India Archives - Page 3 of 8

January 15, 2018

PM Netanyahu and his Wife Welcomed by Indian PM Modi at the Presidential Palace

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, today (Monday, 15 January 2018), were welcomed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the presidential palace in an official ceremony that included an honor guard of more than 100 soldiers. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vehicle received a mounted escort; the two countries’ national anthems were played.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

“This is the dawn of a new era in the great friendship between India and Israel that began with Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Israel, which created tremendous enthusiasm. It continues with my visit here, which I must say is deeply moving for my wife and me, and for the entire people of Israel. And I think it heralds a flourishing of our partnership to bring prosperity and peace and progress for both our people.”

Following the ceremony, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, along with Indian Prime Minister Modi, participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Raj Ghat memorial to the late Mahatma Gandhi. Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote in the guestbook: “Such grandeur and simplicity in honor of modern India’s founding father, one of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders.”

January 2, 2018January 2, 2018

India to Buy 131 Surface to Air Missiles from Israel Ahead of Netanyahu’s Visit

India’s Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given the go ahead for the procurement of 131 Surface to Air Barak missiles. This is separate from the deal India scrapped with Israel’s Rafael Advance Defence in November of 2017. The Ministry of Defense had decided to cancel the $500 million with Rafael systems for acquiring of the Spike Anti Tank Guided Missile because India wanted to develop their own version.

The deal for the Barak missiles was announced today to be timed before Prime Minister Netanyahu’s first state visit to India.

The two rising powers have been coming closer for years, but under Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist leader, the relationship between India and Israel has reached new heights.

Despite the very warm relations between India and Israel, the Modi government voted for Turkey’s resolution at the UN condemning President Trump’s declaration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Most experts believe that India will take time to shift their voting at the UN in Israel’s favor since the Hindu majority country has a large minority of Muslims equally around 100 million.

December 14, 2017December 14, 2017

Why It Is Incumbent Upon India To Recognise Jerusalem As The Capital Of Israel

When does an Indian become an admirer of Israel? I do not know. It almost happens spontaneously and naturally. Then to become an anti-Semite, Israel-hating Palestine supporter it takes years of left-wing indoctrination.

There are ‘intellectuals’ and ‘analysts’ who say Indian Israeli supporters are similar to the evangelical Israeli supporters in the United States(US) – the typical US right-wing. No. There is a vital difference. For the evangelical supporters of the US, the formation of Israel is part of the fulfillment of their scriptural prediction. These are events bound to happen in their concept of end-time. Hence they support Israel. However, they do not have any innate value and love lost for Israel or Judaism as an equal but separate spiritual heritage of humanity.

What about Hindus? Perhaps, it is just the common purpose of Islamist opposition that unites Hindus and Hebrews? The answer is a clear “no”.

Beyond the problem of the so-called common enemies, Hindus and Jews are united by deep spiritual and cultural ties.

For centuries, if not millennia, Hindus have had connections with Hebrews. And despite Hinduism being a non-monotheistic religion which allows an infinite variety of spiritual paths to flourish within, Indians have been remarkably free of anti-Semitism.

When Anti-Semitism was axiomatic to the world-view of Christendom, a letter attributed to Shivaji, the seventeenth century formulator of the concept of Hindavi Swaraj, addressing the Mughal despot Aurangazeb, spoke about the need for a ‘policy of treating with peace and equality the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Dadu’s followers, sky-worshippers (falakia), malakia, materialists (ansaria), atheists (daharia), Brahmans and Jain priests.’ The letter presents the kernel of the Hindutva worldview. It is not against pluralism and diversity. In fact, it is proactively for preserving pluralism and diversity.
On the other hand, it is against expansionist monocultures of any sect or cult.

Thus, Hindutva recognises from its very inception, the Jewish right to live as an ancient and great part of human spiritual heritage. So, the Hindu-Hebrew collaboration in this regard dates back centuries. Gandhian Jewish scholar Yohanan Ben David in his paper, ‘The Jews of India with special reference to the Bene Israel’ writes:

The Bene Israel too felt threatened by the bigotry of Aurangazeb and Shivaji was as much their champion as he was of the Hindus. Even now Bene Israel speak with no less fervour than any Hindu in the ‘Kasba’ at Pune when recounting the deeds of Shivaji. Bene Israel families (even in Israel) preserve Maratha swords as heirlooms. … Kehimkar, for example, mentions the Bene Israel Churrikars who were Naiks of the Angre fleet. For their services, they received land in ‘inam’ and a Sarnad. A Bene Israel called Eloji, a poet, was consulted on financial matters and foreign policy by the Angre.

Yohanan Ben David, Indo-Judaic Studies: Some Papers, 2002

Yohanan Ben David points out that the Bene Israel had become so much part of Maratha society that they even Indianised their first names. ‘Elijah became Eloji; Samuel Samaji; Issac Isaji; and so on’. Elsewhere in South India, according to Jewish chronicles, Hindu king Sri Parkaran Iravi Vanmar granted Joseph Rabban the village of Anjuvannam and entitled the Rabbi to a palanquin and parasol – a royal status. Anjuvannam flourished as a little Jewish kingdom in itself until ‘the Portuguese put an end to this kingdom in 1565’. When the Catholic inquisition threatened the Jews, they fled to Cochin and the Hindu king there offered them protection. Yohanan Ben David makes a pertinent observation here:

For the next four hundred years, the Jews are treated with a liberality that surpasses all understanding. Here it should be emphasized that the Jewish experience in India was unique in Jewish history that there was no antisemitism whatsoever. The Jews were not discriminated against, expelled or exterminated, something that had been their common lot elsewhere.

Thus, Hindutva has consistently recognised the special place of Jews as original contributors to human spirituality, culture and civilisation. It is from this recognition that their love and support for Israel comes.

As against this, the ‘Palestinian’ movement in India has its roots in pan-Islamist, anti-Semitic as well as anti-Hindu politics. Mohammad Iqbal, the intellectual founder and guide of the Pakistan movement during the crucial period of the late 1930s to 1947, in a letter dated 28 May 1937, drew parallels between Hindus and Jews in undivided India and ‘Palestine’ respectively. In this letter, Iqbal even talked of ‘repeating Palestine’ in certain parts of north-west India. Later, in a letter marked ‘private and confidential’ to Jinnah on 7 October 1937, he spoke of the Palestinian issue as ‘a very fine opportunity for mass contact for the purposes of the League’. Muslim League converted these ideas into rabble rousing hate speeches against Hindus, comparing them with Jews, ultimately resulting in the genocidal fury of ‘Direct Action’ day violence against Hindus.

Muriel Lester, in whose house Gandhi stayed during his visit to England was at ground-zero of the Noakhali holocaust at Gandhi’s request. She described the storm troopers of the League as ‘well planned quite a Hitlerian network of folks’. Dr Ambedkar too had discovered Hitlerian methodology in the politics of Pakistan movement:

The Muslims are now speaking the language of Hitler and claiming a place in the sun as Hitler has been doing for Germany. For their demand for 50 per cent is nothing but a counterpart of the German claims for Deutschland Uber Alles and Lebensraum for themselves, irrespective of what happens to other minorities.

Thoughts On Pakistan, Chapter XI – Communal Aggression

The relation between the so-called Palestinian movement and Nazis is today a well established fact. How both Hitlerian anti-Hindu sentiment, as well as the anti-Semitism of the so-called ‘Palestinian’ movement morphed into anti-Hindu Pakistan movement with disastrous results for the Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who to this day are targets of genocide (1971) and continuous pogroms, is a much less studied phenomenon.

Jinnah also met here Hassan al-Banna, the leader of ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ and also a close comrade in arms of Mufti. Al-Banna had openly accepted Hitlerian methodology and Nazi hatred of Jews. Combining Nazi anti-Semitism with Islamic anti-Semitism, he noted that Hitler had taught him that the aim of propaganda was to incite ‘wrathful hatred’ and it should be incited as ‘an exterminationist hatred first of the Jews and then of anyone else who opposed Islam.’ (David Patterson, 2012) Al-Banna acknowledged Jinnah as the ‘Muslim leader par excellence’. Jinnah scholar Akbar Ahmed writes regarding the significance of this meeting:

The significance of Hassan al-Banna meeting Jinnah and writing to him in glowing terms is immense. The Muslim Brotherhood has over the last half-century grown in influence throughout the Middle East. Hassan al-Banna’s ideas on Islam, on the revival within the community, on pan-Islamism, on challenging the cultural and political supremacy of the West, on asserting an Islamic identity have had a huge influence well beyond the Arab world. Even today, al-Banna’s ideas reverberate throughout the Muslim world, putting pressure on governments to move towards Islam.

Jinnah, Pakistan And Islamic Identity: The Search For Saladin,Routledge,2005

Thus the support for the so-called ‘Palestinian’ cause has an anti-Hindu element embedded in it historically, whether we like it or not.

What lurks behind the so-called Palestinian movement is not a land problem but a theological inability to accept Jews and Judaism as a separate independent spiritual heritage of humanity having the right for existence. The Replacement theology which is at the heart of both Christian evangelism and puritanical Islamism demand that the Jewish scriptures have been overrun by their own messiah or prophet cults. So, all Jews have to do is to convert to either one of these two religions or, if they do not convert, the very reason for their existence is only to fulfill their role in end-time prophecies of these two religions. Each time a Christian speaks of Hebrew Bible as ‘Old Testament’ he or she inadvertently propagates deeply internalised anti-Semitism. For an Islamist, Jews are not just outdated but also villainous. The prevalent mindset of today’s Arabian common psyche is not much different from the pre-holocaust view of Jews by the Christendom.

Interestingly, the same religious anti-Semitism can be found in that ‘secular’ mutation of expansionist Christianity – Marxism. Karl Marx, himself a Jew whose family converted to a section of virulently anti-Semitic Lutheran Christianity, embraced anti-Semitism in his ideological formulations. Author Louis Rapoport writes:

Long before the alleged Jewish plot discerned by Dostoevsky and the author of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Marx inadvertently encourages the anti-Semitic myth that the Jews controlled the world’s money markets. He portrayed the Rothschild banking family as the personification of cancerous capitalism, as would countless as other socialists and in his correspondence made occasional remarks of an incipiently anti-Semitic nature, as when he expressed admiration of ancient Egypt for expelling the ‘nation of lepers’. … The man who became Lenin was not at all personal anti-Semitic, in the manner of Marx or Stalin but he did preach that it was essential for Jews to disappear through total assimilation.

‘Stalin’s War Against The Jews’, Collier Macmillan, 1990

For the right-wing Christians of the Nazi type, the Jews were the problem makers creating Marxist and Bolshevik revolution, so they had to be eliminated. For the left-wing, either the Jews had to disappear, or they were part of the bourgeois elite – the most evil capitalist manipulators against socialism. For the evangelical Christian right-wing, the Jews and Israel have only one value – part of their end-time prophecy. For the Islamists, the Jews are a living negation of their prophet’s claim to be the final prophet and hence they were a cursed people.

Based on this deep hatred and prejudices against Jews, each of these forces had their own reason to oppose Israel, limitedly support it, or weaken it. The theological hatred of course cannot be exhibited as such in modern secular environment today and hence the anti-Semitism of the left provides an excellent secular camouflage. And if Israel itself cannot be deprived of its physical existence, let us at least weaken it psychologically by denying it its rightful ownership of Jerusalem, her spiritual capital, or so seems the case.

Hence, any denial of Israel’s right over Jerusalem as its capital is a denial of human pluralism and true secularism. Let us recognise the fact that Jerusalem primarily belongs to Judaism. Any claim Christianity or Islam may make of the holy city is only secondary and definitely cannot replace the Judaic heart of Jerusalem. For Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem contains some of their holy places whereas for Judaism and the Jew, Jerusalem is in itself completely holy and inviolate. By recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Christian and Islamic world can bring themselves out of the theo-psychological cages they have places themselves for almost 2,000 and 1,300 years respectively.

And that brings in the role of India. Post-Independent India has long been misdirected in its Israel policies by vote-bank politics. Thus, it supported the so-called Palestinian cause which has always stood against India and Hindus. Now, India should free herself of the vote-bank politics and myopic vision. Recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a civilisational duty of India.

Let two ancient spiritual nations and modern nation-states reinforce in all humanity that spiritual streams of varied nature add vitality to our planet and we can all live with the goodwill and mutual respect in this pale blue dot of ours.

Originally Published in Swarajaya

November 22, 2017November 22, 2017

India cancels $500 million Missile Deal With Israel…Now What?

As the Indian-Israeli relationship continues to grow and mature to something akin to long-lost cousins rediscovering each other, something strange appears to have happened. The Indian MoD has decided to cancel a $500 million deal for anti-tank missiles signed with Rafael in 2014.

The Indian Express reported the following on Monday:

“Ministry sources told The Indian Express that the decision to cancel the deal was based on the consideration that importing a foreign ATGM at this stage would adversely impact the programme for indigenous development of the weapon system by DRDO. Earlier, India had also rejected an offer from US-based Raytheon-Lockheed Martin for Javelin ATGM in favour of the Israeli weapon system.”

While this may seem like a serious dent in future relations between Israel and India, it isn’t and nor should it be. The misnomer outsiders have involving the relationship between Israel and India revolves around the misunderstanding that the special relationship between the two countries is one tactical and two based on defense sales from Israel to India.

These two notions should be disposed of immediately. The relationship between India and Israel has been growing from the ground up for over two decades. While India recognized Israel in 1950, the two did not begin formal relations until 1990. It was initially Israelis post the army that began to travel to India in a way which created a real grassroots relationship.

These Israelis brought back stories and connections. These inspired more Israelis to travel to India. When the tech boom happened Israeli companies sought out inexpensive yet quality programming in India. The economic relationship continued to be built in a decentralized manner.

Both Indians and Israelis recognize that their cultures are ancient and with that recognition a special bond has been built over the years. Afterall, while Jews lived in exile, they appeared to have found the best treatment in India.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Rafael deal may not seem business like by Western standards, but Israelis should be supportive of India’s strategic goal of self-reliance even if it hits us in the pocket in the short-term. It is important that alliances and strategic partnerships are based on mutual benefits where neither side holds an upper hand. An India, which is truly independent is an India that is far better for Israel in the long term.

With all of this being said, the Indian Express reported in the same article that “the Indian military, which currently uses an inferior anti-tank missile that does not work well at night, reportedly expressed concerns that the decision to scrap the Spike deal would negatively affect its preparedness, and that there was ‘operational urgency’ for the Israeli missile.”

India, like Israel appears in need of balancing its short-term military necessities while constantly building home-grown defense equipment. With the geopolitical circumstances around India entering a far more manic and uncertain stage, both Israel and India would do well to help each other build short-term and long-term approaches to defense partnerships.

August 23, 2017

India is Fast Becoming a Central Player in America’s Recalibration in Asia

With all of the focus on President Trump’s new Afghanistan policy, the other sections of the speech given Monday hold within them a major shift in policy in Asia.

President Trump said the following:

“The next pillar of our new strategy is to change the approach in how to deal with Pakistan. We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond.”

“Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists. In the past, Pakistan has been a valued partner. Our militaries have worked together against common enemies. The Pakistani people have suffered greatly from terrorism and extremism. We recognize those contributions and those sacrifices, but Pakistan has also sheltered the same organizations that try every single day to kill our people. We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars, at the same time they are housing the same terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change. And that will change immediately.”

Then Trump spoke about India, as if to indicate America’s intention to shift away from Pakistan to India.

“Another critical part of the South Asia strategy or America is to further develop its strategic partnership with India, the world’s largest democracy and a key security and economic harbor of the United States. We appreciate India’s important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development. We are committed to pursuing our shared objectives for peace and security in South Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region.”

This is seismic. In one speech, Trump realigns US foreign policy away from Pakistan and towards an ascending India. Furthermore, India is essentially dealing with the same threats as America. Both countries face a growing threat in China and of course India and the US are direct targets of radical Islamic terror, much of it grown in Shiite dominated Pakistan.

The fact that China and Pakistan have a growing partnership underscores the need for the US to recalibrate its approach in both Central and East Asia. India affords Trump the possibility to create a new order in Asia. One that is not built around propping up despotic or corrupt governments that have a revolving door policy on radical Islamic terrorists.

Trump’s firm outreach to India instantly changes the nature of the game with China. The skirmishes with Chinese forces in Bhutan may seem like a prelude to the next war, but in reality Modi’s firm stance and now Trump’s clear backing will act as a deterrent.

Look for Israeli technology, especially in the UAV sector to become a critical part in monitoring China’s actions in the Himalayas. It is no accident that the three countries, USA, India and Israel share many of the same threats and have begun to build an alliance to push back on them.

Trump’s recognition that India’s position in the region can be utilized to dissuade China from making any destabilizing moves is important. Furthermore, the most important part of this shift is the ending of what has been a presidential strategy spanning both Bush and Obama in partnering with Pakistan against terror and the Taliban.

The growing Israel, India, and US alliance may be a game changer in Asia. With threats on the Indian sub-continent growing daily, this alliance is key to safeguarding its peace and security.