Coming out of the basement

Indrani Bagchi

The Indian Hospice in Old Jerusalem is the only one the UN still uses for refugee welfare activities, others having changed hands and disappeared. In fact, some years ago, it took an Israeli PM to intervene against several settlers who had arbitrarily moved in, just so the unique character of this building could be preserved. In some sense, it symbolizes the unique nature of the India-Israel relationship, which was in full bloom last week. 

Modi was always going to make Israel the last stop in his Middle East outreach, despite the fact that among the first congratulatory calls on May 16, 2014, came from Netanyahu. India’s Think West policy is a series of balancing acts, with Israel as a third pole all by itself. Given the nature of politics in that region, India had to secure all its other relationships before venturing into Jerusalem.

But once there, India embraced Israel wholeheartedly. Two things stood out for all watchers, first, Modi did not visit Ramallah to tick off the Palestine box, and second, among his first stops was to the memorial for Theodor Herzl, founding father of the Zionist movement. The second was probably more significant because it anchors the relationship in the recognition of its founding ideology. It was not surprising that the former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro tweeted, “The stunningly successful visit of Indian PM Modi this week was a huge strategic win 4 Israel. Arguably more important than a POTUS visit.”

The Modi welcome was certainly of a papal order, with a long line of religious leaders waiting for him on the tarmac. Over the next couple of days, a close relationship came out of the closet and acquired dimensions away from spooks and armies. Many have wondered, somewhat derisively, if agriculture and water, the stars of the show in Jerusalem, were a facade for the “real stuff” of counter-terrorism, intelligence and defence. All these have been happening for years now — Israel is the only country with which we have a pact on homeland security, which allows cooperation at the police thana level. 

What is clear is that water is a national security issue for India, as it was for Israel, before they actually did something about it. For people following the multiple stresses in the farm sector in India, Israel’s agriculture knowledge could modernise our neanderthal systems. There are multiple points of convergence between Israel and India in the development space, and all well documented. 

De-hyphenating Palestine is as important for Israel as de-hyphenating Pakistan is for India. India delivered on that. Mahmoud Abbas was a state guest in India just weeks ago, a visit that not only reaffirmed India’s commitment, but may have even secured Abbas’ own future for some time. Martin Indyk of Brookings observed recently that Abbas may have been overthrown by a group of Arab countries if he hadn’t suddenly been invited to White House and New Delhi in quick succession, giving him much-needed legitimacy.

It's easy to see what India gets from Israel — agriculture technology, water technology, an opportunity to tap into Israel’s thriving innovation culture, security and defence toys and tech, hopefully, a sense of existential mission that underlines all of Israel’s creativity, that desire to stay alive, to stay afloat when everyone around wants you to sink. India needs all of these in spades.

What does Israel get from India? A market and a vacation spot for Israeli youngsters. Look deeper. Israel’s innovators are famous for selling their creations — like WhatsApp — within years. Indians are great at market integration of new technologies, potentially big for Israeli and Indian companies.

Politically, India “normalises” Israel, just like it does Japan. To these historically crippled nations, India brings a clean slate — Jews have never been persecuted here, nor was Japan ever an enemy — without that historical baggage we are just “regular” nations striving to maintain a certain way of life. That’s why, even though China is a bigger trading partner and investor in Israel, India holds far greater promise.

Netanyahu will be in India before the year is out. It's time to look for the next big thing and this would breach the final frontier. Civil nuclear cooperation holds out great promise and could be the next big thing. It's time to take that cooperation out of the basement.

end

July 14, 2017