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New Delhi, 25 January 2018
Modi & Netanyahu
CHANGING THE GEO POLITICS?
By Dr DK Giri
(Prof. International Politics, JMI)
With the return visit
of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, India-Israel
bilateralism seems to have reached its zenith. Prime Minister Modi’s visit July
last year, breaking the seven-decade old tradition, had taken the ties to new
heights. The question now is where do these two countries go from here?
Arguably, India-Israel
relations-alliance, friendship, partnership, characterise as we may, will spell
a new chapter in international relations. The circumstances will dictate New
Delhi and Tel Aviv to come ever so close, which will alter the geo-polities in
Asia and the middle-East. In fact, India-Israel bilateralism now is open
formalisation of the contacts, they have had for decades, not initiation. It is
like partners announcing their relationship in a marriage after years of
courtship, albeit covert in this case.
For record, it will
be in order we recall the milestones of India-Israel ties. We must use a caveat
though, i.e. India-Israel ties have been overshadowed by India’s principle of
non-alignment attempting to take an independent line on world affairs, and compulsion
of electoral politics, the Muslim vote bank. Both these have changed since. In
1947, the UN drafted a plan to partition Palestine carving out Israel. India
along with the Arab World rejected it.
In 1950, India
recognised Israel but did not set up diplomatic contact. India was invited to
mediate in 1956 when Israeli forces backed by Anglo-French army invaded Egypt.
The invasion was provoked by Egypt nationalising the Suez Canal. In 1962,
during India-China war, Prime Minister Nehru sought Israel’s support which
promptly came. In 1971, Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister, sought military help
from Israel, which was extended by Israeli PM Golda Meir.
In 1992, diplomatic
ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv were established. In 1996, Israel President
Ezer Weizman visited India, the first ever visit by a head of either State. In
1999, during Kargil war Israel supplied weapons to India. In 2003, Ariel Sharon
became the 1st Israeli Prime Minister to visit India. In 2014, NaMo
and Netanyahu met on the sidelines of UN General Assembly, a meeting between
two PMs after a decade. In 2015, India abstained from voting against Israel at
the UN Human Rights Commission. In 2017, Modi made a stand-alone three-day visit
to Israel, de-hyphenating Israel from Palestine in India’s Middle-East Policy.
This was a major milestone. And last week,
Netanyahu reciprocated the visit.
On reflection of the
relations, it is evident that defence ties between the two have been critical
and timely response to New Delhi’s call for help. In three wars, out of five,
India fought with Pakistan and China, Israel has extended military support. In the
other two, in 1947-48, both countries were getting independence and it was a
proxy war, and in 1965, India had full control over its adversary Pakistan.
However, Israel’s support in other three wars, where India faced formidable
opposition and threats, Israeli support was sought and provided.
The defence pact,
therefore, would constitute the bedrock of India-Israel friendship. India is
being challenged by belligerent neighbours, in one way or the other; both China
and Pakistan have ill-meaning designs. Beijing wishes to curtail India’s
influence in the region and Pakistan carries the grudge of its four defeats
against India and of course, Kashmir. New Delhi would need all the support it
can get from Israel to counter these challenges.
To underline the depth
of defence ties, India buys $1 billion worth military hardware a year from
Israel. During the visit Netanyahu, accompanied by 130 business delegates in
his entourage, talked of anti-tank missile from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence
system, Barak-8 medium range surface-to-air missile (MR-SAM), Phalcon airborne
warning and control system (AWACS) Aerostat Radar, and Heron-TP armed drones.
India could obtain all the sophisticated weapons from Israel which the US could
not directly sell to another country.
Obviously, the
bilateralism starting with defence ties has expanded to agriculture, and other
areas. Nine pacts were signed covering cyber-security, space science, solar-thermal
technologies, oil and gas, technology in agriculture and so on. Indeed, Israel’s
agriculture technology has been innovative, state-of-the-art, as it habitats a
difficult terrain; India, on the other hand is heavily dependent on agriculture
for livelihood of a vast section of people, who are often in distress to deal
with the vagaries of weather etc.
Israeli technology
has come in handy for Indian agriculture. The highlight of the pacts is the
tie-up with Netafirm, a company in drip irrigation, which has signed up to
water 6000 hectares of land in Andhra Pradesh. Israel PM, talked of supplying
drones for agriculture too which will guide the farmers on the deficits of
water, fertiliser and other in their fields.
Both Prime Ministers
emphasised and reiterated the inevitability and naturalness of India-Israel
relations. Recall, receiving Modi last July, Netanyahu said “we have been
waiting for you, Mr. PM for 70 years ....Our relationship is made in heaven”
and so on. At the India-Israel business summit in New Delhi, NaMo, extolling
the ties in glowing terms, said, “Given the scale of Indian economy and the
relevance of cutting-edge Israeli technologies has for us, even (the) sky is
not the limit for what we may achieve together.”
So far so good! But,
international relations are based on hard pragmatism, solid, tangible complementarities,
not feel-good bonhomie nor well-wishing gestures. Let us identify the
mutualities between India and Israel and the ‘propitious’ political and
security climate in both countries.
The two have equal
and common stake in countering terrorism. Both have aggressive and inimical
neighbours. Intelligence sharing on mutual security is common strategic
imperative. When intelligence unit RAW was set up in 1963, then PM Indira
Gandhi had advised its head RN Kao to make contact with Israeli intelligence
Agency, Mossad, as it was supposed then to be of high calibre and competence.
Both New Delhi and
Tel Aviv face threats from Islamic terrorists, even the same groups operating
in soils of both countries. India is a fast growing big market for Israel, and
the former needs Israel for technology, namely military. Admittedly, Israel has
been courting India for years, but New Delhi has been a reluctant partner.
Also, India’s foreign policy has shifted from normative posturing in favour of
pragmatism and self-interest. Muslim vote bank is no longer a monolith, nor
indispensable for NaMo.
Having so observed,
the logic of internationalism suggests that one could not take things for
granted. Challenges exist in the corner, threats are ever lurking, so unless a
relationship is nurtured, it may melt away. So what are the challenges that may
upset the applecart?
One, Israel plays
India and China even-handedly. This may not work in the longer term. Tel Aviv
has to make a choice. It has to acknowledge a leeway for New Delhi in its Arab
policy, like the last vote in the UN that went against Israel. A working and
sustainable solution has to be found for Israel-Palestine conflict. India could
play the honest broker in peace building in West Asia. On Indian side, India
could succumb to Arab pressure, material and political, and rebound on Muslim
vote bank, if the political leadership changed at home. Despite these
exigencies, for the mutuality of core interests, India-Israel ties would grow
stronger. So it be.—INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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