The Hindu : Burgeoning ties with Israel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 18, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Burgeoning ties with Israel

By K. V. Krishnaswamy

It is not just in politics that the parallels between India and Israel run as the two seek a 'civilisational bonding' that can, as the later sees it, encompass several areas of interaction.

A HALF century after secular idealists won their battle for independence from the British, the growing influence of the religious political bloc is threatening to negate those cherished ideals and throw the nation into a crisis of identity. If an election were held today, secularists will be routed. Orthodoxy, in other words, has never had it so good. As a direct consequence, secular nationalism, the principle that the nation is rooted in secularist rather than a religious or ethnic identity, is in crisis.

I am speaking of Israel. If the description fits India, it is because this is one of the many areas in which there are striking similarities between the two countries. Interaction with a cross section of leaders and experts in academia and officialdom during a week-long visit to Israel left the impression that the battle to keep the synagogue separate and apart from the state has perhaps already been lost. Israeli identity is fast becoming inseparable from Jewish identity.

If this were not true, there should have been protests from sections of the press and the political establishments at the Ariel Sharon Government's handling of the Palestinian crisis. The systematic way in which Yasser Arafat and the civilian population have been targeted has, surprisingly, evoked very little popular protest in Israel.

Worse, the violence the Israeli Government has unleashed on the Palestinians with its terrible, inevitable consequence of retaliatory suicide bombings and sporadic outbursts is ensuring precisely the outcome that the Jewish right has been working for. Mr. Sharon and the right which are in coalition with the Labour Party will get a big majority on their own if elections are held today, Israeli journalists and academics concede. This is perhaps the only reason why the Labour Party, which swears (rather haltingly these days?) by secularism, is not leaving the so-called national government headed by Mr. Sharon despite the reality that every day it shares power with the right wing it is losing support among the population — to the rightist groups.

For years, researchers and pollsters have employed four categories to gauge degrees of religiosity in Israel: secular, traditionalist, religious and ultra-orthodox. A new category was added a few years ago: secularist with a positive attitude toward religion. That was acknowledgement that the secular majority was thinning rapidly as the orthodox Jew stepped up his campaign after realising that a Palestinian state may emerge in his own lifetime.

The defeatism that has gripped the Labour Party and other secular groups in Israel has led to a dangerous degree of resignation. ``I have had my innings,'' said the Labour veteran, Shimon Peres, when asked whether he was unhappy that he was not leading his country at this critical time. His mood of despondency was unconcealed. He seemed as aware as the rest of the world of his helplessness in stemming the slide, in preventing the systematic undoing of the last hope of Palestinian moderation and his own peace partner, Mr. Arafat.

The former Israeli Prime Minister and one of the architects of the Oslo peace accord spoke to us, a group of Indian journalists, in his chambers immediately after participating in the voting on an anti-Government motion in the Knesset. As the vote was about to begin, he moved into the House and sat quietly by the side of the burly Mr. Sharon, as speaker after speaker addressed an indifferent audience. Mr. Sharon looked a picture of calm amid the din, secure in the knowledge that his Government had the numbers. But to any dispassionate observer, the scene would have been disquieting: the escalating, climaxing fight over power and symbols was in full play. There was a distinctly oppressive air of conservative orthodoxy in the small chamber as members sported their religious beliefs all over themselves and wore their faith on their sleeve or their balding heads. A variant, god forbid, of a Lok Sabha bathed in saffron.

The direct result of the religious revival that swept Israel after the six-day war of 1967 when the country gained control of territories that form the biblical land is reflected in today's political scene. This is a far cry from the early years of the founding of the Jewish State by secular and often atheist Zionists, in particular by the Ashkenazi elite from Europe and the U.S. The battle ultimately boils down to whether the majority wants a Jewish state or a state for Jews. If the latter was the predominant motive in the wake of the Holocaust and the violent birth of the state of Israel, today there are more and more adherents to the former. A view strongly articulated by officials and others when queried about Tel Aviv's policy on the contentious issue of the right of return of Palestinians expelled from their homeland when Israel was proclaimed.

The opinion was near unanimous that conceding that right would amount to the very negation of Israel. There was only one argument that we heard from everyone, from academics like Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, President, the Institute for International Relations, to Ilan Fluss of the Foreign Ministry: if the Palestinians who are now scattered all over the region in refugee camps and elsewhere are allowed to return to their homeland, it will have the potential to reduce the Jewish population to a minority. ``We don't want to commit suicide.''

Most of them at the same time wanted the Oslo process to continue so that a Palestinian state is established. Years of living under tension and violence have led to a stage where there is an overwhelming desire for peace, for a return to normal life. It is not of course just in politics that the parallels between India and Israel run as the two seek a ``civilisational bonding'' that can, as Israelis see it, encompass several areas of interaction. Of immediate relevance, the post September 11 situation has resulted in increasing strategic cooperation between the two, defence and related interaction intensifying manifold from even the high levels reached in the post-Kargil days. ``We continue to cooperate, collaborate and enhance the relations that already exist,'' remarked Amos Yaron, Director-General at the Ministry of Defence. On the level of this collaboration, his comment was telling: why invent the wheel two times?

Israeli enterprise in turning a desert green is one enviable model. More avenues are opening up a full decade after India, in the wake of the end of the Cold War, established diplomatic relations with Israel. In Israel there is a deep desire for closer relations with India going beyond the issues provoking today's conflict in the Middle East.

The most eloquent, forceful rationale for this ``fascination for India'' came from Mr. Peres. He said, ``We knew the Indian culture before we knew the Indian country.''

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