Opinion | Timing Of PM Modi’s Israel Visit Reveals India’s Bold New Diplomacy

The Prime Minister's latest visit is an unusually assertive and unapologetic public display of support for Israel and its PM, Benjamin Netanyahu

For decades, India treated ties with Israel like a cloistered, illicit love affair. While the Jewish State kept steadfastly extending its support, India only acknowledged it in the secrecy of encrypted phone calls and backroom diplomatic missions.

While that started changing during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s prime ministership, under Narendra Modi, it has swung to the opposite end.

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The Prime Minister’s latest visit is an unusually assertive and unapologetic public display of support for Israel and its PM, Benjamin Netanyahu. It is the timing that makes it so special.

The US and Israel could be less than a week away from a military strike against Iran’s Khamenei regime. America has deployed additional carriers and assets near Iran, amid reports of Iran acquiring advanced Chinese anti-ship missiles.

Modi has addressed the Knesset, signalling the backing of the world’s largest democracy of 1.4 billion people for Israel’s cause. Till Modi is on Israeli soil, Iran cannot launch an attack at Tel Aviv without risking a diplomatic firestorm of unmanageable magnitude. So, Modi’s visit also buys time for Israel and the US. His visit ensures that the strike window will open on February 26, after Modi departs.

The trip forwards Netanyahu’s idea of building a “hexagon of alliances" in the Mediterranean with India, Greece, Cyprus, the UAE, and a couple of African countries against radical Shia and Sunni nations like Iran and Turkey. India is signalling strategic alignment with Israel and the US in the West Asian theatre without formally joining any bloc.

Nine years after the first visit, this trip elevates relations to a Special Strategic Partnership. Modi’s Knesset address—a first for an Indian PM—strong condemnation of the Octobr 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and endorsement of the Gaza Peace Initiative show India standing firmly with Israel on terrorism while still backing a two-state solution.

Now, this may look schizoid.

India has voted in favour of several UNGA resolutions supporting a two-state solution, an immediate Gaza ceasefire, and Palestinian rights (including the September 2025 New York Declaration resolution). But it has abstained on some strongly worded anti-Israel texts.

So, why does it not rock the India-Israel boat?

Why are ties actually deepening?

The reason is pragmatism.

Both countries have consciously decoupled Israel from the Palestinian issue. Israel fully understands India’s domestic compulsions of having a large Muslim population and energy imports from the Gulf since the time of the Non-Aligned Movement.

But Israel also knows that defence supplies worth billions, agricultural technology, cybersecurity, and counter-terror intelligence are far more important than symbolic UN votes. The occasional UN divergences will remain as mere irritants, not break-up cues.

Also, PM Modi has not gone to Tel Aviv with fancy, idealistic notions of trying to stop the war. Smelling imminent war, India has told its citizens to get out of Iran. The PM has gone knowing fully well that conflict is inevitable. Unlike previous PMs, he has not shied from picking a side.

Abhijit Majumder is the author of the book, ‘India’s New Right’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views

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