing to the  fact of a large muslim demographic in India, which the ruling INC didn’t want to upset. In fact the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Yasser Arafat were known friends and support for Arafat led Palestinian groups were always seen from New Delhi. Arafat, was also famously supportive of India’s decision to remain Non-Aligned. 

The fall of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union ended the non-alignment movement of India. This led to a significant change in India’s foreign and economic policy, with the United States the only remaining superpower in the world. So in 1992, India officially started diplomatic ties with Israel, establishing an embassy in Tel Aviv, a mere twenty five years ago. The Madrid conference between the Israeli and the Palestinians also played a big role towards India accepting Israel. At the Madrid Conference in 1991, in presence of Bill Clinton, both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders, signs of peace after long term hostility between the two could be seen. This made things easier for India to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

A need for each other in the Present?

Tel Aviv is home to the Silicon Valley of arms and weapon manufacturing, making arms export Israel’s potentially biggest source of revenue. But, this potential needs fulfilling. This is where India comes in. As Israel cannot sell weapons to China, due to the directive by the United States, India with its tag of the world’s largest arms importer, represents an enormous market for Israeli arms companies. So many of these multi billion dollar deals are already done, with Israeli company Rafael already a household name in India.

From India’s perspective, no other nation can provide more modern and technologically advanced weapons than Israel. This is very important for India and it’s defence against the growing Chinese threat. Any opportunity to get better weapons than China is a deal that India simply have to take. Israel though is also having a tough balancing act to do so that it doesn’t anger China too much. These weapons deals make for a contradictory and conflicting policy to Modi’s Make in India initiative which wants among other things, manufacturing of weapons in India, but even he cannot allow such an opportunity to pass.

Both Modi and Netanyahu are seasoned politicians and know the importance of each other. In signing those deals with India, Netanyahu is making sure he wins support in his own country by bringing in the revenue. As is the case elsewhere, the foreign policies of Modi are an extension of his domestic policy. Modi more than any other Indian leader before, can be said to be a Hindutva politician and his profile is further encouraging the talks between the two leaders as well as the nations.

It was significant that Modi didn’t visit Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian administration capital during his visit to Israel in July 2017, making him the first incumbent Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. He still wants to show his Hindutva policies and was smart enough to not let anything come in the way of the arms deals signed at that time.

The future mediator in Middle East peace talks?

It is worth noting that the Arab nations and India’s relations are very strong and go way back. Also there is a large Indian diaspora in the Arab countries. All of this leads to the Arabs considering India as their friend and ally. This was evident in the recent recall of the Palestinian envoy to Pakistan, who shared a stage with Hafiz Saeed, a known anti-Indian speaker and terrorist. Ramallah, could not afford to anger India and acted swiftly to preserve their relations with New Delhi.

Because of Trump calling to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and by recognising the disputed city as the Capital of Israel, a mediator in the form of the United States may no longer be acceptable to the Arabs. This has the potential to throw a spanner in the works for the peace talks. Finding a nation which both countries can agree on is a difficult task, but India may hold the answer. If that indeed becomes the case, than it'll make India a very strong player on the foreign diplomacy scene and especially in the Middle East. Buckle up, there may be exciting times ahead.