India's Israeli bonds

India's support for the Palestinian cause has grown so feeble in the last decade that soon it might be hard to remember that India was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

- Chintan Girish Modi

India's support for the Palestinian cause has grown so feeble in the last decade that soon it might be hard to remember that India was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Though the shift in India's foreign policy is often seen only through an ideological lens, the real picture is more complex. South African journalist Azad Essa talks economics in his book, Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance between India and Israel.

The author, who is based in New York, notes that India's arms imports from Israel rose by 175 per cent between 2015 and 2019. The trade between these countries increased from $4.52 billion in 2014 to $5.43 billion by 2018. These numbers show that India's increasing proximity to Israel—and distance from Palestine—needs to be studied more carefully and comprehensively. There is more to it than the ideological overlaps between Zionism and Hindutva.

This book also contextualises India's dependence on Israel with reference to the fall of the Soviet Union and the altered geopolitical situation in its aftermath. India needed to upgrade its technology and equipment, and Israel provided what was required as "a country willing to sell arms without asking too many questions, with an ability to upgrade Russian hardware and crucially, a country more than willing to transfer technology to India itself."