29.1 The geopolitical stand: India-Israel-Palestine
India and Israel are more than 4,000 km
apart but they're united in their experience. They share a long and painful
history of fighting terrorism. Indians are all too familiar with the pain that
the ordinary Israeli is feeling today. Right to Peaceful existence has been
threatened time and again by the depraved actions of our neighbour so India
understands Israel's pain and plight but beyond the unmitigated humanitarian
tragedy is the geopolitics. What's at stake for India in this conflict? To
answer this we must understand history. In 1950 India announced its recognition
of Israel. It was one of the last Non-Muslim state to recognize Israel but India
was also among the first to recognize Palestine that happened in 1988 and
that's not all, in 1974 India became the first Non-Arab state to recognize the
Palestine Liberation Organization. New Delhi accepted this group as a sole
representative of the Palestinian people. So historically, India’s ties with
Palestine have run deeper compared to those with Israel. In the 1980s Yaseer
Arafat visited India frequently. He was
a Palestinian leader but beyond the Optics there were there was also despite in
India, over India's unabashed support of Palestine, imperceptibly the ground
beneath was shifting and Pakistan played a role in it. India supported the
Palestinian cause but the Arab Nations did not return the favor. They did not
show such support for India. For instance in 1962, India and China fought a war
and what was the stand of the Arab nations?
In that conflict of 1962 War, they were neutral and it got worse both in
1965 and 1971. India was facing Pakistan on the battlefield and the Arab
Nations backed it. They backed Pakistan. Geopolitics doesn't quite work as a
one-sided love story and India learned that lesson over time. What Israel did
in the meantime, it helped India with arms and ammunition both in 1962 and in
1965 war. Israel helped India but the relationship remained like a secret
affair, the major shift came in the 1990s that's when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Among
Saddam Hussein's few allies was Yaseer Arafat, the Palestinian leader and that
dangerous Gambit alienated Arafat in 1991. In fact the Soviet Union disintegrated
West Asia was undergoing a transformation. Allies and allegiances were changing
and India did not want to be shoehorned into a corner so, in 1992 New Delhi
established full diplomatic relations with Israel and over the years the ties
have become stronger. India is Israel's seventh largest trade partner and
Israel is India's third largest defense partner. Defense, diamonds and drip
irrigation dominate the bilateral ties. This has come in handy for India
especially during the Kargil war. In 1999, India issued an SOS it needed help
and Israel responded. It supplied India with Target bombs and this proved to be
crucial in India's Victory. Then in 2014, the Narendra Modi government came to
power, ties with Israel came into focus in 2017. Prime Minister Modi visited
Israel, the first Indian Prime Minister to do so and he did not go to Palestine
then. This was a major shift on India's part. Modi de hyphenated Israel and Palestine.
Israeli leader has been much talked about from the beach walk, to the kite flying,
to spinning Gandhi's charkha they've done it all. One year later in 2018, Prime
Minister Modi did make a trip to Palestine and this time around he did not
visit Israel. So, the message from India was clear India had not abandoned the
relationship with Palestine. It had merely recalibrated it. Now admittedly this
diplomatic maneuvering is a difficult Balancing Act but sometimes events demand
that nations take a clear stand recent terror attack by Hamas was one such occasion
Hamas has manipulation of religion as political tribalism has few takers and
India certainly is not one of them by calling it what it is, “a terror attack”
New Delhi has made it’s stand clear.
Hamas it's a terrorist organization but it
calls itself a political party, it is in fact one of the two largest political parties
in Palestine now Palestine is divided into two parts the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. The West Bank is controlled by a coalition called the PLO, the
Palestinian Liberation organization led by a party called Fatah. So, the PLO
rules the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas. This group is
ideologically and politically motivated. It rules a population of more than 2
million Palestinians and it calls itself the face of the Palestinian movement. Hamas gets its name from an Arab acronym “Harakah-
Al- Muqawamah-Al-Islamia” which translates to the “Islamic resistance movement”.
Now this group was founded by a man called Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian scholar
and cleric. In 1967, there was a Six-Day War Israel won and they took over Palestinian
territory. Two decades later Yassin established Hamas and Palestinians rose
against Israel's occupation. In 1987, the movement was called the first Uprising;
there was a series of violent protests attacks targeting Jews in Israel. One
year later Hamas published their Charter it called for the destruction of Israel
and for the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine and then
Hamas continued the attacks. They reportedly resorted to Suicide bombings
rocket attacks and Small Arms attacks their targets were civilians. The International
Community designated Hamas as a terrorist group, over the years it tried to
morph itself into a political party but it kept a military Wing that's what
they call themselves and this Wing was to carry out attacks against Israel.
Hamas created a top down Government Approach. At the top was the political
bureau of 15 member body which operates
in Exile, then comes the Shura council its members are unknown but this Council
elects the political bureau it also
oversees some welfare programs in the West Bank at Gaza and then there is the Hamas
government. It implements policies and agendas set by the Shura council but
it's more like a puppet government. So, does the Hamas have a representative
face? Well, it does and it's this man Ismile Khan, he's the designated chairman
of Hamas and he operates from Qatar's Capital Doha. Hamas leaders have made Qatar
their workplace because they had a falling out with their previous hosts that's
Syria who supports and funds Hamas on the geopolitical level. Where do they get
their money and weapons from Qatar? It is clearly an outright supporter apart
from hosting the leaders of Hamas. Qatar sends millions of dollars to the
terror group in 2021, the Qatari government announced Aid worth $360 million
for Hamas that's $360 million that Hamas has never given accountability for. Where
did that money go? Next in line is turkey, their president Erdogan is a stalwart
supporter of this Terror organization, Hamas even has offices in Istanbul. In
the month of July Erdogan hosted the chief of Hamas in Ankara. Erdogan openly
supports the Palestinian cause and turkey has repeatedly sent funds to Hamas
and even now after recent attacks Erdogan does not condemn them for what they've
done. Their top supporter title goes to Iran. Theran provides Hamas with funds
weapons and military training. It is common for Hamas leaders to meet Iranian leaders
and clerics. According to a report by the US state department Iran provides
almost $100 million every year to Hamas what about the weapons there's no
Clarity on how many they give or what kind but here's what the Hamas Chief says
Iran is their biggest donor of their biggest donor of weapons. The Hamas
leadership often visits Iran to plot against their common enemy Israel and they
insist that this is not a proxy war that they're not fighting on behalf of Iran
but they haven't found many takers over the years. American sanctions have
forced Iran to cut funding to Hamas but their relationship remains intact so
for Iran, Hamas is an ally for Israel. It's a terror group but how do the
people of Palestine see Hamas? A poll was held in the month of June by the
Palestinian Center for policy research and they revealed some shocking numbers
only 31% of the people in Palestine say that Hamas should represent them. A
whopping 73% Palestinians believe that they should not. Hamas should not
represent them 73%. They say there's widespread corruption in Gaza in
institutions run by Hamas. The pole also asked Palestinians another question
who would they vote for if elections were to be held today 56% pick the current
Hamas Chief Ismile and that's a clear majority 56% so what does that mean? It
means that the people of Gaza do not trust the governing ability of Hamas but
Ismile continues to be a popular figure ever since Israel withdrew from Gaza in
2005. Hamas has taken up the role of the de facto Authority here over the years.
They've purged political opposition. The Gaza Strip has remained under their
strict control. Hamas has maintained its popularity with social service and the
call to raise militias against Israel but this time they may have gone too far,
they've launched an All out military operation against Israel. Will this spell
the end of Hamas? Only time answers this Question.
— Team Yuva Aaveg
(Akhileshwar Maurya)
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Well written 👏
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