The India-Israel Alliance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGXkYsTcIA

This episode of Inside Story is noteworthy in that the relationship between Israel and India is beginning to become more overt. A longstanding reality it is based on mutual interests.

It is for the same reasons that Israel at one time maintained a solid relationship with Iran. The 1979 Revolution changed that but not entirely. Despite the venomous rhetoric that sometimes comes from Tehran and even their support of Assad and Hezbollah, it has (at times) been in Tel Aviv's interest to cut deals with the Iranians. If it means countering Iraq, then definitely so.

For the same reason the Israelis maintain a relationship with the Kurds, Turks and have even sought to establish solid ties with the nations and peoples of the Sub-Saharan frontier. The Doctrine of the Periphery basically understands that the Arabs are the enemies of the Zionist State. The Arab Bloc while hardly united nevertheless has its own tensions and struggles on its periphery. The states that comprise this periphery are the natural allies of Israel.

But where does India come in? That's a little more complicated as indeed the entirety of the Periphery doctrine has grown more subtle and nuanced in recent years. The real factor here is the United States. It's because of Washington's relationships and influence that Israel is now in a de facto alliance with Saudi Arabia. Obviously it will only go so far and even now the Saudis are jockeying for position as the reality on the ground continues to change. The Middle East is astir and the Saudi economy must change or atrophy. This explains the Saudi escalation of the Middle Eastern Cold War with Iran and even the recent attempts to find some basis of rapprochement with Moscow.

During the Cold War, New Delhi was part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) but on a practical level found common cause and was willing to associate with the Soviet Union. This earned the ire of the United States which long backed the government of Pakistan. It was through the relationship with Pakistan that the United States under Nixon was able to reach out to Beijing and capitalise on the Sino-Soviet split. The relationship with Islamabad was strengthened during the 1980's as Pakistan's Zia coupled with the Saudis played an essential role in the US project to bait the Soviets into an Afghan version of the Vietnam quagmire.

The relationship proved more volatile in the 1990s as the world was undergoing a degree of realignment. The Pakistanis were forced into an alliance with the US after 9/11 but even while the US paid off Islamabad in order to have access to landlocked Afghanistan... the groundwork was being laid for a relationship with New Delhi.

Why the shift? It's very simple... China.

While the US was happy to ally with China in the 1970s and 1980s in order to check Soviet power and influence, the situation began to change in the 1990s. China was a rising power and by the 2000's it was clear to US strategists that China perhaps more than any other nation was likely to challenge US hegemony and unipolarity. China despite the massive economic relationship with Western consumerism was pegged as not only a future rival but an enemy.

This fomented the shift in US policy and even while the relationship with Pakistan was in the open, the US was moving to establish strong and lasting ties with India.

Under the auspices of the so-called War on Terror, Pakistan has gradually shifted into a de-facto terrorist state. Islamabad is weak. The central government has failed to control the entirety of the country and many in the US believe the Pakistanis cannot be trusted. While there is a certain class among the Punjabi elite that remain friendly to the West there are other elements in the government and particularly within Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that are viewed as dubious.

Washington has placed its bets and they're on New Delhi. India will serve a central role in the Asia Pivot, the new Cold War theatre on the Pacific Rim. The Pakistanis will not be diverted from their relationship with Beijing and this relationship has only been strengthened in recent years.

For the Israelis, Pakistan is no friend and the Islamists within their government represent a threat. Pakistan in particular, given its culture and geography has become a hotbed of Deobandi and Salafi Islamism and thus represents a potential menace. In most contexts (but not all) they are the friends of Israel's enemies.

Hindu dominated India finds itself politically alone and always under Chinese threat. They fought a brief war in 1962 followed by tense exchanges in 1967, 1987 and we've even seen tensions increase during the past year. India also harbours the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile community which continues to anger Beijing. During the 1960's New Delhi allowed the US to fly Tibetan guerillas over the Himalayas from bases in India.

The US relationship with both Israel and India creates a natural bridge that brings these nations together. The advent of Narendra Modi whose own chauvinism will lead him to be less condemnatory of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians marks a sea change in the already vibrant relationship. That's why people are now taking notice.

Modi's BJP gels very nicely with the ideology of Likud and once more we are reminded of the rise of Likud and its relationship with Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Viewing many issues through the same lens the two groups were able to forge a strong relationship. The same is true today with regard to the BJP.

See also:

http://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/09/us-nuclear-weapons-turkey-and-romania.html