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India discovers Israel

Following several decades of clandestine contract and cooperation, India says it's found Israel, though the Mizo Jews, part of the ten lost Jewish tribes, have still to do so.

Late last month, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh became among the phalanx of visiting Indian leaders, the highest ranking, to cap the discovery of Israel. This tiny nation of six million people, roughly half the population of Delhi but the real melting pot on earth, has serviced India's four wars: 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999. Making a dig at the growing Indo-Israeli relations, former Pakistan ISI chief, General Hamid Gul noted recently that Brahminical India and Jewish Israel have much in common including usury.

After needless prevarication, India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 and hasn't looked back since. Both countries have a shared history. Both attained independence at around the same time -- 1947-48. Both are old civilisations but young states. Both face external and internal security threats (the insurgency in J&K and the Intifada in Palestine began in 1989). Both are nuclear powers. Both have fought several wars and skirmishes with neighbours but with a difference. Except in 1973, Israel won decisive victories. Except 1971 (and 1999) India at best achieved a stalemate with Pakistan and suffered a humiliating defeat in the Himalayas.

Hence the questions: How has Israel, a small desert country surrounded by big countries, been able to scare them away? And how is India, a big country surrounded by small countries, scared of them? Israel's destiny is guided by the doctrine of survival and use of military force as a policy option even for moving the peace process. Taking the war to the adversary is the goal of military strategy. It's nuclear ambiguity augments conventional deterrence. Unlike India, Israel does not turn the other cheek.

But Israel is not any more the fighting wonder it used to be after the Six-Day lightning war of 1967. It has taken cuts and reductions: In freedom of action, use of force, usefulness for its mentor, the USA and Defence Forces (IDF) can no longer win a decisive victory. Doubts on IDF capability are being cast by the Israelis themselves. Body-bags is the sore issue. Pressure from the Mothers' Front and Parents' Society of Arabs and Jews (unthinkable a few years ago) was one of the reasons for the hasty withdrawal from Lebanon.

Geography has dictated Israel's history and has limited its strategic depth. Its chicken's neck is less than the distance between Gurgaon and Ghaziabad. In the heartland, a triangle formed by Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, is concentrated 70 per cent of the population and 80 per cent of the country's resources. This is 80 km from the hostile eastern front. This acute sense of insecurity and vulnerability had led to the creation of buffer zones, seeking strategic partners outside the neighbourhood and deployment of United Nations or multilateral forces and observers along (all) its border with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. No country in the world is ringed by an international security system as Israel.

Yet, Tel Aviv has been the target of random human bomber attacks such as in Colombo. In February 1997 alone 57 persons were killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's newest and most striking strategic ally is the secular Muslim country, Turkey.

Slowly but surely, Israel is coming to peace with itself and its neighbours through its Land for Peace agreements. It has resolved territorial disputes with Egypt (1977) and Jordan (1994). The most intractable however, is the inter-linked Syria-Lebanon border disputes. The Golan Heights and Mount Hermon in Syria are like Tololing and Tiger Hill in Kargil. They dominate northern Israel and river Jordan (Mt Hermon) is its source, which is also Israel's source of drinking water. As part of the peace process, the IDF withdrew last month from southern Lebanon.

Under US aegis, Israel is simultaneously engaging Syria and the Palestinian authority in peace talks. The dialogue with the Syrians is temporarily frozen on account of the death of King Hassan. Israel has vacated and dismantled some of its settlements on the West Bank and Gaza. President Yasser Arafat has threatened to relaunch Intifada and declare independence on September 13, the deadline of the final settlement of the Palestine issue.

The outstanding problems include the final border of the future Palestine state, return of Palestine refugees, future of Jewish settlements in Gaza and in the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem. India, which has consistently supported the just cause of the Palestinian people, has been kept out of the Middle East peace process. Now it has a neutral role balancing its relations with Israel and Palestine as well as with Israel's neighbours. USA's belated recognition of India as a regional and global player has brought it into the loop of the Middle East peace process. Delhi is being consulted and used as a facilitator.

Just before diplomatic relations were established, General Chaim Erez, chairman of Israel's biggest public sector undertaking, the Israel Chemical Industry, had led a trade delegation to India. Between then and now, nearly 50 visits have been exchanged. Nine chief ministers, several central ministers, all service chiefs and many business houses have flocked to Israel to find out what makes it tick. It is not good business sense alone. The volume of trade has jumped from dollar 200 million in 1992 to nearly dollar 1 billion this year.

Militancy and terrorism are threats facing both countries. Israel has promised India the technology and tactics to fight terrorism. A joint mechanism for counter-terrorism is being evolved. Israelis are world leaders in high-tech early warning, surveillance, intelligence monitoring, electronic warfare, small arms and counter-terrorism devices. They also excel in conventional weapons systems, being the world's sole blenders of eastern and western equipment. But the stereotype image in India of Israel being the panacea for the terrorism is short sighted.

India has much to acquire from Israel in order to revive defence projects grounded on account of sanctions and non-performance of the DRDO. Israelis enjoy US dual-use technology and manage to get away with selective transfers. This could be a window of opportunity for India to access sensitive technology.

Indo-Israeli cooperation is multifaceted and not simply restricted to cash-and-carry military hardware. Other areas being mapped out are in the political, strategic and economic field. While Israel maybe losing its image of invincibility, it is gaining friends. Defence Minister George Fernandes is next on the list to visit Israel later this year (November 2000).

India needs much more than military technology from Israel to mend its fences on the LoC in J&K and along its other borders. It requires political will and guts which no one can give. Israel's long experience with war and violence has transformed its fighting general into seasoned diplomats and national leaders. The author of Defending India, Singh is India's first senior political leader with any military orientation, trying to redefine the country's agenda of seeking strategic partners. To secure India's western flank, Israel makes a natural ally. So does a friendly future state of Palestine.

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