Peloni: The rising alliance between Israel and India is both impressive and important.
The new geopolitical landscape following the October 7th terror attacks has highlighted a crucial yet largely unrecognized alliance between Israel and India. Increased Indian interest in the Jewish state should serve as a signal for Israel to broaden its diplomatic focus beyond its traditional allies in the West.
Never before Oct 8. had Israel been flooded with so many Indian reporters. Of the few thousand foreign journalists who rushed to Israel to cover the war, over a hundred arrived from India, including many of the most famous faces of Indian media.
I received multiple offers for reporting positions, and I chose Republic TV, India’s most viewed and most right-wing TV network. When I traveled to the residence of President Yitzhak Herzog to request an interview with our anchor in Delhi, they informed me that they were not intentionally ignoring my channel’s previous requests, but were simply swamped by inquiries from no fewer than 37 Indian outlets, each claiming it was the biggest in India.
Even more unusual than the sheer magnitude of Indian-focused coverage is the fact that Indian media was staunchly supportive of Israel. Excepting Communist-oriented media (such as the prestigious magazine ‘Frontline’)[1] and most Muslim-Indian reporters, Indian media was so enthusiastic in their support for Israel that Qatari-owned outlets began calling them out for “Zionism” and “Islamophobia”.[2]
Israelis may take for granted the strength of Israel-India relations and the warm welcome they receive in India, but merely a few decades ago our relationship was completely different.
From the Indian Independence Movement to Diplomatic Relations with Israel
Full diplomatic relations between India and Israel were only established in 1992 following the Madrid Conference, on the heels of over forty years of hostility. Since the inception of the Indian Independence movement, its leaders – from both the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League – were hostile towards Zionism (though not Jews) for a variety of reasons.[3]
Muslim leaders of the Indian independence movement such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who later demanded Pakistan as a state for Muslims, found themselves in the paradoxical stance of demanding the partition of India but not of Palestine. Mahatma Gandhi did not understand why Jews were coming to Arab Palestine in the first place. Both India and Pakistan voted “No” to the establishment of Israel.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who followed Gandhi as India’s first Prime Minister, was a product of Cambridge education and a Socialist by conviction. He harbored idealistic, perhaps even unrealistic, views on foreign policy that shaped India’s direction from 1947 until the 1990s. Nehru’s vision included leading non-aligned nations in the post-colonial and Third World landscape, fostering a sense of fraternity with Asian countries like China and Russia, and harboring a strong aversion to American dominance and capitalist ideals. He also shared a close bond with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the secular Socialist leader and President of Egypt.
The only exception was V.D. Savarkar, godfather of Hindu Nationalism, the political creed of PM Modi and the BJP party. Savakar wrote an open letter congratulating Israel upon its founding.
It is the backdrop of the long-standing Nehruvian legacy that makes the current Israel-India relations so surprising.
Indian Economy and Political Power
Beyond mere friendship however, India is also accruing a newfound importance, to Israel and globally. From a country famous for masses living in abject poverty and neglect, hostile to USA and its allies, and with leaders famous for populism and corruption, India is finally being regarded as the rising global power it had always envisioned itself.
The initial economic liberalization that saved India from bankruptcy in 1992 has now led India to represent – as of 2022 – 7.2% of the global economy, with the 5th largest nominal GDP.
Pro-American sentiment is on the rise, even as Indian Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar, plots a course in foreign affairs that is asserting Indian independence from Western dictates. The greatest trophy for this independent Indian foreign policy would be a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Although it would force India to take stances rather than remain silently “non-aligned,” it would further the narrative of India as master of its own destiny.
The Indian government is at ideological loggerheads with both Western progressives regarding nationalism and Islam, and with American Evangelicals over the proselytization of Hindus. But beyond the snarky moralizing exemplified in Western media, Indian officials enjoy ever-growing collaboration with the highest levels of Western governments.
Aside from the goal of containing China, the primary reason for this red-carpet-treatment is the influence of India’s most valuable export: Indian brainpower. India exports enormous numbers of its best, brightest, and most ambitious citizens, who have become leaders in the fields of STEM and management, including the current CEOs of illustrious tech brands such as Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Palo Alto Networks. Indians and Israelis are the two most dominant minorities in Silicon Valley, and usually cultivate excellent work relationships, a sentiment echoed by former PM Naftali Bennet when speaking about his years as a high-tech CEO in the U.S.
Decades of elite immigration have led the 5-million-strong Indian-American community to supersede the Jews as the richest and most educated minority in the U.S. Yet a newer phenomenon is the Indian diaspora’s rising political power. Two Indian-originating Americans, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, are now contending for the Republican presidential nomination. Democratic Vice President, Kamala Harris, is half-Indian. There are five Indian Americans in Congress, ranging from radical ‘Squad’ member, Pramila Jayapal, to Shri Tenadar, who has founded a ‘Hindu Caucus.’ Rishi Sunak, PM of the UK, is a proud Hindu, as is former Home Secretary, Priti Patel, both Conservatives. Leo Vardakar is the PM of Ireland. Indians also lead countries in the Indies and South America such as Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname.
In the U.S., Indian-American advocacy organizations, such as the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), are collaborating with Jewish advocacy organizations like AJC and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and are even candidly adopting their methods; For example, modeling the definition of “Hinduphobia” along the contours of the IHRA definition for antisemitism.[4] As a conspicuous minority of non-white, non-Christian overachievers, Hindus have become targets of hate-crimes, and many Hindus, such as HAF leadership, are staunchly pro-Israel, as they are keenly aware that most of the anti-Hindu and and-Israel hatred originates from the same sources, with near-identical motivations
Israel-India Conservative Alliance
We now begin to understand the common interests of India and Israel. Some such interests are shared by Jewish and Hindu diasporas, and some are unique to their respective motherlands.
Both share the existential threat of the global Red-Green Alliance of Progressives and Islamists. Many Hindus in the U.S. and UK were horrified by the post Oct. 7 pro-Hamas rallies and the dramatic spike seen in antisemitic attacks. Given a chance, these same mobs will come for the Hindus, as has already been the case in the UK.[5]
This opens up the possibility of a global conservative counter-alliance, although some obvious difficulties would have to be overcome: Israeli conservatives publish primarily in Hebrew and are largely unknown in the Anglosphere. And like most Westerners, they are unfamiliar with modern India and its discourse.
Hindu conservatives (“Nationalists” is their preferred term) don’t get along with Evangelicals, and for all their deep admiration of Israel, they are generally unaware of the basics of Jewish and Israeli history and heritage. If a long-standing bridge is to be built, deeper foundations must promptly be laid.
However, the recent wartime TV appearances of conservatives such as Douglas Murray are leading to a growing awareness and appreciation of Western conservatives, with whom Indians have had only a love-hate relationship since colonial times. And never before have so many Israeli experts and dignitaries appeared en masse on Indian screens.
Israel, India, and Islam
One major building block for further unity is the fact that Israel and India both share the common threat of Islamic terrorism, albeit from different terrorists and countries. India is already the Israeli defense industries’ largest client, and it will take years more for India to fully modernize its defense forces. According to foreign sources, it was an emergency shipment of Israeli precise armaments that allowed India to triumph over Pakistan in the Kargil War of 1999. This was the watershed moment in India-Israel relations, long before the rise of PM Modi, in 2014.
The primary Islamic threat to India is from Pakistan, in which wild incitement against India is inculcated in public schools, madrassas, mosques, and media. The Pakistani military recruits terrorists to organizations such as Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT) for its cross-border attacks on Indian Kashmir, hidden behind a thin veil of plausible deniability. LeT was also responsible for the 26/11/2008 attacks on Mumbai, which killed 166 people, including four Israelis and two other Jews. Recently, Israel finalized its designation of LeT as a terrorist organization, and is lobbying for Hamas to be recognized as such by India.
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