Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi shared a conspicuously warm embrace as the Indian prime minister stepped off Air India One at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Wednesday, a moment that captured the political intimacy between the two leaders. Over the course of his two-day visit, the two sides are expected to sign several agreements, further consolidating an already deepening partnership between Israel and India.

Modi has long been a driving force behind this closeness. His 2017 trip marked the first visit to Israel by an Indian prime minister and signalled a decisive shift in bilateral relations. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, he called this trip a “historic visit”, later receiving a standing ovation at a reception at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where Netanyahu declared, “This is true friendship, between two leaders, between two countries, and between two ancient nations.”

Of course, this friendship does not just hinge on the deals and agreements the two leaders are set to sign. While welcoming Modi on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport, Sara Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s wife, wore orange/saffron, the colour of Hindutva. The Israeli prime minister also pointed out that her outfit matched the orange pocket square Modi was wearing.

The prominence of Hindutva’s signature colour was difficult to ignore and suggested a clear ease with, and affirmation of, the ideological framework underpinning Modi’s politics. The ideological partnership between Netanyahu and Modi rests on a belief that both leaders stand as a bulwark against what they consider an existential civilisational struggle against Islam and Islamism. Bibi’s Israel is meant to serve as a haven for all Jews, while Modi’s India is meant to keep Hindus safe.

But it is worth asking, whose safety is really guaranteed in Israel and India?

The genocide in Gaza and the ongoing settler violence and annexation of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank are only the latest reminders that........

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