If Israel is really a leading exporter of the military equipment of the world where is the need for it to buy arms from India, which till sometimes back actually was among the top importers of its weapons.
The country which decimated the well equipped combine armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon etc in Six Days War in 1967 has 57 years later got bogged down in such a prolonged battle with non-state actors that it has to import defence material from countries to whom it had supplied arms and ammunition till the recent past.
Image dented
It seems that the war with Hamas and subsequently with Hezbollah and Hautis have seriously dented its image of being a military power of the world which till October 7, 2023 strike was busy supplying all sorts of defence material to Ukraine against the latter’s war with Russia.
However, Israel refused to supply Iron Dome anti- missile system to Ukraine fearing that it may fall in to the hands of Iran, a close ally of Russia, which may through reverse engineering develop this technology. At the same time Israel did not want to come out fully on the side of Ukraine and thus further antagonize Russia, which has a lot of presence in the Middle East, especially in Syria. Tel Aviv in the initial days of war in 2022 even tried to broker peace between the two countries.
The truth is that what is generally called Israeli defence equipment is actually the output of the joint venture with western countries, especially the United States. Ever since 1930s and subsequently after the end of World War-II the Jews brought from all over Europe had been trained to clandestinely manufacture small arms with the help of western powers. Following the creation of Israel on May 14, 1948 the military cooperation with the West increased. The West fully backed it in all the wars with the Arab neighbours.
Western cooperation
The United States which in the post World War-II years helped Britain and France become nuclear powers to checkmate Soviet Union also lent its hands of cooperation to Israel to secretly acquire this technology. Thus, Israel is in all practical purposes an atomic power.
In the same way Mossad and Shin Bet, the external and internal intelligence agencies of the Zionist state got full cooperation from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US and secret services of the western countries.
The Gurpatwant Sing Pannun episode exposed the close secret ties among Five Eyes, that is the spy services of the five English-speaking countries, the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. If the western agencies can go to such an extent for Pannun, whom India considers as a terrorist, just imagine how close their copperation would have been with Mossad, Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence.
Many of the secret killings and operations credited to Mossad in the past, which included the elimination of former Nazis, Palestinians and Iranians etc were not actually the deeds of Israeli secret agency alone. In fact, the CIA and other western spy masters fully played their roles from behind. Without the technological and logistical help of the western agencies it would not have been possible for Mossad alone to carry out such operations in far off South America, Africa, and Asia.
Western military club
Israel is a significant part of the western military club which dominate the world and does not fight any war or undertake any campaign alone. In such a situation does Israel really need arms from India, which is not a great military equipment manufacturing power? If the United States, Germany, Britain etc are supplying arms worth billions of dollars to Isreal , why is it that Tel Aviv is looking towards New Delhi?
Buying arms from India at this point of time is a part of western strategy to fully include India in this club. The West want India to come out more pronouncedly in favour of Israel and Ukraine too and totally distance itself from Russia, from which it is importing oil at cheaper rate. India, under Narendra Modi is quite eager to join any grouping having Israel as a partner, but is somewhat hesitant over dissociating with Russia as it is has its own interest.
India, on its part, is being reminded that during the Kargil War of the summer of 1999 it was none else but Israel which supplied ammunition for its howitzers. Once again, since the West did not want to openly come in favour of India’s side it asked Israel to do so. The United States and its western allies was then upset as only a year back in May 1998 India made five nuclear tests.
At the same time if Israel really needs arms and ammunition now it suggests that Hamas, Hezbollah and Houtis, though without air force and navy, have delt a severe blow to it. The irony of the situation is that it is not in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria etc that people are taking to streets demanding the immediate end of war. In contrast, it is in Israel, whose government is claiming big success in war, where lakhs of people are coming out asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to term and stop the loodbath.
The year long military campaign has made it amply clear that the Israelis may have killed over 42,000 Gazans and hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians in West Bank and may have destroyed thousands of houses, schools, hospitals and infrastructure, yet it has not yet won the war. Instead, it is seeking arms and ammunition from other countries. And its citizens are clamouring for peace.
(Soroor Ahmed is the author of the book, The Jewish Obsession, published in 2004).
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