India’s approach towards Israel-Palestine

in Recent Years
Despite the breadth of the bilateral relations between the two countries, India has walked a diplomatic
tightrope for years. It has tried to present its strategic and defence partnership with Israel as a low-key
affair and a matter of realpolitik. At the same time, by being vocally pro-Palestine in its political stance
and by maintaining a pro-Palestine voting record at the UN, India has sought to maintain its ties with
Arab states, especially the oil-rich Gulf states that are critical to its energy security and an important
source of foreign investment.

Modi and former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu shared a very public camaraderie until the latter was
voted out of office in 2021. And their relationship became a symbol of the marked transformation of
India-Israel bilateral relations from a matter of realpolitik to an ideological alliance between two
countries.

The Bibi-Modi “bromance”, and BJP’s decades-long vocal support for Israel, began paying dividends not
long after the BJP won the 2014 general elections. In 2015, India was one of the only five countries that
abstained from a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council that endorsed a report on Israeli war crimes
during Operation Protective Edge. In 2017, Modi was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel. As a
clear indication of changing allegiances, he chose not to visit the Palestinian Authority at the time.

In an unprecedented move in 2019, India voted in support of Israel at the UN’s Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC) to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organisation named ‘Shahed’.

This is the first time India has taken a step back from its decades-old position on the two-state theory
under which New Delhi sees both Israel and Palestine as separate and independent countries, seeking to
bring peace in West Asia. (Source: The Print, [Link]
favour-of-israel-at-un-against-palestine-human-rights-body/248543/)

However, there was another change in 2021. At the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
March 2021 session, India abstained on one resolution on the human rights situation in Palestine but
voted in favour of three other resolutions condemning Israel on the Golan Heights, its expansion of
Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories and in support of the right to self-determination of the
Palestinian people.

Despite this episode, relations between India and Israel remain on secure ground. The changing political
landscape in West Asia provides fertile ground for further strengthening its ties with Israel without fear
of jeopardising India’s relation with Palestine or other Arab countries.
 S. Jaishankar’s Visit to Israel- 2021
Highlights
 This was the First Visit of S. Jaishankar to Israel as the External Affairs Minister
 Paid Homage to Indian Soldiers at the Indian Cemetery at Talpiot
 Meeting with Israeli Chamber of Commerce and the innovation Ecosystem
 Met the Indian-Jewish Community in Israel
 Paid homage at Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial)
 Met Yair Lapid, the Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel
 Discussed bilateral issues
 Agreed to resume FTA negotiations
 Agreed on mutual recognition of Covid Vaccines
 Welcomed Israel as the newest member of the International Solar Alliance
 The first virtual meeting between US,UAE, Israel and India for regional collaboration
 Met Speaker of the Knesset Michael Levy
 Met the Chairperson of Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Ram Ren Barak
 Visited the Ovda Air Base to meet the IAF participants (No. 1 Squadron) at the Blue Flag
International Air Combat Exercise
 Discussed Animal Health Card Technology
 Met Prime Minister Naftali Bennett- discussion of full potential of strategic partnership
 Invitation was forwarded to PM Bennett to visit India next year to mark the 30th anniversary of
the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Israel
 Met President Isaac Herzog
 Expansion on academic research and technology collaboration between universities of both
countries
 Counter-Terrorism, environmental issues, energy, and trade, water and agriculture technology
were feature prominently in talks during the visit.

During the visit, S. Jaishankar said India considers Israel “in many ways as perhaps our most trusted and innovative
partner.”

Ron Malka, the Economy Ministry director-general and a former ambassador to India, said that Israel’s ties with India
are “the biggest achievement we have done with any country in international affairs.”
West Quad/ MINILATERAL
Alliance between India, Israel, UAE and US- 18 OCTOBER 2021
CONTEXT
This alliance can be seen as a Zone of Opportunity rather than a Zone of Conflict unlike the other Quad
that is already present in today’s GeoPolitics

The idea of an Indo-Abrahamic Accord between India, the UAE and Israel was first suggested by
Mohammed Soliman, an Egyptian scholar based in Washington. Soliman sees the Israel-UAE
relationship as having acquired a character independent of Israel’s relations with Palestine and a
promise of expansive political, economic and technological cooperation. Soliman also points to the
transformation of India’s relations with the UAE and Israel under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Although Delhi had relations with Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv for many years, they certainly have acquired
political depth and strategic character under Modi. Soliman sees this trilateral relationship as the
potential nucleus of a wider regional coalition.

The alliance was culminated virtually between the Foreign Ministers of the said four countries which led
the Media to call it the New Quad. But to call it a Quad, it is too early to do so. The reason for the same
is that a clear objective has not yet been articulated for the New Quad. On the other hand, the actual
QUAD has a clear objective of balancing the power of China in the Indo-Pacific.

That’s why many Diplomats call it a MINILATERAL.

This Quadrilateral Alliance is rooted in Abraham Accord signed in September 2020 under the President
Trump. The accords made the Arab countries open up to Israel. This led to opening of opportunities for
India. Although Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) had established diplomatic relations with Israel earlier,
the Abraham Accords are widely seen as making a definitive breakthrough in the relations between Israel
and the Arabs.

All this while, India was struggling with de-hyphenating its strategic relation with Israel and Arab
countries. The relation was therefore restricted to just economics and diaspora issues.

AGENDA
“expanding economic and political cooperation" through engagement in the fields of trade, climate
change, energy cooperation, and maritime security

“people to people ties in technology and science".

Less than a week ago, on 13 October, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his counterparts from the
UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, and from Israel, Yair Lapid, in Washington DC. They agreed to set up
two working groups – on religious coexistence, said to be the UAE’s idea, and on water management and
energy issues, said to be Israel’s idea.

The recent emergence of the Eastern Mediterranean as a geopolitical entity connecting a number of
countries, including Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine. The new
region cutting across old mental maps — segmenting Europe, Africa, and the Middle East — is being
shaped by several factors.

One is the discovery of natural gas all along the eastern Mediterranean. Second is the reassertion of its
historic regional leadership role by Egypt. A third is the growing role of the Gulf countries — UAE, Qatar
and Saudi Arabia — in reshaping the geopolitics of the region. A fourth factor involves Turkey’s
sharpening conflicts with Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE triggered by President Recep
Erdogan’s overweening ambition. Finally, major powers including France, Russia and China are being
drawn into the Eastern Mediterranean.

MED-RED Pipeline
UAE-Israel is building a pipeline Mediterranean Red Sea Pipeline, link Eilat port on the northern tip of the
Red Sea to Ashkel on the Mediterranean for Gulf Oil to skip Suez Canal.

China Angle:
Experts and commentators have noted that the new grouping that the discussions between the foreign
ministers of these four countries points to has a strong imprint of the US’ outlook on containing and
combating China’s growing clout in Asia. Especially when it comes to West Asia, China’s recent
partnerships with some of Washington’s closest allies in the region would have set alarm bells ringing in
US foreign policy circles.

The urgency the US is seized of is evident in how it has moved swiftly post its retreat from Afghanistan to
pursue multiple partnerships, from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — where Australia, India and
Japan are the other members — to the AUKUS formation with Australia and the UK. Among the core
objectives of both groupings is maritime security and an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, a clear reference
to China and its assertive moves in the region.

Growing Chinese Influence in West Asia

Chinese state-owned Shanghai International Port Group has built a USD 1.7 billion container terminal in
Israel’s Haifa that “sits close to a port used by US and Israeli naval vessels and raises fears of Chinese
surveillance on their movements". It added that Ashdod, the other major Israeli port on the
Mediterranean, is also being upgraded by China, adding to “worries that state-owned Chinese
companies are muscling into sensitive infrastructure projects in a strategic ally".

The UAE, too, has seen warming ties with Beijing, which were bolstered during the Covid-19 pandemic
with Chinese vaccine diplomacy — the first vaccines UAE got came from China — while the China Ocean
Shipping Company (Cosco) has signed a 35-year concession agreement to develop a new container
terminal in Khalifa Port. But it is the Gulf state’s opting of Huawei tech for its 5G telecom networks that
would pose a bigger worry for the US, which is in talks to sell its advanced F-35 fighter jets to the
Emirates.

What’s in for India?

India shares close ties with the three initial Abraham Accord partners of Israel, UAE and the US. India has
many old and new partners in the region and it can now work with them in multiple formats and
overlapping combinations. Meanwhile, there is much to be done in realising the full potential of the
“Indo-Abrahamic Accords”.

The International Federation of Indo-Israeli Chambers of Commerce says combining India’s scale with
Israeli innovation and Emirati capital could produce immense benefits to all three countries. Add
American strategic support and you would see a powerful dynamic unfolding in the region.

Beyond trade, there is potential for India, UAE and Israel to collaborate on many areas — from
semiconductor design and fabrication to space technology. Success on the trilateral front will open the
door for extending the collaboration with other common regional partners like Egypt, who will lend great
strategic depth to the Indo-Abrahamic accords.

Recent Update
In the following weeks, the Foreign Ministers of all 4 countries plan to meet in Dubai to take forward the
idea of the regional collaboration.

Source: [Link]
first-in-person-meet-in-dubai-soon/articleshow/[Link]?from=mdr

C. Raja Mohan, 20 October 2021, The Indian Express: The new minilateral suggests India is now ready
to move from bilateral relations conducted in separate silos towards an integrated regional policy. As
in the Indo-Pacific, so in the Middle East, regional coalitions are bound to widen Delhi’s reach and
deepen its impact.

Jyoti Malhotra, 19 October 2021, The Print: UAE capital plus Israeli technology plus inexpensive
Indian labour is being stirred in a potpourri by the US, whilst offering each country the flexibility to
move as fast-slow as its domestic politics allows it to go.