An article published by the American magazine "Foreign Policy" highlighted that relations between India and Israel are currently close economically, politically and militarily, highlighting that there is a common denominator between the Indian and Israeli governments, which is their declared hostility towards minorities, especially Muslims.
These bilateral ties have been significantly strengthened since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, noting that this engagement will enable the two sides to play a broader role in the Middle East, and in the Persian Gulf in particular.
Relations between the two sides have always been tinged with apprehension; India has been unenthusiastic about supporting a religiously based state, and it has been sympathetic in its foreign relations with Arab issues.
Modi and Netanyahu
But everything has gradually changed since the BJP took power and Modi came to power in 2014, as relations between the two sides have strengthened and covered various fields, from agriculture and tourism to security and military cooperation.
Journalist Issa Azad said the growing partnership between India and Israel is based on a convergence of ideological views on dealing with ethnic minorities, as well as mutual military and economic interests.
The common denominator between the Indian and Israeli governments is their declared hostility toward minorities, Muslims in India and predominantly Muslim Arabs in Israel.
Azad rightly believes that while both pay lip service to minority rights, both Modi and Netanyahu want to turn their countries into ethnic democracies that favor the Hindu majority in India and the Jewish majority in Israel.
This was stated in a recent book published by Azad on the subject, and featured in Foreign Policy's article, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel.
Full Transformation
India has always been conservative in its relationship with Israel; it voted against the partition plan of Palestine in 1947, voted against Israel's admission as a state at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, recognized it only in 1950, and allowed it to establish a consulate in Mumbai in 1953, and cooperation with it remained limited and secret.
In contrast, Israel has been keen to provide significant military supplies to India, as happened in the border war with China in 1962 and the war with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.
All contacts between the two sides were kept secret, and India always refused to make them public until 1991, when the two sides agreed to establish full diplomatic relations following the Madrid conference.
India obtained advanced military technology from Israel, and in 2021 there was a major uproar inside India after it was proven that it bought the Israeli spyware "Pegasus", which was used in multiple countries to spy on human rights defenders and journalists, which raised questions about the seriousness of the Modi government in caring about civil liberties and the rights of dissidents.