Historically, India had a very different relationship with Israel. Its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the influential Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi had opposed the creation of an Israeli state, fearing it would disfranchise Palestinians, and India voted against it at the UN.
India was the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the legitimate representative of
Palestine in the 1970s, giving
the group full diplomatic status in the 1980s and inviting PLO’s long-serving leader Yasser Arafat to visit several times, and consistently maintained a pro-Palestine position at the UN. It was only
after the PLO began a dialogue with Israel, and as US pressure began to build, that India finally
established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.
But it was the election of Modi that marked a fundamental sea change. While previous governments had kept their dealings with Israel largely quiet, due to concerns of alienating foreign allies and its
own vast Muslim population, Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP government had very different priorities.
In 2017, Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, which was reciprocated months later when Netanyahu travelled to Delhi. The images
of the pair strolling barefoot with their trousers rolled up along Haifa beach in Tel Aviv, described by Indian media at the time as a “budding bromance”, were later used by both leaders in campaign material.
Essa said: “The narrative they
were pushing was clear: that
India and Israel are these ancient civilisations that had been derailed by outsiders – which means Muslims – and their leaders have come together, like long-lost brothers, to fulfill their
destiny.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal has described Narendra Modi as the most corrupt and least educated prime minister in the history of India. “BJP under the guidance of Narendra Modi is attempting to destroy the country, ” Kejriwal said in the state assembly here on Friday.
Israel has never found a POS they didn’t bribe, blackmail or embrace.
Modi “money money money money, MONEY!”