Parsing India’s position on the Israel-Hamas War: It is about securing national interest and prioritising the greater good

The Israel-Palestine conflict revived with the Hamas action and Israel’s reaction and retribution.

Israel army’s continuing onslaught in Gaza after the Hamas sprang unprecedentedly daring, horrifyingly synchronised raids on its territory on October 7 brought the perennial Palestine question back in the public gaze around the world again.

Soon after the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reaction to the numbing spectacle of violence was unequivocal. He condemned the terrorist attack while standing in solidarity with Israel, leaving a trail of analysis whether the statement signalled a radical departure from India’s traditional position on the Palestine issue.

Five days later, India's external affairs ministry reiterated the country's consistently longstanding position that it advocates the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living within secure and recognised borders, side-by-side and at peace with Israel.

Not A Balancing Act

This has triggered a slew of commentaries about New Delhi’s “balancing act” and “tightrope walk” on the Israel-Palestine conflict that got revived with the Hamas action and Israel’s reaction and retribution.

That the art of diplomacy is akin to a trapeze is well-established, as serving the national interest is the sole aim of the foreign policy practitioners.

But seeing India’s reactions only through the prism of a balancing act is trite and myopic. It is much more than that in an age where an act of terror shouldn’t be given equivalence to anything else, while ensuring that this position doesn’t overshadow a cause where the perpetrators of the violence are not the sole stakeholders to the lingering problem and its possible solutions.

The Israel-Palestine issue is a complex tale of occupation, leftovers of history, excruciating sufferings of millions of people who don’t know what future holds for them, and never-ending episodes of violence and dipropionate use of force.

Terrorism And The Red Lines 

Notably, Prime Minister Modi’s statement was emphatic on the terrorist attack, and there is no two ways about the fact that any act of terror must be condemned. Significantly, none of the Indian statements so far have outrightly termed Hamas as a terrorist organisation even though the group is proscribed by the US and the European Union.

As a perpetual victim of terrorism, India has been taking a uniformly strong position against all forms of terrorism. India has also been a victim of western duplicity on terrorism. While chairing the counterterrorism committee of the United States Security Council, India often ran into resistance from the West about using phrases such as zero-tolerance towards terrorism because it gives the licence for countries to go after innocent civilians in the name of crushing terror.

However, it is mostly the western countries, or their allies that use disproportionate force against weaker countries where the so-called terror havens are located. Though their despicable acts cannot be condoned in any manner, it is a fact that the various governments under Benjamin Netanyahu took a divide-and-rule policy between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees, which has helped the Hamas weaken Abbas.

Erring not on the side of caution, Israel did have indirect negotiations with Hamas via Egypt, quite an upgrade for an organisation termed as a mere-terror outfit for many years.

West Asia From India’s Perspective

The Indian position on Palestine has remained consistent though its articulation, given India’s growing relationship with Israel, is not as hyphenated with Israel as it used to be. But a lot of water has flown down the Suez Canal and even the old Arab solidarity for the Palestine cause has been on the wane in the region for various reasons.

A Saudi-Israel pact that the US has been so keen on ironing out ahead of the American presidential elections next year, would have further altered the complexion of geopolitics in the region. And the voice for the Palestine state would have grown thinner in the melee.

Though India-Israel ties have grown into many areas bringing the two countries closer, that has never fundamentally changed India’s position on the Palestine question. With the West Asian region being home for 9 million Indians and accounting for more than half of India’s energy needs, India has always been sensitively uniform in its position on the Palestine question, a great deal of which is inherited from India’s freedom movement and fight against British colonialism.

Though the street voices make an impact on foreign relations, the core of it will remain insulated for protecting the vital national interest. And the reiteration of India’s support for the two-nation position and reaffirmation by the external affairs ministry that India's policy on Palestine has been consistent and longstanding just proves that.

Since the Israel-Palestine issue is now part of the domestic political narratives, it will be difficult to sift through public narratives without getting confused. But the reiteration of India’s position on Palestine and unequivocal rejection of any acts of terror should be seen in the right perspective. It is about securing national interest and standing up for the greater good.

Jayanth Jacob is a foreign policy commentator who covered the ministry of external affairs for more than two decades. Twitter: @jayanthjacob. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.