(DNA-India) Palki Sharma Upadhyay - Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken more than three years to visit a country that rolled out the red carpet to him when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2006. One reason that delayed his visit was the prevailing government in the U.S. Given former President Obama's fraught ties with Netanyahu, New Delhi wanted to avoid any dissonance in Washington. Moreover, there has been no sign of the supposed protest from the Muslim community in India, a fear expressed by previous governments to avoid going full throttle with Israel. Israel has supported India, both militarily and otherwise, in wars since the 1960s, even when there were no diplomatic ties. The Israelis were the first ones to call Bangladesh East Bengal and not Pakistan in 1971 - something that even India's then staunch ally the Soviet Union did not do. When the Kargil war broke out in Kashmir in 1999, an Israeli team flew in on a chartered plane to offer help to India. Modi's visit to Israel is a way to appreciate old gestures and build on them.
2017-07-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive