Modi's India Embraces Israel as Gaza War Isolates Netanyahu — SkimNews
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- Bezalel Smotrich toured India in September 2025 — signing a trade deal in New Delhi, visiting Mumbai's stock exchange, and touring a Gujarat investment hub — even as the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Norway had banned his entry and the EU was preparing bloc-wide sanctions on him and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
- India exported weapons to Israel during the Gaza war per Al Jazeera investigations and has become Israel's largest weapons buyer under Modi, despite New Delhi still publicly backing a two-state solution.
- Modi visited Israel in February 2025 on the eve of joint US-Israel strikes on Iran — an International Crisis Group analyst called it "almost a personal favour to Netanyahu" designed to boost his image ahead of Israeli elections.
- At least 11 European countries and Canada have imposed trade measures on products from illegal Israeli settlements and sanctioned settler leaders, while India has offered only "homilies and mild opposition" to the Gaza war.
- Analysts link India's pivot to the BJP's Hindu-nationalist ideology, noting Hindutva's vision of India as a Hindu homeland mirrors Israel's Jewish-state self-conception, and Modi's domestic anti-Muslim politics cast Israel as a fellow victim of "Islamic terrorism."
- India's historical reversal is stark: it opposed Israel's creation in 1948, backed the 1975 UNGA resolution equating Zionism with racism, and only established diplomatic ties in 1992 — Modi was the first Indian PM to visit in 2016.
Why it matters: India's deepening alignment with Israel during a war that killed at least 74,000 Palestinians — including 21,000 children — and drew European sanctions gives Netanyahu diplomatic cover as Western support fractures, while New Delhi's weapons exports undermine its own two-state rhetoric and feed Modi's Hindu-nationalist base.
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