India's Friendship with Israel Continues to Grow

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 6 May 2002

Strained relations between India and Israel from 1948 through the end of the Cold War were a historical "aberration" caused by contemporary politics, according to a new study by the American Jewish Committee. The full report, released at AJC's Annual Meeting this week, is available at http://www.ajc.org/InTheMedia/Publications.asp?did=512 .

For centuries, India nurtured its Jewish communities and today cooperates with Israel "in a host of political, economic, cultural and defense projects," says AJC's "Indian-Israeli Relations: Humble Beginnings, a Bright Future" by P.R. Kumaraswamy, associate professor in the School of International Studies, Jawaharal Nehru University, New Delhi. "When energy resources are excluded from trade figures, Israel emerges as India's largest Middle East trading partner."

Perhaps most critically, the countries' professional security establishments conduct ongoing discussions, says the report, noting that, on September 11, Israeli National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan was in New Delhi for discussions on terrorism with top Indian officials.

"Though both countries find themselves at the receiving end of a persistent terror campaign, the tactical constraints in fighting the menace have kept them away from the U.S.-led fight against terrorism," writes Professor Kumaraswamy. "The exclusion appears both temporary and superficial, as any war against terrorism cannot be successful without the intelligence inputs from Israel and diplomatic backing from India."

Although India recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1975 and granted full diplomatic status in 1980 to the PLO's New Delhi mission, it did not decide to grant the same recognition to Israel until 1992. In 1991, India was one of the countries voting to repeal the United Nation's "Zionism is racism" resolution, but in 1975 it had been one of the resolution's sponsors. Some of this hostility to Israel was motivated by a wish to placate both Muslim Pakistan and Muslims within India, the AJC report suggests, some resulted from sheer apathy towards Jewish nationalist aspirations and anger at "Israel's increasing identification with imperial powers and consequent alienation from newly independent countries of the Third World."

Relations between the two countries began to improve in late 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi became Indian prime minister. The pace of cooperation accelerated in the post-Cold War 1990s under Prime Minster Narasimha Rao, who, having liberalized India's economy, "looked to the West as his prime partner for economic development," says the report. Israel became a key trading partner and, throughout the 1990's and into the new century, a strategic partner, as well.

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