DNA Edit: PM Modi’s masterstroke

In a globalised world, the rules governing the relationships between nations have been recalibrated. The earlier dynamic informed by ideological considerations has been set aside. New rules of the international diplomacy game are based on meeting strategic and business ends without emphasising on the need for complete and absolute alignment. Thus, it is possible for PM Modi to visit Israel in July 2017 and follow it up with a visit to Palestine within a year. In the last decade, Israel-India relationships have strengthened on the back of a thriving arms trade. Israel is the fourth largest exporter of arms to India after the US, Russia and France. From the line-up of supplies, it looks like Israel is set to outrun the other three sooner than later.

A study by FICCI predicts that India will be spending close to $620 billion between 2014 and 2022 in purchasing weapons. If this does turn out to be true, it will be Israel that will be striking gold given its position as a major supplier to India. On the other hand, Israel, historically and geo-strategically, has been at loggerheads with the Palestinian state. Many would expect that a trip to Palestine hot on the heels of a visit to Israel will unsettle the peaceful status quo and the thriving trade between the two nations.

However, these fears are far too exaggerated. Consider, for instance, that Israel has active ties with China, so much so, that it has enthusiastically welcomed China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative despite knowing very well India’s reservation on the same. Interestingly, Israel is also the largest trading partner of China in Asia with the trade balance between the two going up as high as $11.4 billion on an annual basis. Additionally, Israel has also marginalised India’s growing concern over the rising clout of China in the Indian Ocean region.

India, on the other hand, criticised Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital at the UN last year and affirmed its decades-old support to the cause of the Palestinian state. Mid-2017, even before PM Modi had set off on his historic visit to Israel last year, he had hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a view to settling any ruffled feathers. Eventually, through a series of strategic decisions, India has kept a healthy distance from the political and schismatic quicksand of the region.

With the growing acceptance of India as a global superpower, Palestine has also come to terms with the fact that India will share enriched trade and bilateral relationships with Israel. Even Israel understands that given India’s long history of supporting the Palestinian cause, it is not likely to tread a new path now. Incidentally, with this visit, PM Modi has shed the burden that often follows ties with Israel or Palestine. India, for once, is not holding on to doctrinal shibboleths of old that would have forced India to embrace one nation over the other. Under PM Modi, it is possible for India’s foreign policy to de-hyphenate Israel and Palestine, and have fruitful ties with both of them.