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The Rediff Special/ Ramesh Menon
Indians always secretly admired Israel. In the seventies and eighties, when Indian governments lambasted Israel and orchestrated the Arab stance, Indians knew it was more of a strategic stand. India had strong business ties with the Arab countries and wanted to keep them going, especially in the case of oil. India also wanted to use the relationship to neutralise Pakistan's loud international campaign that India was anti-Islamic.
India stands to gain India sees multiple benefits in holding hands with Israel. Business from both the sides are looking at the development of getting closer with great interest. In an exclusive interview, Dov Segev-Steinberg, Israel's consul general in Bombay told rediff.com: "In 1992, when Israel and India established formal diplomatic relations, the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries was $ 200 million. At the end of 1999, the volume of trade was $ 1 billion. The volume of bilateral trade will now increase. In the first four months of 2000, there was a phenomenal increase of 42 per cent as compared to the first four months of 1999." (See exclusive interview) Apart from Jaswant Singh and Advani, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was recently in Jerusalem with a 20-member strong trade mission headed by Somnath Chatterjee, MP, chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. In its own way, this is significant. Not very long ago, Basu and his ilk in the Marxist fold used to lambast Israel as a tool of Western imperialism. With this visit, the stigma is off. Apart from beefing up its defence, it could help India a great deal in crucial sectors like agriculture. Israel, with its modern methods of farming, irrigation, genetic development of seeds, could help revolutionise farming.
In science and technology, both countries will co-operate in areas like biotechnology, advanced materials, lasers, electro-optics and information technology. Steinberg points out that both India and Israel are emerging IT giants and since they are not competing with each other, they should hold hands to work in Third World countries as there is so much potential. Way back in the seventies, Israel had offered to convert areas of the arid and barren Rajasthan desert into a green belt. But thinking it would offend the powerful Arab nations, India ignored the proposal. India has also learnt the hard way. Its friendship with the Arab countries yielded little and was of no real advantage. Friendship with Israel will also open new doors in terms of trade, commerce, industry and software development. More importantly, India would also benefit in areas like counter-terrorism and security. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Israeli counterpart David Levy will soon establish a Indo-Israeli Joint Commission to channelise their relationship in areas of energy, defence, agriculture, tourism, culture, science and technology. Steinberg says that tourism is one major area and Israel with a population of just 6.2 million had three million tourists and could help India develop its tourism as it is "such a beautiful and vibrant country." Israel is all set to supply arms and advanced technology to the Indian army. Israel plans to sell the Indian army $ 9 million worth of 5.56 calibre ammunition and an Israeli firm is to sign a contract of $ 47 million to upgrade India's 155-mm artillery. On the anvil is a proposal of the Israel Aircraft Industries to supply the Indian Air Force with $ 80 million worth of radar jamming tools for its MiG-21 warplanes. India is also reported to be interested in buying a spy plane which has a Soviet built Ilyushin airframe repacked with Israeli technology. January 29, 1992 seems to be like a long time ago. This was the day Israel and India established diplomatic relations. Not much happened till a few days ago. Suddenly, the western and specifically the Arab world is watching both countries reaching out for each other.
However, Israel has buckled under US pressure to scrap its $ 250 million sale of Phalcon early-warning aircraft to China. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak did this as it was a constant irritant in relations with the United States. The deal was earlier negotiated by the then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Phalcon is an advanced radar and battle control system mounted on a Russian made Ilyushin-76 aircraft. It is similar to the US Airborne Warning and Control System. Members of the Congress had warned that they would cut US military aid to the Jewish state if the arms deal went through. Pentagon officials had strongly objected to the sale saying the radar could upset the strategic balance between China and Taiwan and also threaten US forces in some future conflict. India has wanted to buy the Israeli developed Green Pine Radar since 1998. If it goes through, the deal will be worth around Rs 4.5 billion. The US have asked Israel to keep it posted on any arms deals with a clutch of countries which includes India. If American pressure builds on the arms sale with India, Israel may have to buckle as Barak is negotiating with the US for a $17 billion military aid package. Israel must look forward to defence deals with India as it will run into billions of dollars. India wants to acquire Israeli serial surveillance drones to bolster its defences along the Line of Control with Pakistan in Kashmir. On his visit, Home Minister Advani was basically trying to understand how Israel could help in combating border terrorism. Israel is as much a victim of it as India. But the conditions are different. Advani visited border areas to study Israel's integrated border management which was geared to give an advance warning of any threat. Said Steinberg: "During the last 20, 30 years, we had to fight terrorism in different ways. We now want to share our experiences as it will help fight terrorism." The Arabs are feeling edgy There has been an alarm in the Arab world after Jaswant Singh and Advani's visit to Israel. The Dawn of Pakistan said the Arabs were figuring out how to safeguard their long term interests in the region after the thaw in Indo-Israel relations. But no one in the Arab world is talking about how it has conveniently ignored India's interests since Independence. Clearly, the Arabs are not amused. More so, when Jaswant Singh said that domestic politics dictated by a Muslim vote bank had till now prevented India from getting close to Israel. For the last few years, the Indian government has been laying the ground for this to happen. Earlier, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra had visited Israel. Groups of businessmen and industrialists from both countries visited each other. Clearly, academic, cultural and economic ties were being allowed to flower.
Lessons of history India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru eagerly tilted towards the Arabs, supporting the Arab world in its armed struggle. The argument was that India was against colonialism and imperialism. India had commercial interests with the Arab world and with various technological and economic developments, India took a renewed interest in the Arab world. But time and again, India saw this friendship did not pay any dividends. In the 1962 Indo-Chinese war, India realised it got no support from the Arab world. In fact, a 1962 United Nations resolution pertaining to Kashmir saw Arab countries endorsing Pakistan's stance on the disputed area. In 1965, several Arab states endorsed the Pakistani position on the Indo-Pakistani conflict. But India continued to support the Arab cause against Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It was the Jan Sangh which argued that there was little logic in not having diplomatic relations with Israel just to please Arab nations when we could have relations with hostile nations like China and Pakistan. The logic escaped mandarins at the external affairs ministry. The Arab world continued to ignore India though Congress governments eloquently orchestrated their cause and denounced Israel. They did this even when India was invited and then denied entry into the Rabat Conference in September 1969 to condemn Israel for the destruction of the Al-Aksa mosque in Jerusalem. The Indian delegation led by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was denied entry as Pakistan did not want Indian participation in the conference. It was a slap on India's face. Similarly, during the Bangladesh crisis in 1971, the Arabs kept mum. Ironically, Swaran Singh, the then external affairs minister, chose to apologise for them defending India's relations with the Arab world, Looking back, it is now clear that it was the economic and political clout of over 130 million Arabs that tilted India's relations in their favour. On the other side there were just three million Israelis. It was actually oil. The world was stuck by an oil crisis in 1973. India needed oil. It was dependent on the oil producing Arab states. This also compelled India to hold on to its anti-Israeli stance. India, in fact, sought punitive action against Israel in the United Nations occupying Arab territory. When the Janata Party rode to power in 1977 after the Emergency, then prime minister Morarji Desai wanted to have diplomatic relations with Israel. As there were no channels to start, Morarji invited then Israeli defence minister Moshe Dayan to India. He came sans fanfare. Both nations agreed to establish diplomatic links. But there was a rider. Morarji did not also want to anger or upset the Arabs and so asked Israel to vacate Arab territory. Israel refused. There was a freeze in relations again. New Delhi continued to lambast Israel. But when Yosef Hasseen, the Israeli consul in Bombay, told The Sunday Observer in 1982 that India was competing with Pakistan to please the Arabs, he was expelled. Today, the irony stares India in its face. In June 1988, things changed. Rajiv Gandhi set the ball rolling to establish diplomatic relations. The Indian tune slowly changed from belligerence to understanding. India started mellowing down its official statements on the Arab-Israeli conflict, saying that Israelis also had a right to live in peace. Numerous officials and delegations visited India in the eighties and nineties. Ties were established. To cover up, many of them came on tourist visas. By the end of 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organisation had recognised Israel's right to exist. The United States had started talking to the PLO. It was therefore easier for India to make overtures to Israel. India also saw it as an opportunity to get closer to Washington. The Arab stand on the Kashmir issue, which sounds like Pakistan's, was also another nugget that drove India towards Israel. After all, as Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha says, foreign policy must be dictated by national interest. The thaw came in the later part of the nineties. India looks ahead The hype and interest of Indo-Israeli relations gave the Indian government a shot in the arm. It was a good diplomatic coup when depressing issues of autonomy and attacks on the minority Christian government was gnawing away at Prime Minister Vajpayee's credibility. Now that both Israel and India have seen the advantages of mutual co-operation, the road ahead seems strewn with opportunities. |
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Now, with the cosmetics off, India wants to begin on a new slate with
Israel. Down the years, India figured out that its special relationship
with the Arabs did not help in times of need. It was a logical move to
edge closer to Israel.
In agriculture, India is looking at Israeli technologies in sprinkler
and drip irrigation systems, greenhouses, hybrid seeds, tissue culture
and dryland farming. Other areas are horticulture, solar
energy, animal husbandry and diary development. Some projects are
already on to improve agricultural yield. Says Steinberg: "Israel can easily help India increase its crop production by three times with better technology."
On the diplomatic front, India will have to do some tightrope walking
not to prod the United States into seeing red as it comes closer than
ever to Israel. When Jaswant Singh was in Israel there were reports
floating around that the United States was asking Israel to scuttle a
deal to sell India a sophisticated radar system that would deter
ballistic missiles. But Levy has denied this.
Joint research projects worth S 3 million are underway in areas of agricultural biotechnology, electro-optics and information technology.
For the first time a Hebraic Studies chair has been established at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. The number of Indians
participating in various tailor-made courses in Israel like agricultural
development healthcare administration, hospital management, energy
utilisation and conservation is expected to increase as both countries come closer.