With the growing influence of the military in Pakistan following the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif, the need for India to win friends and influence other countries has been accentuated. A statement by Israeli authorities to an Indian daily to the effect that Israel will support India on the Kashmir issue is welcome. Israel has been relatively silent on Kashmir in the past despite its commitment to counter terrorism. Israel is also a victim of terror, especially by the Hamas in Palestine. Since India’s establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1991, Tel Aviv has always endorsed India’s position that Kashmir is an integral part of this country. But a kind of entente cordiale emerged between Israel and Pakistan after 2003 with Israel starting to look at Pakistan as an important country of the Islamic world. The Delhi Declaration issued after the visit to India by the then Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon in 2003 did not mention Israel’s stand on Kashmir. Similarly, the recent visit to Israel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first such visit of an Indian PM to that country did not result in any direct reference to the terrorism issue in Kashmir by Tel Aviv. This was notwithstanding Israel’s commitment to forming significant defence ties with India. The joint statement made by Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu did not specifically mention cross border terrorism from Pakistan nor did it ask Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice.
The latest statement from Israel has finally cleared the air and should reassure New Delhi. It may be pointed out that the Modi-Trump joint communique clearly asked Pakistan to punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks and wanted action to be taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, two terror groups in Pakistan. The US statement may have influenced Israel’s explicit support to India.
