Last night Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, within hours of Netanyahu’s arriving in the U.S. According to The Hindu, Modi’s reach-out to Netanyahu, which took place with a lot of wrangling and ceremony last night (see Avigdor Lieberman in the video above), represents a shift in the Indian position re the conflict, from supporting Palestinian freedom to keeping quiet.
Of course both Netanyahu and Modi have links to massacres of Muslims. Modi is widely believed to have stood by during a Muslim genocide in 2002 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat– actions that resulted in the U.S. barring him from this country for ten years till his party’s recent triumph. There were reports that human rights groups were planning to protest Modi’s visit, but Modi is going to the White House for a dinner tonight. And of course Netanyahu’s onslaught in Gaza that just killed 2100, 500 of whom were children, gets the red carpet treatment in the U.S.
Netanyahu said on meeting Modi:
We’re two old peoples, some of the oldest civilizations on earth. But we’re also two democracies… If we work together we can [seize the future]….We’re very excited by the prospects of greater and greater ties with India. We think the sky’s the limit.
Modi said he had met yesterday with members of the Jewish community in New York, presumably the American Jewish Committee.
Excellency you are absolutely correct. I agree with you that India Israel relations are historical. I met this morning with people from the Jewish community, the American Jewish Council.
…India is the only country where anti-semitism has never been allowed to come up, and where Jews have never suffered, and lived as an integral part of our society.
Here is the Hindu‘s account of the Indian shift re Palestine:
Mr. Netanyahu has invited Mr. Modi to visit Israel soon, and if Mr. Modi goes he will be the first Indian Prime Minister to do so.
There are other factors that denote the shift in India’s position. To begin with, the Prime Minister will be meeting Mr. Netanyahu, but has not met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who was here in New York at the same time. In the past few years, India has taken a more nuanced position on the Palestinian-Israel conflict, away from its pro-Palestine stance of the past. While India voted against Israel at the UN Human Right Council this year during the recent conflict in Gaza where more than 2,200 people were killed, for example, the government refused to condemn Israel’s actions in its statement.
Mr. Modi’s speech at the UN also saw a departure from the past years, when the Indian speech regularly made references to the “Palestinian struggle” in the past.
And Modi held a gathering at Madison Square Garden last night, which scores of elected US officials attended, including pro-Israel stalwarts congressmen Eliot Engel, Gregory Meeks, Steve Israel, Ed Royce (the last three just went to Israel). What a fortuitous triangle, the U.S., India and Israel.
Horrid Islamophobes– alliances made in Hades.
Here’s again where we see a politician giving cover to crimes only because they themselves are guilty of similar abrasions of the law, all sitting comfy and cozy together in poses of respectability.
It’s enough to make one want to puke.
A Chinese-Israeli alliance isn’t on the cards, China needs too much oil for that. Plus the closest non-East Asian ally of China is Pakistan.
An Indian-Israeli alliance is much more logical in many ways. But India’s oil thirst is growing by 10% per annum. This by itself is going to limit how much the relationship will flourish.
Also, India does not have an AIPAC. India needs Israeli weaponry(it’s the largest arms importer in the world), but since there is no Israel lobby in India and since India’s economy is just barely ahead of Canada’s on a nominal GDP basis, we’re looking at more moral support than any differentiating factor here.
Still, I was interested in viewing how the Indian public views Israel. According to the Israeli consulate, the Indian public is the “most pro-Israel public in the world”.
Well not according to this:
Here is the most authorative poll on the subject, by Australia’s Lowy’s institute in 2013.
See page six, it ranks how the Indian public ranks countries.
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/files/india_poll_2013_0.pdf
Israel doesn’t do that well, it’s third bottom from last. Only Afghanistan and Pakistan do worse. Even Iran(!) does a smidgen better than Israel.
America is #1 and by a considerable margin, and then Singapore, Japan, Australia and France clustered together. India’s 15% muslim population can’t have that much of an effect. It bleeds into other groups.
Evil alliance. Both hate Muslims, and knowing the anti Muslim happenings in Southeast Asia, it does spell big trouble for many nations in that region. Israel has slithered into many Asian nations already. This will be a pact with the Devil (you choose which one).