Modi’s Israel visit

Prime Minister Modi has been widely critisised as well as ridiculed due to his frequent foreign trips that the critics argued were mainly, for highlighting his personal stature under the name of promoting India’s foreign trade and ties with the countries.

Modi has made around 16 international forays in the past one year since he came into power and has been accused of neglecting his domestic duties. Now the PM’s proposed visit to Israel, confirmed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, has landed him in controversy once again. While the dates of visit are not known, a high-level Indian team would be travelling to Tel Aviv in July for discussions on several bilateral issues. Modi would then be the first ever Indian premier to pay an official visit to the Zionist nation. He had earlier visited Tel Aviv when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. L K Advani, the Home Minister during the tenure of the first NDA government and Jaswant Singh, the then Foreign Minister had also visited Israel earlier. It was the Congress government of P V Narasimha Rao who established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Modi’s close alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is well known and he plans to boost the military, cultural and economic sectors with the visit.

India depends highly on Israel for its national security with Israel, other than Russia, having a monopoly over the Indian defence market. The country had imported arms and ammunitions worth ten billion US dollars from Israel between 2009 and 2013. Israeli spy network Mossad is already aiding India by providing training and advice on various security matters. Israeli satellites have been launched several times by ISRO at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The Zionist nation has also declared Pakistan as their foe. Former Union Minister and Congress leader Anand Sharma has said that Modi’s Israeli visit is “worrisome” as it undermines India's position on Palestine and also "destroys balance" in India’s foreign policy. The proposed visit is also likely to adversely affect India’s friendly ties with the Arab-Muslim countries.

The demand for a separate statehood for Palestine has been backed by India since the time of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Statehood for Palestine has been in consideration despite the limitations in the deals. Not only has Israel been reluctant to implement it, but it has also strongly opposed the UN move of granting Palestine, a ‘non-member observer state status’. Netanyahu, prior to the elections had guaranteed to declare the Zionist country as a nation-state of Jewish people. This blatantly implies that the Arab minority in Israel wouldn’t be allowed an equal citizenship or status in the Zionist nation. In the recently resumed airstrikes in Gaza, thousands of women and children were killed. The houses, schools and hospitals which were destroyed have not been restored. Israel with the help of Egypt’s autocratic president Fattah el-Sisi, has blocked all the loopholes preventing any form of assistance to the people of Gaza from the outside. Modi has decided to visit Israel and boost the ties turning a blind eye towards all the atrocities and neglecting the human rights violations in the Gaza strip which were highly condemned by the civilized world countries. At the same time the NDA government asserts its previous stance on Palestine and the country’s foreign policies. All these moves could only be seen as part of the ruling party’s Fascist agenda where there is neither place for justice nor humanitarian considerations.