Indo-Israel Relations : ?Match made in Heaven?

India, Israel ties touch a new hight with the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Delhi

 Brig (Retd) Anil Gupta

The visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to India in response to the visit of Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in July 2017 has cemented the relationship between the two countries. India and Israel,
though geographically distant, are closest strategically. Both attained independence from the British almost at the same time and Israel’s creation at that time was viewed by many idealists in India as based on religion. But the realists opposed this and felt that Israel is much more than just another nation and considered it an anti-thesis to a pan-Islamic ideology that was gaining ground in the early twentieth century. During the Cold war era, the two nations chartered different courses. While Israel embraced the United States and closer ties with west European nations, India under Nehru championed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and veered closer towards the Soviet Union. India’s dependence on the Arab World for meeting its hydrocarbon needs and its large Muslim population was another major obstacle in building relationship with Israel, as India feared that close relations with the Jewish State might somehow radicalise its Muslim citizens—numbering more than 100 million-and hurt its relations with the Arab world.

India formally recognised Israel in 1950 but the relations between the countries remained informal for most of the period till the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War. India and Israel established formal diplomatic ties only in 1992.  It was the BJP convention in October 1991 that had called for establishing full diplomatic relations with the Jewish State. The BJP has always admired Israel for its pride in nationalism and respect for the military. The visit of Israeli premier to India marked the culmination of year-long celebrations that commenced in January last year to celebrate 25 years of establishment of formal diplomatic relations. During the intervening period though we did not enjoy formal relations, yet Israel was always there to help India in the hours of national crisis starting from Sino-Indian War of 1962 and both the wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. Israel’s contribution during the Kargil War, despite international pressure, sowed the seeds of trust between the two nations and Israel emerged as the only true all-weather friend of India. This trust later transformed into the long-lasting bond. Since then, both countries have benefitted immensely and India has become the largest trading partner of Israel. The emergence of terrorism as a threat and Pak-sponsored proxy war brought the two nations even closer but the domestic vote-bank politics prevented the UPA government to openly embrace Israel.  India-Israel cooperation increased dramatically in 2014 after the Modi-led NDA
Government came to power in New Delhi. Despite sharing 25 years of diplomatic ties and working closely on defence, counter-terrorism, agriculture and high-end technology, no Indian Prime Minister had visited Israel. The trend was broken by Narendra Modi whose maiden visit in July 2017 chartered a new course in Indo-Israeli ties making
them inseparable friends.  The commonalities between the two nations namely hostile neighbours, cross-border terrorism and targets of global Islamic terror dictate the
“convergence of congruent interests” leading to deepening of mutual relations. The relations between the two are governed by pragmatism. India does not want to distance
herself from the Palestinian cause and Israel does not allow the bilateral relationship to be imperilled by India’s condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza or West Coast.
The Arab-world has failed to reign in Pakistan from fomenting trouble in Kashmir and sponsoring cross-
border terrorism in India. India, however, desires to maintain good relations with the Muslim countries despite Pakistan blocking India’s entry into the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). India today enjoys friendly relations with the Gulf countries, Iran as well as Saudi Arabia and yet continues to foster better and stronger relations with Israel. Radical Islamic terrorism is the most potent common threat faced by the two nations. The shared experience of terrorism and threats from organisations with similar radical ideology like Al Qaeda, ISIS, LeT, JeM, HM and Hamas committed to kill, kidnap and terrorise civilians has accelerated the rapid pace of growing bonhomie between the two nations.
Not many would know that during the Kargil War, Israel helped India to build a strategy against intruders. It speeded up the shipment of ordered arms, delivered UAVs and shared photographs from its military satellites. Under Modi’s leadership, India has embarked on the path of fostering everlasting friendship with Israel as India marches towards a terror-free India by 2022. Our counter-terrorism cooperation involves an exchange of information on terrorist groups, their financial network, recruitment patterns, training and operations including sharing and comparing of national doctrines, operational experiences, intelligence and joint anti-insurgency training.
Israel’s contribution in enhancing our border security is also significant. The Indian military deployed an Israeli-developed comprehensive integrated border management
system (CIBMS) along its border with Pakistan in August 2017.  The fence will be monitored by sensors and security cameras and will alert people in monitoring facilities whenever a breach occurred.  India plans to seal the entire 6,300-km border with Pakistan and Bangladesh with the Israeli smart-fence.   Israel has sold India motion detectors and other monitoring and surveillance equipment to counter Pak-supported infiltration as well as tunnel-detecting equipment. The Israeli-built UAVs for high-altitude surveillance have proved force-multipliers.  Israel today is the second largest arms exporter to India after Russia. Indo-Israeli friendship is not confined to defence or border security only but also extends to other domains like
agriculture, water utilization solutions, drought farming, solar energy, space and technology, cyber security.
During his first meeting on September 28, 2014 at New York with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged that Israel and India have an historic working relationship and stated that India is “the only country where antisemitism has never been allowed to come up, where Jews have never suffered
and lived as an integral part of our society”.  
Modi reciprocated with an unprecedented welcome to Benjamin Netanyahu during his maiden visit to India. Netanyahu interacted with Indian businessmen for joint ventures and investments. “Indo-Israeli partnership has reached unprecedented heights; this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship and possibilities are boundless. India and Israel are democracies, share a love for freedom; we are a match made in heaven,” said the Israeli Prime Minister while addressing a business summit in Mumbai. “We are trying to develop Israel with the changing times and for that we wish to collaborate with our old friend India,” wished Netanyahu.
(The writer is a Jammu-based security and strategic analyst)