President’s sherpa-like Israel visit : The Tribune India

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President’s sherpa-like Israel visit

PRESIDENT Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Israel, with stopovers in Jordan and islands of Palestinian rule, was essentially a sherpa venture to prepare the way for Mr Narendra Modi’s planned ground-breaking trip to the troubled state, the first by an Indian Prime Minister.

President’s sherpa-like Israel visit

Was President Mukherjee a hostage to PM Modi’s personal agenda?



S Nihal Singh

PRESIDENT Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Israel, with stopovers in Jordan and islands of Palestinian rule, was essentially a sherpa venture to prepare the way for Mr Narendra Modi’s planned ground-breaking trip to the troubled state, the first by an Indian Prime Minister. The President’s own visit was a first and the importance New Delhi now attaches to its relations with Tel Aviv was clear from its refusal to cancel his visit, given the exceptional nature of the disturbances in Jerusalem and nominally Palestinian-ruled areas in which some 40 Palestinians and nine Israelis have been killed in October alone.

The President, the consummate politician he is, weathered the indignity he was subjected to at Al-Quds University as best he could, with hundreds of Palestinians angry with India’s new approach by holding posters saying “Why are you dealing with occupiers?” and “Indian President don’t remain silent against the butchers who are slaying Palestinians”. Thirty computers and equipment he was to gift to Palestinians were detained by Israeli customs for inspection. He was conferred an honorary degree but had to leave early and was unable to inaugurate the Jawaharlal Nehru Secondary School.

Tongue in cheek, the London Financial Times pointed out that President Mukherjee provided a comic relief in a grave situation facing Israel in his address to Parliament by suggesting that Indians loved the favourite Arabic dish hummus because some members of Parliament mistook the word for Hamas, the hardline movement in charge of the Gaza Strip. Judging by the coverage the Israel visit received in Indian media, it was all but invisible.

News coverage given by Israel’s media was far from effusive while acknowledging its unique nature. President Mukherjee hewed close to the traditional Indian line of supporting the Palestinian cause in Jordan, a point drily noted by Israeli press, even while inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India. He would be the second Prime Minister after Ariel Sharon’s 2003 visit. The visiting head of state skirted the serious disturbances taking place in his host country. According to Israeli press, counter-terrorism and enhanced cooperation in this area, including ministerial visits, were discussed in private discussions with Mr Netanyahu.

 Revealingly, in his brief address, Mr Netanyahu spoke of his own country’s pivot to China and India, perhaps because the West, particularly Europe, is becoming increasingly hostile to Israel’s continuing colonisation of Palestinian land through extensive settlement building and treating most Palestinians as a subject race without giving them equal rights. The unflattering assumption of India being clubbed with China is that unlike the West, it has no inhibitions in dealing with a state that is increasingly taking the form of a 21st century apartheid coloniser.

Continuing disturbances have forced the world’s attention, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon descending on Jerusalem to appeal for calm and US Secretary of State John Kerry making a trip to meet Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The UN is impotent because Washington will not allow a key role to anyone other than itself and the US is bound head and foot to Israel, particularly in the presidential election campaign season. The so-called two-state solution is a receding mirage on the horizon.

Current disturbances, with Palestinian teenagers knifing Israelis with the authorities’ response being to shoot them dead at pointblank range, are an expression of the rage and frustration of the young with no prospect of a better future other than being colonised and subjected to searches and restrictions on movement. They have, unlike their elders, grown used to their chains with Israelis retaining conquered land and appropriating vast stretches for settlements and usurping East Jerusalem. The fear, of course, is that the present situation could lead to a third intifada, general uprising representing a free-for-all on both sides. The young are also disillusioned with Mr Abbas and his Palestinian Authority whose legitimacy in office expired years ago, his métier being issuing fiery statements.

From India’s point, the crucial question to ask is what compelled New Delhi to persevere with the presidential visit, given the acute crisis Israel is facing. Israel is a key supplier of military equipment and is a valuable help in novel methods of agricultural production. Besides, there is increasing cooperation between the two countries in exchanging information on anti-terrorism operations.

Mr Modi seems also keen to send out the message that, unlike his predecessors, he is no upholder of conventions. Having decided on embracing Israel, he did not wish to delay his own path-breaking journey there by rescheduling a presidential visit. President Mukherjee was thus a hostage to the Prime Minister’s own agenda.

Where does India go from here? Obviously, New Delhi will be at the mercy of the situation in Israel it can do little to influence. If the third intifada does take place, there will be weightier issues for Mr Netanyahu and his patron saint, the United States, to consider. It is no coincidence that Israel has the most right-wing coalition government in its turbulent history.

It would be wise for New Delhi to reassess the Israel situation before proceeding further in accelerating the Israeli pivot Mr Modi is keen to emphasise. In the overall context of India’s relations with the region, much of it is Arab, excepting Iran and Turkey. The point Mr Modi had himself made by recently visiting the United Arab Emirates was the Arab world’s importance for the country as an employer of some six million Indians and as a primary source of energy.

This is not to suggest that Arabs can put a lock on India’s room for manoeuvre in their part of the world; rather, it is a plea to be prudent in racing ahead with befriending what represents a thorn in the Arabs’ ethos. The world knows the story of how Israel was created, with the perfidious Albion playing a stellar role followed by the superpower United States that took over Britain’s declining role after the end of World War II. Those who forget history are destined to pay the price.

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