Because the loudspeakers of Al-Aqsa Mosque in previous Jerusalem introduced Iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan quick, on the night of February 25, the Ansari household sat beneath the Indian tricolour in a close-by neighbourhood. They had been glued to their tv set, listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he delivered a speech within the Israeli Knesset, barely a kilometre away.

Custodians of a pre-Partition India’s civilisational footprint within the area often known as Zawiya al-Hindiya, situated metres from Herod Gate, they had been nonetheless hoping that the Indian Prime Minister would step into their courtyard. Zawiya al-Hindiya is a uncommon shrine the place India’s diplomatic statecraft intersects with Muslim devotional historical past. Its courtyard is related to Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, the twelfth–thirteenth century Punjabi Sufi mystic who, in accordance with custom, spent 40 days in religious retreat right here earlier than returning to the subcontinent. Baba Farid’s grave lies in Pakpattan, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Pakistan’s lack of diplomatic relations with Israel has successfully left India to be the heir and steward of this pre-1947 legacy of the subcontinent.

Since 1995, when the then Exterior Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited this shrine after India established full diplomatic relations with Israel, virtually each Indian Minister and dignitary travelling to Israel and Palestine has included a go to to Zawiya al-Hindiya of their itinerary. Even the present Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has visited it thrice. In diplomatic circles, it has usually been described as an “Indian jewel” in Jerusalem, accompanied by a motto that reads like an invite: “Welcome to India in Jerusalem”.

But Modi selected to skip the “Indian jewel”. As a substitute, he hung out with actors of the Israeli tv sequence Fauda, drawing on their experiences within the Israel Protection Forces. He additionally visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, earlier than returning to New Delhi.

Diplomats in West Asia counsel that one of many principal motives of Modi’s go to was to assist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ease his world isolation. Modi is among the many few heads of presidency who’ve travelled to Israel over the previous two years, throughout which it has performed a sustained navy marketing campaign in Gaza.

Additional, any lingering hope that Modi may use his private rapport with Netanyahu to press for restraint in West Asia additionally rapidly light. Barely a day after he returned to New Delhi, Israel, with backing from the USA, launched missile strikes towards Iran. The timing was putting. It underscored the bounds of private diplomacy in a area and symbolised dangerous optics for India.

The strikes served as a blunt reminder that strategic calculations in Tel Aviv and Washington are formed much less by symbolism and extra by exhausting safety doctrines. It has additionally sharpened questions on how India balances its rising partnership with Israel towards its longstanding ties and pursuits throughout West Asia.

Modi and India haven’t condemned the unprovoked assault on Iran, which shares a major bilateral relationship with India. This has sharpened questions on how India balances its rising partnership with Israel towards its longstanding ties and pursuits throughout West Asia. For Tel Aviv and Washington, the strikes had been a blunt reminder to the world that their strikes had been formed much less by symbolism and extra by exhausting safety messages.

In sharp distinction to Modi’s go to to Israel amid the shadow of conflict, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then serving as India’s Exterior Affairs Minister, abruptly minimize quick his journey to China in February 1979. He was within the midst of high-level talks in Beijing (then Peking), when information broke on February 17, 1979 that Chinese language forces had launched an assault on Vietnam. Vajpayee instantly cancelled his remaining engagements and returned to India, bringing the go to to an abrupt finish to point out India’s displeasure.

Sheikh Munir Hasan Ansari, the caretaker of Zawiya al-Hindiya, recounts that his grandfather, initially from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, was assigned the duty of sustaining the courtyard precisely 100 years in the past, after the Ottoman Turks vacated the realm. On the request of the then Grand Mufti of Palestine, and performing on the suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi, leaders of the Indian freedom motion equivalent to M.M. Ansari and Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, determined to dispatch the Ansari household to Jerusalem to take care of the Indian relic within the metropolis.

Modi’s Knesset speech

In his tackle to the Knesset, Modi expressed help for the Gaza peace initiative and declared that any sturdy peace should tackle the Palestinian situation. Consultants observe that, on paper, it amounted to a balancing act: solidarity with Israel, rhetorical area for Palestine, and a well-recognized Indian choice for fastidiously worded equilibrium. But the go to itself grew to become the headline, and the timing spoke volumes. Palestinian leaders, and even a number of Israeli analysts, described the go to as untimely, confirmed now by the US-Israel assault on Iran, which the go to now appears to endorse.

The Palestinian author and activist Ahmed Artema argued {that a} extra prudent method would have been to attend till the Gaza ceasefire was demonstrably strong and humanitarian corridors had been steady, moderately than simply forward of the Iran assaults which have turned the area into an lively battlefield. “It will have been doable to deepen financial and technological cooperation with out providing Israel the headline of a significant World South chief arriving with full honours amid contested legitimacy,” Artema mentioned.

Netanyahu’s resolution to greet Modi at Ben-Gurion Airport alongside his spouse, Sara, was framed as a excessive honour—one just lately prolonged solely to US President Donald Trump. In Israeli political theatre, such gestures are not often informal; they sign hierarchy, intimacy, and political endorsement.

Forward of the go to, Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, described the brand new section of relations as a deepening of defence-industrial cooperation, with up to date frameworks designed to boost confidentiality and broaden technological sharing. He spoke of joint manufacturing, together with “new classes” of weapons programs, and famous that drones and ammunition had been already being developed collaboratively, with the brand new settlement supposed to broaden and elevate the technological sophistication of manufacturing.

One thread within the public commentary surrounding Modi’s journey was the promise of Israeli air defence programs, together with the Iron Dome and the extra conceptually disruptive Iron Beam. Navy consultants argue that the Could 2025 India-Pakistan escalation demonstrated how conventional interception programs are expensive and could be overwhelmed by quantity. A high-energy laser system, if operationally scalable, would alter the strategic arithmetic by making every interception far inexpensive than firing a missile interceptor.

India and Israel have additionally constructed substantial cooperation in water administration, agriculture, innovation, and expertise. The narrative is strengthened by the fixed chorus of complementarity: Israel’s innovation and scientific experience paired with India’s scale and market depth. Modi highlighted the Bilateral Funding Treaty signed final 12 months and spoke of negotiating a free commerce settlement.

Knowledge reveals that bilateral commerce peaked at $10.7 billion in 2022-23, earlier than declining to $6.5 billion in 2023-24 and additional to $3.6 billion in 2024-25. Diamonds account for 33.1 per cent of India’s imports from Israel, whereas refined petroleum merchandise represent 43.7 per cent of India’s exports to Israel.

In accordance with knowledge cited from the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute, India accounted for over 38 per cent of Israel’s arms exports between 2014 and 2024. India has emerged as one in every of Israel’s largest arms clients, with its share exceeding 30 per cent in recent times.

Throughout the go to, either side launched a brand new initiative on Essential and Rising Applied sciences, led by the Nationwide Safety Advisers of the 2 international locations. They emphasised that the initiative would synergise their respective strengths in area of interest applied sciences and foster a focussed, future-oriented partnership. The leaders known as on either side to advance this initiative expeditiously.

Modi additionally referred to the formidable India-Center East-Europe Financial Hall (IMEC), which stalled following Israel’s conflict in Gaza. Introduced on September 9, 2023, throughout the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, the IMEC hall goals to attach India, West Asia, and Europe by an built-in rail and transport community. In accordance with the undertaking’s web site, it will traverse India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Greece, incorporating railways, ports, and highways to facilitate logistics and promote the free move of commerce.

Modi additionally invoked the India, Israel, US, and United Arab Emirates grouping, often known as I2U2, presenting it as a pure platform for progress. In response, Netanyahu launched the “hexagon” idea, a proposed alignment together with India, Greece, Cyprus, and different unnamed companions, positioned towards what he described as “radical Sunni and Shia axes”. By invoking these axes, he seemed to be alluding to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, and Türkiye within the area, and to Pakistan in India’s neighbourhood.

For India, overtly adopting enmity in the direction of Saudi Arabia or Iran for the sake of Israel could be a posh and probably expensive proposition. India has traditionally maintained ties with Iran and invested strategically in initiatives equivalent to Chabahar port. A deeper structural alignment with Israel might intensify stress on New Delhi: it must steadiness its strategic pursuits whereas avoiding the notion of getting entered an anti-Iran axis, a notion strengthened by Modi’s untimely go to.

If India’s alignment with Israel turns into extra entrenched, the prices of preserving its ties with Tehran could rise, and its West Asia coverage might more and more be seen not as multi-alignment however as a gradual shift in the direction of one camp.

On the second day of the go to, Modi and Netanyahu oversaw the signing of 16 financial, safety, and diplomatic agreements. Memoranda of understanding had been concluded in agriculture, geophysical exploration, heritage, science, schooling, the economic system, cyber cooperation, expertise, safety, and synthetic intelligence, signed by their respective Ministers and counterparts, in addition to India’s Ambassador to Israel, J.P. Singh. The agreements additionally included provisions permitting 50,000 Indian employees to be employed in Israel over the following 5 years, in accordance with India’s Overseas Ministry.

“We all know that the assembly of minds and hearts that we’ve had right here can even proceed on this exceptional G2G that’s lengthy overdue and can create an excellent higher increase to the big advantages that we will convey to one another, and I believe, to humanity at massive,” Netanyahu mentioned throughout the convention.

Validation to Netanyahu

For Israel’s management, Modi’s go to supplied high-profile validation at a time when many Western capitals are constrained by home politics, authorized scrutiny, and public outrage over Gaza. He arrived as a frontrunner who could possibly be showcased as proof that Israel is just not remoted, that it retains companions past the Euro-Atlantic sphere, and that the language of “innovation and democracy” can nonetheless be carried out on a global stage.

Palestinian chief and former Minister Ahmed Majdalani recollects that India, with its entry and credibility in Israel, might use its place to advance peace in a way harking back to Norway within the early Eighties.

In 1979, when substantial petroleum reserves had been found inside Norway’s maritime boundaries, influential Jewish organisations and the US exerted stress on Oslo to provide oil to Israel, as Arab oil producers had been denying Israel power, and the Iranian revolution had destabilised provide chains. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Odvar Nordli sought the Palestinian perspective and consulted Palestine Liberation Organisation chief Yasser Arafat earlier than making a choice.

Majdalani recounts that Arafat adopted a realistic stance, telling the Norwegian chief that Israel would safe power instantly or not directly in any case, however that Norway might leverage its place to encourage Israel to open quiet channels with the Palestinians. Fourteen years later, these contacts culminated within the Oslo Accords, the return of Arafat to Palestine, and the endorsement of the two-state system.

“Oslo in the end faltered beneath the burden of distrust, settlement growth, and political upheaval. However the reality stays: a small state leveraged friendship with Israel into leverage for dialogue,” Majdalani mentioned.

Consultants argue that India, as a a lot bigger economic system, a significant defence purchaser, and a state with world ambitions, possesses far higher weight than Norway. Its ties with Israel, particularly in defence expertise, are deeper and extra in depth. India has the capability to talk to all sides and to calibrate its symbolism fastidiously, whereas urgent quietly for a reputable political horizon for Palestinians.

Ultimately, diplomacy is formed not solely by the agreements signed but additionally by the areas a frontrunner chooses to inhabit. Skipping Zawiya al-Hindiya whereas foregrounding the Knesset, Yad Vashem, and Israel’s innovation ecosystem didn’t sign a frontrunner centring Palestinian dignity or expressing seen unease.

As a substitute, in West Asian diplomatic circles, it prompt a calibrated minimal in rhetoric, paired with most funding in partnership optics that carry significance in Benjamin Netanyahu’s home politics and Israel’s world narrative.

This distinction sharpens the space between India’s older anti-colonial reflex, rooted in solidarity with Palestinian self-determination, and its present apply of strategic embrace with out public friction over Gaza or the West Financial institution. As proceedings on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice and actions on the Worldwide Felony Court docket intensify world scrutiny, diplomatic hedging could show more and more troublesome to maintain. A pacesetter’s presence is a type of foreign money, and Modi selected to spend it in Israel.

He might have walked to Zawiya al-Hindiya and allowed the cameras to seize India’s plural reminiscence in Jerusalem. Many consider that it will not have constituted an anti-Israel gesture, however moderately a quiet affirmation of a rustic aspiring to guide the World South whereas remembering all strands of its historical past.

Appendix: Outcomes of Modi’s two-day go to to Israel

• Strategic partnership upgraded: India and Israel elevated ties to a “Particular Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation and Prosperity,” increasing cooperation throughout defence, expertise, commerce and people-to-people domains.
• Synthetic intelligence cooperation formalised: An MoU on synthetic intelligence was signed, together with a separate education-focussed AI settlement between the 2 international locations.
• Nationwide safety advisers to guide essential applied sciences initiative: A brand new initiative on essential and rising applied sciences will probably be led by the Nationwide Safety Advisers of each international locations, making a high-level institutional mechanism linking AI, cyber, semiconductors, and different frontier sectors with nationwide safety planning.
• Indo-Israel cyber centre of excellence: A Letter of Intent was signed to ascertain an India–Israel Centre of Excellence in Cybersecurity in India, alongside a structured multi-year cyber cooperation roadmap and common Cyber Coverage Dialogue.
• Joint analysis funding elevated: Contributions beneath the India–Israel Joint Analysis Calls had been raised from $1 million to $1.5 million every, strengthening university-level scientific collaboration.
• Free commerce settlement negotiations accelerated: Phrases of reference for a free commerce settlement had been signed and the primary negotiating spherical held, with either side committing to expedite negotiations.
• Bilateral funding settlement framework strengthened: The India–Israel Bilateral Funding Settlement was highlighted as a mechanism to spice up investor confidence, guarantee transparency and supply dispute decision safeguards.
• UPI hyperlink with Israeli cost system: An MoU between NPCI Worldwide and MASAV, Israel’s central automated clearing home, will study linking India’s Unified Funds Interface with Israel’s quick cost system for cross-border funds.
• 50,000 further Indian employees: Either side agreed that as much as 50,000 extra Indian employees could arrive in Israel over the following 5 years, with new sector-specific implementation protocols signed.
• Agriculture innovation and fisheries cooperation expanded: An MoU was signed to ascertain the India–Israel Innovation Centre for Agriculture, alongside new fellowships and a Joint Centre of Excellence in Fisheries and Aquaculture.

[Iftikhar Gilani is an Indian journalist based in Ankara. Courtesy: Frontline magazine, a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications headquartered in Chennai, India.]