‘De-hyphenate!’ That’s the word being used to describe India’s nimble delinking of bilateral relations with Israel and with Palestine. And that potential victory of political pragmatism, if not gymnastics, will be on full display this week, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as part of a five-day tour of India.
Netanyahu’s visit is the sibling of Narendra Modi’s July 2017 visit to Israel (and their prior meeting at the UN General Assembly) during which Modi didn’t visit Palestine. The increasing closeness between the leaders, at least in front of the cameras, illustrates what many describe as a tectonic shift in diplomatic relations between India and Israel.
But the Palestinian issue hasn’t disappeared; Iran is still a stumbling block, and the two countries’ mutual interest in outsized weapons deals plays a critical role in relations. Not that you’d pick that up at all from the flowery language used by Modi and Netanyahu – and that’s deliberate and calculated, from both sides.
Modi’s visit to Israel, the first ever by a serving Indian Prime Minister, was hailed as a historic and ‘momentous’ celebration of India-Israel diplomatic relations. Headlines screamed: ‘Indian PM Set to Make Historic First Visit To Israel,’ ‘Israel rolls out red carpet for PM Modi’s historic visit.’ For Modi, as with his other trips abroad, it was an opportune moment to present himself as a leader of global significance, not least to a domestic audience.
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