Netanyahu's Hexagon Alliance Bets Against Two Fronts
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- Netanyahu announced a "hexagon of alliances" in February 2026, pitching Israel as the centerpiece of a network that would include India, Greece, Cyprus, moderate Arab states, African powers, and unspecified Asian countries to counter what he called "radical axes."
- Netanyahu framed the doctrine as a dual-front project against both the "radical Shia axis" and an "emerging radical Sunni axis," positioning Israel not merely as a defender but as an organizing power for a new regional order.
- The India-Israel leg has real substance: India is Israel's largest defense export client, and India's tech ecosystem complements Israeli innovation, but New Delhi has carefully avoided signing on to the hexagon as a formal alliance.
- The Greece-Israel leg is anchored by Greece's 2025 approval to purchase 36 PULS rocket artillery systems from Israel valued at approximately US$760 million, within a trilateral framework with Cyprus established in 2016.
- The hexagon emerged as a response to a new alignment between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia having signed a Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement in September 2025.
- India's position is the most delicate, as deepening military ties with Israel risk pitting New Delhi against Iran, with which India has historically warm ties, while India simultaneously maintains expanding strategic ties with Saudi Arabia.
- Critics challenge Netanyahu's binary framing, noting that several Sunni-majority states have coordinated diplomatically to condemn Israeli strikes on Syria and the conflict in Gaza, undermining the notion of a unified "Sunni axis."
Why it matters: The hexagon's fate hinges on India, Israel's largest defense export client, which has refused to formalize membership. With New Delhi's strategic autonomy tied to maintaining warm ties with both Iran and Saudi Arabia — states Netanyahu casts as adversaries — a NATO-style pact is improbable, leaving the doctrine as an aspirational framework whose real test is whether India shapes the arrangement on its own terms or lets it wither.
