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India needs to balance ties with Israel and Arab states regarding Gaza: Analysts
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Pro-Israel supporters hold placards during a protest in New Delhi, India.
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NEW DELHI - As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, India will need to walk a fine line to balance its support for Israel while protecting its vast and deep links with the Arab world, said analysts.
India has not departed from its longstanding position of a negotiated two-state solution for Israel and Palestine as peaceful neighbours, but it has expressed strong solidarity with Israel.
Hours after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct 7,
On Friday, India abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution that called for a humanitarian truce and ceasefire in Gaza, where medical authorities have said over 8,000 people have been killed following Israel’s retaliatory strikes.
New Delhi defended its decision, saying the resolution did not include “explicit condemnation” of the Hamas attack. This drew criticism against India for not taking a stand on Gaza and expressing concern over the Israeli air strikes.
India’s abstention “has isolated it from the rest of the Global South”, said Dr Hasan Alhasan, a research fellow for Middle East policy at the London-based think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies.
He noted perceptions that India stands “squarely on the side of Israel” in the Gaza conflict, and “was very slow to rebalance its position”.
“It took the Ministry of External Affairs five days from the start of the conflict to reiterate India’s traditional policy favouring a two-state solution,” he said. The ministry on Oct 12 said that India “has always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent, and viable State of Palestine”.
In what many see as an attempt to balance the country’s position, Mr Modi also spoke about Gaza to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Oct 19, Jordan’s King Abdullah on Oct 23, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Oct 28.
In 2017, Mr Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel, a historic occasion some 25 years after the two countries established diplomatic relations.
Ties with Israel have grown on the back of cooperation in security and defence, with India accounting for 37 per cent of Israel’s weapons exports between 2018 and 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
However, India has also developed strong ties with the Arab world in the past decade, noted Professor Harsh V. Pant of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
Should the war be protracted, there would “certainly” be an expectation in many Arab countries that India would support their position on this crisis, said Prof Pant, who is vice-president for studies and foreign policy at the think-tank.
“And given the huge stakes India has in the Arab world, India will have to consider those expectations as well in how it evolves its position on this issue,” he said.
India imports 60 per cent of its crude oil from the Gulf countries, where some 8.8 million Indians employed in various sectors remitted home about US$90 billion (S$123 billion) in 2022 alone.
Arab countries have condemned the killing and targeting of civilians in Gaza and have consistently supported the need for a two-state solution.
India’s alignment with Israel is in part linked to the Modi government’s policy of being tough on terror.
Right-wing nationalists have drawn a parallel between the Hamas attack and repeated cross-border terror attacks that India has accused Pakistan of. In 2008, terrorists from Pakistan launched attacks on multiple sites in Mumbai, leaving 175 dead.
In the Indian public’s view, Israel is a friend that stepped in during a time of need, supplying weapons during the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan.
Israel’s ambassador to India Naor Gilon told news agency ANI that there had been overwhelming support from Indians.
“Everyone is telling me, I want to volunteer and I want to go and fight for Israel,” he said, adding that he “could have another IDF with volunteers”, referring to the the Israeli Defence Forces.
Mr Talmiz Ahmad, a former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia and an Arab expert, said India’s ties with Arab countries are too deep and varied to be impacted adversely by India’s position on Israel.
“I don’t think any country in the region will have any different relations with India because of Israel,” he said.
Despite support for Israel in India, there has also been an upsurge of sympathy over the loss of lives and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Pro-Palestine protests have been held, including in the southern state of Kerala.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, in an opinion piece in the Hindustan Times newspaper, said, “Humanity is on trial now. We were collectively diminished by the brutal attacks on Israel. We are now all diminished by Israel’s disproportionate and equally brutal response. How many more lives will have to be taken before our collective conscience is stirred and awakened?.”
She further wrote: “The Israeli government is making a grievous error in equating the actions of Hamas with the Palestinian people.”
