Bharat - Israel through the years

    The ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict seems to have no end as the recent UN brokered humanitarian 72 hour ceasefire was called off by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after Hamas killed 2 Israeli soldiers and abducted 3 immediately after the ceasefire was announced. In the recent vote in UNHRC on the resolution proposed by Pakistan, Egypt & Palestine, Israel was termed to be as the aggressor in the ongoing conflict thereby completely ignoring the attacks by Hamas on Israel. Inspite of the increasing civilian casualty in Gaza, Hamas seems to be showing very less concern for the same.

    Bharat may have voted against Israel in the UNHRC resolution amidst the fears of non-cooperation by the Arab nations in evacuating our citizens from Iraq as well as our dependence on the Middle-East for supply of oil, which forms major part of our imports.

    Though Bharat may have turned down and supported the cause of Palestine, as it has been doing since 1948, Israel have always shown their support in our time of need. Not one, but in many instances Israel has stood by us defying all odds, even when super power like the US took strong position against us. Lets go through some of the instances when Israel stood like a rock with us.

1971 War

In his book, 1971 by Srinath Raghavan, he revealed that Israel provided huge assistance during the war against Pakistan. Bharat may not had diplomatic ties with Israel but New Delhi quietly sought & got arms from Tel Aviv as we prepared to go to war with Pakistan. Raghavan had accessed the papers related to PN Haksar, a diplomat & adviser to PM Indira Gandhi, maintained at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi. Israel was in middle of an arms shortage but prime minister Golda Meir stepped in to divert arms meant for Iran to India. She also sent a note addressed to PM Indira Gandhi in Hebrew with a request for diplomatic ties in return for arms. The arms would eventually land up with the Indian Army and the Mukti Bahini, the guerilla force of Bengalis who would force the Pakistanis to surrender.

1999 War

Israel again sprung to India's aid for providing the desperately-needed imagery about Pakistani positions on the Kargil heights.The terrains where they came from was all stones. The intruders merged in the background and it was not very easy to locate them. Tel Aviv stepped in with unmanned reconnaissance aircraft or drones in the battle zone to assist India direct its war effort. The Israeli Heron and Searcher UAVs were critically useful for target information, as most of Indi.a's aerial surveillance aircraft were either too quick, or vulnerable to enemy missile fire.

Pokhran Nuclear Test - II

Israel was one of the selected few nations, a group that also included France and Russia, that did not condemn India's 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests. With India joining the group of countries possessing nuclear weapons, a new strategic dimension had emerged in Asia, particularly South Asia. Hence China, US & Japan led by UN imposed stricter economic sanctions. It did had impact on our economy as well as technological development which was marginal. But we came out strong, finally forcing the sanctions to be lifted & also the US itself later entering into a civil nuclear deal in 2005.

Arms to Pakistan

The Israeli ambassador in 2013 had made their country’s policy very clear that they will not supply any arms hardware to Pakistan. In 2007 Israel surpassed Russia as the largest arms supplier to Bharat.

    Apart from those mentioned above, there have many bilateral trade agreements, sharing technological know how, nuclear science, cultural bonding etc with the natural ally. Israel stands out to be the lone Jewish nation in the midst of Arab controlled Middle-East. It has been attacked many a times in the past, since its formation in 1948, by Egypt, Syria, Jordan who among others do not wish to recognize the existence of that nation.

    So in such cases when Bharat voted against Israel in recent resolution in UNHRC, it was a bit disappointment for many. Violence may not be the solution but terrorism cannot be allowed to prevail and terrorist must be brought to justice. 

PS: Few days ago, IDF called upon 16000 of the reserve forces to take part in the conflict which takes the count to 86000. While US resupplied the Israeli military with mortar rounds, grenades and other weapons from the war stockpile kept in a classified location in Israel.

SR.