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Palestinians pay for Indian
ambitions
By Ramtanu Maitra
During his three-day (August 29-31) visit to New
Delhi, Palestinian Foreign Minister Dr Nabil Shaath
received a clear reading on how much India has shifted
its policy on the Israel-Palestine issue. In an
interview with the Chennai-headquartered English news
daily, The Hindu, Shaath took on indirectly the new
mantra, preached from close to India's highest office,
which says that the United States, Israel and India are
now ready to join to take on terrorism. Shaath asked
rhetorically, "Why? Was not Indonesia subject to
terrorism? Was not Morocco subject to terrorism? Why
just pick Israel? Were not Palestinians subject to
terrorism?"
The fact is that India wants to get
close to Israel, and in the process hopes to get closer
to the US. Bureaucrats and politicians at India's
highest level of policy making believe that the nation's
security can be strengthened in the future only by
forming a triangular strategic relationship with the US
and Israel. Such a triangular alliance would stem the
tide against the Islamic terrorists, Pakistan, and
anyone else, they believe.
A double
whammy
At the pragmatic level, the traders and
business lobby root for closer relations with Israel.
This money-conscious class, which has become most vocal
in claiming that business interests should be the key
component in India's foreign policy decisions, does not
give a damn about Palestine. Since Palestine has little
to offer financially or technologically, while Israel
can sell to India what the US refuses to sell to India,
these pragmatists insist that New Delhi has no option
but to court the more "valuable" Israel.
This
thinking led to the decision by New Delhi months ago to
invite the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to visit
India, where he is now on a four-day trip that ends on
Thursday. In the period that followed, New Delhi found
out that the 130 million or so Indian Muslims and many
more Indian Hindus are not particularly happy about
India's 180 degree about turn on the Palestine issue.
Many Indians were particularly disturbed that New
Delhi's decision on the Israel-Palestine issue was made
in the US, though not necessarily by the Bush
administration.
There is no question that India
wants to be "liked" by both the Israelis and the
Palestinians, to enjoy the best of both diplomatic
worlds. That India must not make a clear choice between
Israel and the yet-to-be-born Palestine has always been
conventional wisdom in New Delhi. Otherwise, India would
appear to be a two-faced nation and not a dependable,
forthright and moral nation. However, during the last
couple of years, and particularly since September 11,
2001, this evenhanded approach has been superceded by an
avid and growing friendship and support for Israel and
simultaneous consignment of Palestine to the diplomatic
doghouse. Driving this shift is India's conflict with a
hostile and Islamic Pakistan nation.
Ten-acre
secularism
This "unevenness" in India's policy
making became blatantly visible this summer, and New
Delhi's "secular" crowd went into damage-control mode.
As an afterthought, India invited Shaath to visit India
a few days before Sharon's arrival, and promised
then-Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas that he,
too, would be honored with a visit to India within a
month after Sharon leaves. To concretize the tokenism,
New Delhi also announced that India would gift 10 acres
(four hectares) of prime land in New Delhi's diplomatic
area, known as Chanakyapuri, for the purpose of building
the Palestine embassy.
This did not particularly
impress Shaath. Taking a swipe at India's newfound
pro-Israel policy, the foreign minister told The Hindu,
"Many people who felt that Israel was the address for
the United States failed. And I give the example of
Central and Eastern Europe. They all went to Israel to
seek relations with the United States; [but] they found
it much easier to approach NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) than to approach Israel to do their
bidding. Secondly, again, Israel would like to make it
look like all the resistance it is facing from the
Palestinians is terrorism, to make it look like
September 11, which is false. Identifying with that puts
you in a position of being anti-Palestinian when there
is no need to do so ..."
However, judging by his
public statements, Shaath seems not wholly aware of the
new cement that bonds India with Israel: namely the
flourishing and prosperous Indian community in the US.
Having been in the US for four decades or more,
Indian-Americans have now achieved financial stability
and are looking for a way to intervene in the American
political system. Community leaders look up to the
Jewish community in America and deeply admire the
ability of this small community to play a
disproportionate role in many major foreign policies of
the US. These Indian-American leaders have found in the
Jewish community their role model.
Advantage
Israel
The push to consolidate the
India-US-Israel compact at the strategic level began
months ago, but surfaced only recently. Last May,
India's National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra was in
Washington to form the India-US-Israel axis. In a clear
public announcement, made in front of 1,200 dinner
guests of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Brajesh
Mishra spoke in support of such a triangular bonding.
Mishra proposed, offered and expounded on just about
everything to make the case that the three countries
must fight terrorism together.
That speech by a
non-political authority in a sort of private gathering
was just one among many defining moments in a longer
process. When Indian Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
was in Washington last June, his brief visit included
dinner at the elite Cosmos Club, courtesy of the
American Jewish Committee. "It's a natural alliance
between Israel and India," said Jason Isaacson, the
committee's director of government and international
affairs. "It's about trade and common interests between
democracies [and], complementing what is the growing
relationships between Indian Americans and American
Jews," he said. Isaacson has visited India seven times
since 1995, and the AJC plans to set up a liaison office
in India this year. The organization is also renovating
a school in Gujarat, where minority Muslims have been
the victims of ethnic violence. As evidence the ties
have "come of age", the AJC, the American-Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the US-India Political
American Organization hosted a joint reception for
Congress on July 16.
Another major event was the
first-ever joint Capitol Hill forum that was held on
July 16, between the US Indian Political Action
Committee, the American Jewish Committee, and AIPAC. The
event featured nearly a dozen Congress members from
across the US, including Republican Tom Lantos (D-CA)
and Republican Gary Ackerman (D-NY). Tom Lantos
summarized the binding issue of the evening thus, "We
are drawn together by mindless, vicious, fanatic,
Islamic terrorism." Congressman Ackerman said that
Israel was "surrounded by 120 million Muslims" while
"India has 120 millions Muslims [within]".
Subsequently, visiting Israeli special envoy
David Ivry told New Delhi that Israel will assist India
in its battle against terrorism. Ivry met with External
Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Advani and Mishra. Ivry
said that a recent speech by Mishra in Washington
implied that India, the US and Israel should cooperate
in fighting terrorism. "The US can be the leader and we
[Israel and India] can contribute as much as we can," he
said. He added that sharing of intelligence was very
important. But that is not all. The traders' bonding has
also become pretty tight.
The Indian lobby that
promotes a strong India-Israel business linkage also
finds it necessary to justify why Israel should be
brought closer. They point out the commonalities that
hang these two countries together - India and Israel are
both democracies and have survived in a sea of
hostility, surrounded by implacable adversaries and a
heavily militarized security environment. Both nations
have fought wars in nearly every decade of their
existence. No other two countries in the world have
suffered so much at the hands of state-sponsored Islamic
jihadi terrorism as India and Israel, the rhetoric goes.
Money talks
But beyond that thin
curtain, it is the business potential between India and
Israel that drives these lobbyists. In the US, the hard
talking strategic analysts from the AJC, and their
supporters, are also looking at the business potential
that would not only give the supporters of the AJC a leg
up in the opening up of the vast market in India, but
would also help Indian community leaders in the US to
invest more fruitfully.
In India, Israel appeals
the most to the military and intelligence community.
According to the various pro-Israel lobbies in India,
the visit of the Israeli prime minister is centered
around three objectives: Israel-India-United States
strategic cooperation; Israel-India strategic
cooperation in the Indian Ocean in the nuclear context;
and Israel-India enhanced defense cooperation.
In the area of defense cooperation, the most
important items seem to be the beginning of a dialogue
for a joint India-Israel development of a Ballistic
Missile Defense system based on the Israeli Arrow
system, and consummation of the Israeli sale of the
Phalcon Airborne Early Warning and Control system to
India with US concurrence. This itself is reflective of
Israel-India-US strategic cooperation: earlier the US
had vetoed the sale of this system by Israel to China.
On the other hand, the Israel-India program for
strategic cooperation in the Indian Ocean will be
directed toward laying the groundwork to block the
Chinese navy's presence in the Indian Ocean. This, of
course, would please a section of the most hawkish among
American strategists.
Meanwhile, another area of
India-Israel cooperation is in the offing: the
information technology sector. A greater number of
Israeli telecom companies are now expected to set up
manufacturing facilities in India for export purposes.
While Indian telecom operators are expected to enhance
their capabilities with greater sourcing from Israeli
vendors, the two countries are also looking at working
jointly on research and development.
It would
involve intensified joint collaboration initiatives in
the sectors of agriculture, telecommunications, software
and medical equipment, said sources in India's Ministry
of External Affairs (MEA) recently. Israeli industry is
also expected to tap avenues for doubling its exports to
India from the present level of $1 billion to $3 billion
by the end of 2004, a senior official told an Indian
news daily.
An Indian business news daily, The
Financial Express, said recently that even before Sharon
arrived in New Delhi a team of leading IT players landed
in India. The mission of this delegation was to identify
opportunities where the Israeli industry could corner a
major chunk of the Indian market. Ahead of the
forthcoming visit, New Delhi and Tel Aviv had already
started work on the feasibility of a free trade
agreement (FTA). According to MEA sources, the proposal
for this has been mooted, but is still in a nascent
stage.
The news report also quoted the
Confederation of Indian Industry's senior advisor for
policy, T K Bhaumik, who said, "India is now open to
FTAs more than ever before. An FTA with Israel is also
being seen as an acceptable idea. It may come up for
discussion during Mr Sharon's visit."
Pointing
out that there is a tariff mismatch between the two
countries, Commerce Ministry officials have, however,
said that no view had been taken on this issue as yet.
"Our tariff rates are on the higher side and Israeli
tariffs are on the lower side. We have to examine the
details to figure out the trade-offs," officials said.
Asked if politics or economics will dominate Sharon's
visit, Bhaumik said, "While politics will definitely be
high on the agenda, economics has to be an integral part
of any such discussions."
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