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US plays matchmaker to India,
Israel
By Ninan Koshy
(Posted
with permission from Foreign Policy in Focus)
Close on the heels of Indian National Security
Adviser Brajesh Mishra's call for an India-United
States-Israel strategic alliance, comes the confirmation
that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will visit
India within the next few weeks. Some observers in New
Delhi consider Mishra's call, made at the annual dinner
of the American Jewish Committee, as a curtain raiser
for the Sharon visit. What they seem to ignore is that
the India-US-Israel strategic alliance has moved beyond
last call to center stage and that the plan for Sharon's
visit is some 15 months old.
It was an ironic
coincidence that Brajesh Mishra was closeted in his
office in New Delhi on September 11, 2001 with his
Israeli counterpart Major General Uzi Dayan and engaged
in what was dubbed a "joint security strategy dialogue"
when the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon occurred. Their discussion had to be
discontinued as they turned to the television news.
Favored by the climate of the ensuing "war on terror",
the security relationship between India and Israel
developed into a strategic alliance in tandem with the
India-US strategic partnership.
The alliance
between India and Israel - one an open member of the
international nuclear club and the other a secret member
- is based predominantly on military and intelligence
cooperation. Israel has become the second-largest
supplier of arms for India, next only to Russia. Israel
has provided India with sea-to-sea missile radar and
other similar systems, border monitoring equipment, and
night vision devices. It also has upgraded India's
Soviet-era aircraft.
Allies and
aircraft
The United States has given clearance to
Israel's delivery of Phalcon reconnaissance aircraft to
India, in marked contrast to Washington's vigorous
opposition to supplying them to China in 1998. The US
forced Israel to cancel a deal to sell the Phalcons to
China out of concern for altering the balance of power
between China and Taiwan. Initially, the US
administration also had worries about how the Phalcons
supplied to India could impact the delicate balance
between India and Pakistan, but the concerns soon
evaporated in the warmth of the India-US-Israel
strategic relationship.
In the third week of
February, an agreement was made to supply advanced
Israeli avionic systems for the Indian Air Force's new
MG-27 combat aircraft. There are reports of Indo-Israeli
plans to collaborate on the development of a missile
defense system based on the Israel Arrow technology.
Indian defense officials acknowledged the acquisition of
two Israeli Elta Green Pine long-range radar systems, a
component of the Arrow Ballistic Missile Defense
Systems, according to some reports. A 2001 Pentagon
review said that the defensive nature of the Arrow
system exempted it from sales restrictions imposed by
the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international
agreement designed to stop the spread of offensive
military technology.
Israel and India
established a joint commission at the ministerial level
back in 1999. During that year's brief conflict with
Pakistan, known as the Kargil war, Israel responded
quickly to India's desperate requests for arms, despite
pressures from various quarters not to supply ammunition
to a party engaged in war. Unmanned aerial vehicles for
high altitude surveillance, laser-guided systems and
many other items were provided within days of the
request. Jane's Defense Weekly, which gave details on
the supplies, reported in March 2000 that Israeli
security officers were regularly visiting the Kashmir
border. Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor reported
on August 14, 2001: "Israeli intelligence agencies have
been intensifying their relations with India security
apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved
in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the
disputed province of Kashmir."
The Jerusalem
Post reported on February 3 that India was sending four
battalions of nearly 3,000 Indian soldiers to Israel for
specialized anti-insurgency training. Their special
assignment on return would be to employ newly learned
techniques to stop infiltration of India by Pakistani
terrorists in the contested Kashmir region.
Professor Martin Sherman published an article in
the Jerusalem Post on February 28 entitled "From
Conflict to Convergence: India and Israel Forge a Solid
Strategic Alliance". The alliance with India was
important for Israel as it intended to develop sea-borne
defense capability. In view of the miniscule territorial
dimension of Israel, its defense planners are
increasingly aware of the crucial significance of the
marine and sub-marine theaters. The vulnerability of
Israel's land-based military installations grows with
the acquisition of modern weaponry by other countries in
the region. Strategic thinking in Israel tends to give
prominence to the Indian Ocean as a location for
logistical infrastructure. For the establishment and
operation of such a maritime venture, cooperation with
the Indian navy would be vital. The Post article said,
"In this regard it is especially significant that in
2000, Israeli submarines reportedly conducted test
launches capable of carrying nuclear warheads in the
waters of the Indian Ocean off the Sri Lankan coast."
Sherman added, "An alliance between India and
Israel openly endorsed by the US would create a potent
stabilizing force in the region, which together with
like-minded regimes such as Turkey, could contribute
significantly toward facing down the force of radical
extremism so hostile to American interests in Western
and Central Asia." The article argued that
considerations beyond regional stability made a vibrant
India-Israeli axis a clear interest. "For example, in
the growing balance of geostrategic power, the growing
Chinese challenge to US primacy will almost invariably
dictate the need for a regional counterweight to Chinese
domination."
It was in the context of the "war
on terror" that the strategic relationship of India with
Israel and the US developed dramatically though defense
and security cooperation. It was just natural that both
Israel and the US found a partner in the Indian
government because of its ideological commitment to
militaristic policy. Conveniently for them, at work in
New Delhi was the calculated dismantling of the entire
rationale of nonalignment and the edifice of an
independent foreign policy.
New axis in the
'war on terror'?
The visit of Shimon Peres to
New Delhi in January 2002 became an occasion to cement
strategic ties between Israel and India. Both countries
seemed to be convinced they were fighting a common
enemy, terrorism. At that time, Zvi Gabey, deputy
director general for Asia in the Israeli government
said, "We find ourselves in the same camp that fights
terrorism and we have to develop our relationship
according to that." An Indian foreign ministry
spokeswoman said during Peres' visit, "India finds it
increasingly beneficial to learn from Israel's
experience in dealing with terrorism since Israel, too,
has long suffered from cross-border terrorism." The
spokeswoman slipped into the ministry's grave and
oft-repeated error of equating the Palestinian struggle
with cross-border terrorism.
The visit was the
most visible sign of the new phase of the Israel-India
relationship. Peres was immensely pleased with it. The
Israeli cabinet communique of January 13, 2002 on Peres'
briefing about his trip billed it as a major achievement
"emphasizing the good relations and special ties between
Israel and India". Sharon was pleased too. He told the
cabinet that he attributed special importance to the
deepening of relations with India. That was when he
noted that he intended to visit India, giving the first
clear signal of the plan. Apparently an invitation to
India had been extended to him through Peres.
Mishra drummed up US support for the plan,
finding a responsive audience for his skewed and cynical
views on terrorism in the American Jewish Committee.
Only a "core" consisting of democracies such as India,
Israel and the US can deal with terrorism, he
maintained. The alliance of the three would have the
political and moral authority to make bold decisions in
extreme cases of terrorist provocation, he claimed,
adding that they would not waste time in defining
terrorism or arguing about its causes. "Distinctions
sought to be made between freedom fighters and
terrorists propagate a bizarre logic," he spouted.
"Another fallacy propagated is that terrorism can only
be eradicated by addressing the root causes." He
repeated the pet themes of India, the US and Israel
being "prime targets of terrorism", having a "common
enemy" and requiring "joint action".
His
comments were underpinned by those of India's Deputy
Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani, who, in an interview
given to Fox News on July 9, 2002, said, "Terrorism in
so far we have seen it on September 11 or December 13
has a common source and that common source has described
the US, Israel and India as its three main enemies."
December 13, 2001 was the date on which the Indian
parliament was attacked by terrorists. Advani implied
that the three countries therefore have a common cause
and could forge a common front against terrorism.
The India-Israeli alliance strengthens US
strategic designs for India and the region. India holds
a very prominent place in the September 20, 2002
National Security Strategy of the US, "a policy document
that bears the personal stamp of President [George W]
Bush," according to Robert D Blackwill, outgoing US
ambassador to India. The document states, "The United
States has undertaken a transformation in its bilateral
relationship with India. We are the two largest
democracies. We share an interest in fighting terrorism
and in creating a strategically stable Asia. We start
with a view of India as a growing world power with which
we have common strategic interests."
In an
article in the prestigious Indian daily The Hindu,
Blackwill wrote, "Taken together our defense cooperation
and military sales activities intensify the working
relationships between the respective armed forces, build
mutual military capacities for future joint operations
and strengthen Indian military capability, which is in
America's interest." He concluded the article: "An
Indian military that is capable of operating effectively
alongside its American counterparts remains an important
goal of our bilateral defense relationship. What we have
achieved since January 2001 builds a strong foundation
on which to consummate this strategic objective, which
will promote peace and freedom in Asia and beyond."
Washington will ensure that the India-Israeli
alliance will serve this strategic objective. As for the
Indian government, it has already subjugated the
country's national interests to US designs in return for
its designation as a world power.
Dr Ninan
Koshy is a political
commentator based in Trivandrum, Kerala, India and
author of The War on Terror: Reordering the World
(DAGA Press, 2002), and a regular analyst for Foreign
Policy in Focus.
(Posted with permission
from Foreign Policy in Focus)
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