Tag: India

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Trump, Israel, and the Need to Navigate the Global Chaos

Whether one likes Donald Trump or not, everyone agrees he has forever changed the landscape of American politics. The Donald’s scorched earth policy on his adversaries has not only worked to ensure he becomes the Republican nominee, it has upended the political and donor class of the US two party system.

No amount of will or force will be enough to give Americans what they crave.  The world has changed.

Americans have more or less opted to back a candidate who “will get things done,” rather than pay homage to the constitution and the framers’ vision of an exceptional nation.  The rest of the world has for many years seen things this way, yet for the US it has clung to a notion that it was different and special.  In truth, with spiraling debt, a waning military influence, and a generation of distracted spoiled youth, America may have in fact seen its best days behind it.  Of course this is what many out there, outside the beltway and big cities fear and this is exactly the type of fear Donald Trump draws his energy from.

No amount of will or force will be enough to give Americans what they crave.  The world has changed. The emerging economies of the East and Africa, coupled with innovation engines like Israel are changing the global dynamics overnight. It’s true Americans need a President that will get things done, but the Donald’s notion that one just needs to be a good manager and force a populist agenda will increase the chaotic downward spiral that American’s feel they are in.

 

Trump Ensures that Israel will Pivot Away from America

With Obama’s flip flopping on everything to do with foreign policy, especially when it comes to the Middle East, Israel has increasingly turned elsewhere for new partnerships.  Israel has grown closer to India and China as well as the Eastern African countries like Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Relations are growing with a host of Eastern European countries as well as former Soviet Block nations like Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Israelis crave stability and the last few years has put a monkey wrench in their country’s desire to carve a stable environment for their economy and populace to thrive.  Obama’s weak foreign policy has thrashed old paradigms, while creating a host of new challenges.  Trump’s chaos is too much for many Israeli leaders and his ascendancy may well drive Israel further towards China and even Russia. In an environment with increased instability, the Israeli government finds itself in an unenviable position in having to decide on putting stock into an America in decline versus positioning itself as the most reliable country in the Middle East with a neutral foreign policy.

Trump’s rhetoric, although welcome by many in Israel after eight years of a post American foreign policy approach by Obama, is far too erratic and unbalanced to be trusted to force a re-calibration of America’s interests.  More likely it will help entrench those very forces Israel is now dealing with.

 

Surviving the Coming Chaos Requires a New Paradigm in Partnership Building

Whether we like it or not, the world seems bent on heading into a period of tremendous chaos and instability. Trump’s ascendancy is only part of the reason for this. Other reasons include increased technology usage in developing nations, Islamic fundamentalism, a rising East, an imminent EU collapse, as well as others.

The situation does not have to be dire. Israel needs to continue to build reliable partnerships with countries like India, China, and Kenya.

If we create a partnership between Israel’s inventive capability and China’s manufacturing capability, we will have a winning combination.

Increasing trade ties between China and Israel have now led to discussion concerning a free trade agreement. Already back in 2013 Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “Israel is not as big as China. We have eight million residents, approximately one-third the population of Shanghai. But we manufacture more intellectual property than any other country in the world in relation to its size. If we create a partnership between Israel’s inventive capability and China’s manufacturing capability, we will have a winning combination.”

Israel is seen by many in Sub Saharan Africa as a reliable military and trading partner, with budding relationships mimicking the same trajectory that occurred between Israel and India over a decade ago.

The government will have to figure out what to do about Russia.  They are not going away and Putin may be the best suited to help Israel put pressure on Hezbollah and Iran. Whether it is Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Israel’s traditional geopolitical and economic relationships are permanently resetting. These newer partnerships Israel has been cultivating become an important part of creating a far more stable world order.

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Does Israel have a Biafra Strategy?

In 1914 the British took three distinct areas, Lagos Colony, Hausa, and Biafra and forced them together. This action was congruent with a similar policy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and India.  The British had a particular paternal view of their colonies and because they decried the seemingly evil policies of France, Germany, and Belgium, they promoted their policies as civilized and caring.

Nothing is further from the truth. Most of the countries listed above are still suffering from the conflict oriented policy of the British Empire in the early 20th century.  This policy thrived on forcing rivals to share space and backing non-indigenous peoples as rulers or agitators in that space.

The Igbo in Nigeria make up the third largest tribe, but in Biafra they are well in the majority. The fact that Nigeria as  a British backed government has forced the Igbo to suffer at the hands of their worst enemies is only due to British interests. Before 1914 the Hausa never had access to the cost. The British backed them by forcing Biafra into Nigeria, thus paving the way to suppressing what they saw as the biggest threat to British control, Biafran independence.

A similar set of circumstances occurred in Israel.  As the early Jewish residents busied themselves with building their Land and preparing to bring more and more Jewish exiles back home, the British decided to offset the rapid Jewish growth with new Arab workers and immigrants.  To be fair this policy began with the Turks who allowed and encouraged Arab migration from other areas in the Ottoman Empire to the Land of Israel in order to offset the success of the early Zionists.  Arabs often point out that they had lived in the Land of Israel for centuries, but they use statistics from 1912, because that was the year they finally became significant enough as a population throughout the Land. The British continued this policy, going as far as banning Jewish immigration altogether.

As mentioned above, a similar policy was implemented in Iraq, Afghanistan, and India. The British kept their rule in a all of these places by stirring discontent and thwarting independence movements through bribery and conflating the local leadership and colonial government.

Israel Needs a Clear Biafra Strategy

To truly be free and rectify the sins of European colonialism, Biafra must be allowed its independence.  Israel needs to harness its resources and influence to force this outcome.  They can do this by using the South-Sudan model or by encouraging its new found East Africa partners to push for Biafran independence.

If Israel fails at setting a clear strategy in a flailing Nigeria, it risks losing a potential ally as well as a bulwark against expanding Islamic influence. Bibi has been adept at sensing and grabbing onto the shifting currents in the Middle East and Africa.  Biafra is key to his current strategy of building trusted and reliable allies in the former European colonies in Africa. It would be wise for him to formerly push for a stable and free Biafra.

 

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Decolonizing the Future

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

 

The issue of Israel’s legitimacy is a question once reserved to the far left corners of Western academia and Arabist leaders in the middle east.  As time has gone on delegitimizing Israel has moved more and more mainstream.

As India, the Kurds, and East African countries rise out of the bonds of neo-colonial European, Arab, and Sunni Muslim oppression, the global security state which formed post Cold War has kicked into hyper drive to denounce many of these countries as aggressors, terror sponsors, or corrupt as well.

Essentially, the Western world as well as their Arab allies has gone about flipping the once colonized to the status of those doing the colonization.  This is true, whether it is meant for Israel, Kurdistan, or even India.  What is behind this seemingly warped sense of reality, where the former oppressed are deemed the new oppressors?

 

European and Arab Countries Fear the New Emerging Order

For years it was BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), but now there is a sense that another order is beginning to emerge.  The future of Israel, India, Kurdistan, and East Africa have become unexpectedly intertwined.

East Africa, Israel, and India were all former British colonies.  Israel and India gained their independence the same year and Kenya became independent in 1963, with other East African states following suit shortly after. These former colonies are homes to ancient cultures oppressed both by Arab or Muslim radicals as well as White European Christians. The exploitation of these areas first occurred in Israel when the Romans conquered Judea and dispersed much of indigenous Judeans to the far reaches of the Empire.  The remaining Jews withstood Byzantine aggression only to be forcibly converted by Arab Islamic conquerors in the 8th Century.  

This same parallel occurred in East Africa as Arab slave traders weakened Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania long before the Europeans finished the brutalization through forcibly confiscating Kenyan land and colonizing the country.

Indian Hindus fought off the Islamic hordes for centuries only to be taken over by British muscle.In all of the three cases the British and other European interlocutors used the artificial Arab and Islamic presence to weaken th indigenous rights of the true national owners.  The partnership with European colonialists and slave traders with Arab and Islamic leaders benefited both sides.  The Europeans were able to control the indigenous population by ’giving claim to the false Arab and Islamic narrative, while the Islamic Umma expanded its control.

The rise of real partnerships, based on mutual trust, parallel histories, and common aspirations is scary to Europeans who are being left out as their continent falls into the abyss and is likewise threatening to the Arab and Radical Islamic movement that suffers the greatest when it appears weak to its followers.

 

What About Kurdistan?

Kurdistan is increasingly being seen as an independent actor.  When the Peshmerga was seen as an ally against ISIS, the world cheered, but independence was a dream that would have gone too far. The truth is, Kurdistan has long been colonized by the Arab and Turkish world.  The artificial boundaries of the Sykes-Picot agreement were placed in order satisfy the power of both the Arabs and Turkish regime rather than allow the real indigenous people of Northern Iraq, Syria and Southern Turkey to thrive and control what is rightfully theirs.

As the Sykes-Picot lines are beginning to melt away the inevitability of an independent Kurdistan is now a reality. Israel has already expressed support for an independent Kurdistan.  With Kurdistan’s realization, the new Middle East, Africa, and Indian sub continent would reshape global economic and geopolitical affairs.

 

The Only Weapon Left is Delegitimization

The fractured and weakened Europe and primitive Arab world has only one arrow left in their proverbial quiver and that is to delegitimize these countries as oppressors, terror actors, capitalists, and colonizers.  

The world has classified Israel as the occupier when it comes to the Palestinians, even though most Palestinians are new inhabitants save for the residents of the villages in and around Hebron who were forcibly converted over a thousand years ago.

India is deemed racist and nationalistic as Modi their Hindu ultra-nationalist prime minister has charted an independent foreign policy. The international community plays the Punjab controlled Islamic state of Pakistan against India when it comes to the disagreement over Kashmir, when in reality Pakistan was carved from India in 1948 to placate the Muslim world, which invaded India and is the one supporting terror.

Kenya and the surrounding countries are now seen as “corrupt” as they have sought to modernize and realign themselves away from Europe and the Arab world in favor of Israel and India.

The Kurds are deemed terrorists, when in reality it is the Turks who support and nurture ISIS. The Europeans and Americans have promised to aid the Kurds and yet decade after decade the West has purposely held back real arms and support.

 

Conclusion

As the old global security and economic structures collapse the powers behind the scenes will unavoidably paint a world that is based on falsehoods rather than the truth.  This old world will not succeed as long as the new players, the formerly oppressed continue to work together to create a new type of world; one that is based on truth and fairness as well as a rectification of past grievances.  These grievances began with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans and continued into Africa and the Near East by the Arab world and Europeans.

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India Investing in Israel, Israel Updating India

India and Israel have been courting each other for nearly twelve years now, and in recent years the relationship has blossomed into a full-blown love affair. The two biggest investment firms in India are already smitten with the small, technology-based country, and now the third conglomerate is getting in on the fun. Aditya Birla has dispatched representatives to assess the current situation in Israel as a precursor for some major investments into the development of several lucky startups, and Israel is welcoming the idea with open arms.

Aditya Birla Scopes Out The Scene

The Group Executive President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Dev Bhattacharya, came to Israel in February with the explicit instructions to scout out the prospects. Along with several directors of various branches of Aditya Birla, Bhattacharya reviewed close to 500 startups across Israel that covered the spectrum of the technology industry. After the initial assessment, Aditya Birla will bring a select few of the chosen companies over to India to pitch their concepts to the board of investors. The lucky winners will receive a fund that will allow these companies to continue researching and developing their concepts.

The companies reviewed covered a wide range of industries including cybersecurity, water tech, financial technology, new media, and cleantech. Aditya Birla already has their hand in most industries across India, so the spread is in keeping with their current domestic practices. The company currently stands at approximately $41 million.

Previous Investments

Infosys made headlines when they bought out Panaya, a major database management service in Israel that is based on the cloud, for $200 million. This was a worthwhile investment that helped Infosys advance their service offerings and expand their reach. Tata is another smart Indian company that jumped on the Israel bandwagon early on. They have already invested in the Tel Aviv University’s Technology Innovation Momentum Fund, and Tata is looking towards their groundbreaking discoveries in several fields including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, cleantech, and software development.

According to Shlomo Nimrodi, Ramot’s CEO, “Tata is a huge company, worth $100 billion at least, but they have made a strategic decision to significantly expand that worth in the coming years, and the best way for them to do that is via innovation.” So it seems that Israeli innovations are the up and coming trends for developing economies.

A Win-Win Situation

The partnership is being viewed as a positive move for both sides of the arrangement. The Israeli startups are excited to be getting the funding to fuel further development of some concepts and technologies could very well change the face of the world. The Indian investors are also thrilled to be the recipients of these new technologies and are anxious to see what this undervalued resource of the Middle East will produce in the future. With this deal in the bag, the world can expect to see more Indian-Israel relations cropping up in the coming years.

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Israel Is Advancing Collaboration With Developing Countries

Last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu attended the launch of the Knesset Caucus for Israel-Africa Relations where he spoke about promoting and increasing cooperation between Africa and Israel in the areas of health, science, agriculture, tourism, science and cyber technology.

In the presence of Israeli lawmakers and ambassadors from African countries, the Prime Minister said:

“Israel is coming back to Africa. Africa is coming back to Israel. It’s happening in a big way. It’s happening now because it’s so clear that it’s good for Africa and good for Israel.”

A perfect example of advancing this initiative is Netafim’s irrigation solution for a sugar plantation in Ethiopia. Netafim CEO Ran Maidan said, “This is a large international agricultural project, and a strategic project that strengthens Netafim’s business in Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular. Netafim was selected to lead the project because of its proven ability to supply advanced end-to-end solutions for large and complex projects, while advising the customers at all stages.”

India is another country benefiting from Israeli innovation.  The Himayat Bagh Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence launched a new initiative to recycle accumulating sewage water and use it to irrigate the Kesar mango crops in India. Israel’s advancements in agricultural innovation and water treatment technology are pivotal in bridging the two countries economically.

Drought-stricken Papua New Guinea received GalMobile water purification vehicles from Israel to convert non-potable water into clean drinking water for millions of its thirsty citizens.

Columbian farmers are cutting back on chemical pesticides with help from Bio-Bee mites, a completely natural way to help eliminate harmful species of spiders that are destroying crops.

A team from Hebrew University is helping Uganda raise an abundant supply of carp fish by applying techniques developed over many years for Israeli fish farmers.

The list of Israeli innovation and technology being shared with the world goes on and on. Hopefully, PM Netanyahu’s future trip to African countries will help cultivate even further cooperation between Africa and Israel.

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Israeli Sewage Recycling Technology to Renew Hope for Indian Agriculture

It’s common knowledge that Israelis can work magic in the realm of agriculture and, more specifically, nontraditional irrigation demands. Using their advanced technology, the Israeli government transformed a desert strip into a fruit-bearing produce exporter with delectable produce on-demand in every season.

In an effort to raise productivity throughout India, the two countries partnered up to bring these ground-breaking technologies to Indian soil with positive results all around. This month, the Centre of Excellence launches a new initiative to recycle accumulating sewage water and use it to irrigate the Kesar mango crops.

A Centre is Built & a Partnership is Born

Since its inception several years ago, the Himayat Bagh Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence has been utilizing Israeli technologies, research laboratories, and packaging houses to promote and develop the agricultural sector in the area. With its newest project, the CoE aims to irrigate the mango crops with recycled sewage water from the Salim Ali Lake. While India will be contributing the infrastructure and location for implementing the new system, Israel will provide the training and support for the technology. A perfect combination.

There are currently four centres of excellence peppered across India. Kesar and Alphonso mango centres are in Aurangabad and Dapol respectively. The other two centres are in Rahuri and Nagpur, the former producing bumper crops of pomegranates, and the latter growing citrus fruits.

Addressing the Drought Issue

At an Adhunik Kissan gathering, David Akov, Israeli Consul General, spoke of the recurring drought issue in India. “To overcome the lengthening cycles of drought in Marathwada,’ says Akov, “the region should go [the] Israel way and develop a system for recycling, purifying, storing and conveying treated waste-water when and where farms need it, along with renowned drip-irrigation innovations to use the precious liquid most efficiently for agriculture.”

Israel is quite familiar with this process. Nearly 85% of sewage in Israel is recycled. Amazingly, this recycled sewage accounts for close to half of the crop irrigation needs of the entire country.

Technology Sharing

In addition to the sewage recycling systems, India is interested in implementing several other Israeli technologies that will help boost their agricultural market. Water conservation, post-harvest processing, and drip irrigation systems will all increase crop production and significantly reduce the dismay that many Indian farmers are currently under. Israel is also working side by side with the Indian government to set up administrative divisions in both Yavatmal and Osmanabad to help further the rural integration development efforts within the country.

With all these initiatives in place, it can be said with confidence that the Indo-Israel CoE will produce resounding success for the entire country to enjoy.