IT is now clear that Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel was most ill-advised, ill timed. It is not merely a moral question but goes far beyond, into the realm of geopolitics and national strategy. The monstrosity of the Gaza genocide has not ended in the complete extinguishing of the embers and ruins that struck Palestinian people and the Gaza strip. Further, the rapidity of expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank systematically undermines the possibility of a two-state solution.
The world recognises that despite the signing of the ceasefire, killings continue at alarming pace. The Trump led Board of Peace has neither been able to, nor was intended to restore normalcy. It was clearly designed to institute an arrangement which will strike at the very roots of the UN system. Apart from the chairmanship of Donald Trump, the steering wheel for taking forward the process is held by one of the most hated characters of Iraq invasion vintage, Tony Blair.
Going beyond the moral, India’s strategic interest is well entrenched in West Asia. India’s past civilisational contacts with several of the Gulf nations and Iran is well recorded in time. In modern times, the huge bulk of the immigrant Indian workers in many countries in the region is real. The remittance from West Asia is significantly high for a number of state economies. Also, the bulk of our fuel supplies proceed through the Strait of Hormuz.
From the time of the Gaza genocide, the actions of Zionist Israel had led to an emotional outpouring on the Arab streets. Opposition to Israel affected the Gulf States and the West Asian governments so much that the Abraham Accords were stalled. It was undoubtedly the Islamic Republic of Iran which was spearheading this resistance.
It was in this backdrop that the bonhomie between Modi and Netanyahu could not be worse optics. Modi’s participation in the remembrance of Holocaust victims while staying silent on the genocide victims of Gaza was telling. Prime Minister Modi virtually reversed India’s disapproval of the Gaza genocide. An endorsement to Netanyahu regime which is fighting for credibility, not only across the globe, but also within Israel itself, was completely bereft of diplomatic basics. It was also a disaster for India’s principled anti-imperialist legacy and non-alignment.
This was on display when the entire opposition boycotted Modi’s addresses to the Knesset. Further, Netanyahu’s articulation of a hexagonal alliance with the US and India as active nodes, was another loud alarm bell for conveying that a substantial security and military supply to India would be routed through Israel. The orchestrated bonhomie could not conceal that the visit had very little to do with India’s strategic autonomy and national interest but was essentially subordinated to US geopolitical game plan.
It would be naive on the part of India’s political and intelligence establishment, to be ignorant of the US-Israeli build-up for attacks on Iran. On its part, Iran, by playing the spearhead of a regional resistance against Israel’s rogue behaviour in orchestrating the genocide in Gaza, its growing proximity with China and Russia to act as a bulwark against Israeli and US geopolitical objectives, became the obvious target for the impending attack.
The world has been witness to the duplicity of US foreign policy, which is now more evident than ever before. Many of the contemporary apologists of capitalism would be over-anxious to narrate that Lenin is dead. However, his emphatic surmise that imperialism and war are Siamese twins, is very much alive and kicking. What has happened now is a strong vindication.
While Israel has been goading President Trump and his administration to incapacitate Iran’s resistance to Zionist ‘greater Israel’ project, Trump administration also felt inclined to pursue regime change in Iran to secure uninhibited hegemony over the region to further undermine the growing Russian and Chinese influence in this important geo-strategic region.
The claim of Trump being the ‘peace President’ was clearly a sham. The repeated articulation about the nuclear programme of Iran was duplicitous from the outset. It is an open secret that Israel has a clandestine nuclear arms capability, of which nobody speaks; while Iran has openly declared that they are not manufacturing any nuclear weapon and had provided access to inspectors. The breakdown came only when the IAEA came out with an invasive and politically motivated statement on their level of transparency.
Further, in 2025, with the heavy bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites, Trump had declared that those have been destroyed and were beyond production capacity for the foreseeable future. Iran had also entered into diplomatic negotiations with the US, through the mediation of Oman. But that was a charade to take time for ensuring the military build-up in the Gulf, to direct US air fire power towards Iran. Now that the attack was pursued jointly by the US and Israel shows that this was precisely planned, by rejecting the diplomatic breakthrough where Iran had considered to substantially bring down its stockpile and not to manufacture the bomb ‘never ever’ as made public by the Omani Foreign Minister.
The entire development has taken place within 48 hours of Modi’s return to India, and the ‘chronology’ makes India a virtual accomplice to this military misadventure. It is absolutely clear that whatever calculations the US made have gone awry, with Iran retaliating across the West Asia where US bases are located. The Iranian missile retaliation has been particularly severe in several Israeli cities including Tel Aviv.
It is ironical that the US and its allies describe the Iranian retaliation as cowardice. The joint US-Israel aggression was by choice, to pursue their convergent, but separate goals whereas Iran’s resistance after the killing of a substantial section of its leadership, including Ali Khamenei, is one dictated by the imperative of survival.
Iran has clearly exhibited that it has activated its well-publicised trigger of decentralised and multi-layered alternative leadership structures and regionalised the military confrontation. The self-defeating nature of Indian foreign policy must be borne by the Indian people with Iran closing down the Straits of Hormuz, through which most of India’s fuel supplies move, resulting in the instant shooting up of oil prices.
It reminds us of the tale of Kalidasa, the woodcutter who cut the branch on which he was sitting. The bonhomie has ended up rendering Indian foreign policy subordinate to US’ strategic game plan and blowing up India’s repeated flaunting as the ‘leader of the South’ status to smithereens. We must collectively demand the end of military hostility and restoration of peace.
(March 04, 2026)
