What Modi's visit to Israel reveals
Narendra Modi's recent visit to Israel garnered massive media attention and debate as it was the first time a sitting Indian Prime Minister visited the Jewish State. But what some of the coverage did was portray the visit as an indication of a tectonic shift happening in Indian policy towards the Israel-Palestine issue. This, however, is simply not true, as India, since establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, has had excellent and rapidly growing economic and security relations with Israel which was intentionally left unpublicised, up until now.
India, for example, is Israel's biggest foreign arms market where it sells weapons worth more than USD 1 billion every year. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 41 percent of all Israeli arms exports between 2012 and 2016 were bought by India. This year alone, Israeli companies have signed arms deals worth an astounding USD 2.6 billion with India, much of it for advanced defence systems and technologies that India does not possess.
On the political and policy level, Israel and India both see each other as being natural and strategic "friends". Natural in the sense that Israel has the technology that India craves, while having deep economic ties with India provides Israel some diversity in terms of who it trades with (apart from the European Union and the United States).
At a time when China is rapidly moving forward, defence technology is what India is prioritising to counter what it perceives to be "the Chinese threat". Consequently, the momentum that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has finally picked up means that it is becoming more and more difficult for Israel to trade with EU and other countries, making it increasingly desperate to look for other trading partners.
"Because the truth is, Palestine and the fate of Palestinians were forgotten by world leaders (and public to an extent) a long time back. For decades their memories have been relegated to rhetoric alone.
Strategically, India has moved more towards the US in recent times as Russian and Chinese ties have deepened to counter what they perceive as US hegemony. And as the saying goes in various political circles, "the key to the White House lies in Israel"—meaning that it is much easier for a country to have good relations with the US by improving its relations with Israel.
Moreover, 30-40 years ago, it was in some ways impossible for India to have good ties with Israel, as it was heavily dependent on Arab countries for its oil imports (and the Arab countries vehemently opposed Israel at least publicly). Today, most Arab countries have first and foremost, at least silently, accepted that Israel is a nuclear armed power which will continue to not only exist, but rather remain a dominant power in the Middle East (if not covertly have excellent relations with Israel themselves). And secondly, because of India's rapid economic growth (which is expected to continue in future) and the massive fall in energy prices in the international market, it is India, who, for the first time in history, has huge leverage over Arab countries today, meaning that it can now "publicly" have good relations with Israel which, in reality, India has had for quite some time now.
The reason, however, why some may find the more recent developments difficult to understand is because of India's history and historical position. Historically, India was, of course, once a colonised country. In that sense, some could argue that Indians may sympathise more with Palestinians who too are now living under one form of (brutal) colonial occupation.
Looking at it from a different historical angle, the most influential figure in Indian politics over the last few hundred years, Mahatma Gandhi, was strictly against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. He once said that "Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the British", therefore, dismissing the claim of political Zionism that Palestine should be divided between Zionists and Palestinians. And it was primarily because of Gandhi's overwhelming influence over Indian politics during the 1940s that India was one of the first countries to vote against the UN Resolution that divided Palestine into two states.
But those days are now long gone. Indians, in all honesty, are not too bothered about its history with colonialism anymore (except for in some intellectual circles and especially not in political ones). The humanitarian aspect of it (which Gandhi prioritised) is no longer as relevant as those related to economic, security and other issues in the age of "realpolitik", where it is not only India, but also many other countries in the world who see that having good relations with Israel (even at the expense of their relations with Palestine and of the fate of Palestinians) is clearly more beneficial—particularly in materialistic terms.
So after visiting Israel and not Ramallah (to meet Palestinian representatives), will Modi's (India's) stance on the Israel-Palestine issue change? No. India will continue to publicly promote a two-state solution like it has done for years, similar to many other countries. But in all reality, all these countries don't really see a way of ending the suffering of Palestinians under the current circumstances. And frankly, not many of them even care. Not in any way that requires any more of them than a few speeches from time to time at the UN, asking for a solution to the Palestinian crisis.
Because the truth is, Palestine and the fate of Palestinians were forgotten by world leaders (and public to an extent) a long time back. For decades their memories have been relegated to rhetoric alone. All that is happening today is that countries around the world are now openly admitting the fact that the material benefits from maintaining good ties with Israel mean more to them than the humanitarian ideals that were summoned by those who unequivocally supported Palestinians and, hence, refused to have any ties with Israel in the past.
So in case you were not aware, welcome to the age of realpolitik. Where Palestinians, of course, "matter"—it is only that they matter "the least".
Eresh Omar Jamal is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.
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