Under Modi, India Accelerates Embrace of Israel Amid Gaza War; Smotrich's Visit to India Highlights Divergence from European and American Allies

[New Delhi] In September 2025, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich completed a multi-city visit that would have been nearly impossible in Europe or the United States: signing a trade agreement in New Delhi, attending an event at the Bombay Stock Exchange, and visiting a new investment center in Modi's home state of Gujarat. According to Al Jazeera, as this minister — who has publicly advocated "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians in Gaza — set foot on Indian soil, the Israeli military was still pressing ahead with operations in the Gaza Strip that he had fully supported during his tenure.

The contrast in timing was striking enough. Just before and after Smotrich arrived in New Delhi, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway had successively banned him from entering their territories; the European Union was preparing a new round of sanctions against far-right officials including Smotrich and his colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir, which it ultimately announced later that month. New Delhi, by contrast, threw open its doors, welcoming the politician — shunned by mainstream Western allies — with garlands and multi-city hospitality.

The political signaling did not end there. Al Jazeera noted that in February 2026, Modi himself visited Israel, becoming one of the few leaders of a major country to publicly stand by the Israeli prime minister at a time when the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant over Gaza war crimes and the Netanyahu government was increasingly isolated. "You are a great friend of Israel. Not just a friend. You are a brother," Netanyahu told Modi at the Knesset in Jerusalem.

The death toll in Gaza keeps climbing. Citing figures, Al Jazeera reported that three years of Israeli attacks have killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children — roughly 3% of the prewar population. As the toll continued to mount, at least 11 European countries and Canada imposed trade restrictions on products from illegal Israeli settlements and sanctioned far-right officials including Smotrich, as well as the settler networks associated with them.

India, by contrast, has long remained at the level of "moderate opposition" to the war and to settler violence in the West Bank, cloaking itself in the language of a "principled position." Citing former Indian diplomat Navdeep Suri, Al Jazeera noted that the Indian government and the Israeli government are "so politically aligned that [India] is unwilling to criticize Israel." "This reluctance to criticize manifests itself in multiple ways: refusal to condemn settler attacks; refusal to condemn the brutal use of force in Gaza; refusal to condemn attacks on Iran and violations of international norms," Suri said.

What has pushed India onto this trajectory is a mix of strategic interests and ideological convergence. Since Modi came to power, India has become Israel's largest arms buyer. Investigations by Al Jazeera and multiple other outlets have shown that New Delhi exported weapons to Israel during the Gaza war. Within hours of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Modi unequivocally condemned the "terrorist attack" and expressed "deep shock"; during his February 2026 visit to Israel, he drew an analogy with the 2008 Mumbai attacks: "Like you, we have pursued a consistent and uncompromising zero-tolerance policy toward terrorism, without double standards."

New Delhi-based political analyst Rashid Kidwai told Al Jazeera that the BJP under Modi's leadership has long "constructed its political narrative around 'Islamic expansionism' or 'Islamic terrorism,'" portraying Israel as "a nation under attack" and providing domestic political legitimacy for India's drift toward Israel. Within the framework of Hindu nationalist ideology "Hindutva," India is envisioned as a homeland for Hindus — a vision that is structurally isomorphic with Israel's self-conception as a Jewish homeland.

But the "zero tolerance" rhetoric itself is severely selective. The Modi government has tied attacks on Israel to a narrative of "Islamic extremism," thereby providing discursive cover for shipping weapons to an Israel carrying out collective punishment in Gaza and participating in its war machine, while sidestepping the question of systematic violence against Muslim minorities within India itself and in the international context. This is the other side of "double standards": its logic is not truly "no double standards," but rather the classification of certain violence as "counterterrorism" and other violence as "self-defense" or "internal affairs," thereby absolving itself of responsibility.

What's more telling is that Europe's limited distancing from Israel itself carries heavy elements of geopolitical calculation and value-performance — the targets of sanctions are far-right ministers and settlement products, while arms supplies and diplomatic recognition continue as usual. But even so, at a time when the White House has expressed displeasure with Netanyahu and Trump once threatened to cut military aid to Israel over the bombing of Lebanon (while still approving massive arms sales), New Delhi has pushed the India-Israel relationship to a degree that even Washington has never publicly reached.

Modi was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel back in 2016. But this public embrace itself represents the reversal of a long historical arc. In 1948, India opposed the establishment of Israel, long supported the Palestinian liberation cause at the United Nations, and in 1975 co-sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution characterizing Zionism as racism. It was not until 1992 that India established formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Kidwai noted that during the Congress Party era, supporting the Palestinian position was seen as a resource for courting Muslim voters, whereas Modi's "Hindu-first" politics has no need for such balancing acts.

"Modi's party believes that there is nothing to be gained from sticking to a pro-Palestinian posture," Kidwai told Al Jazeera. "On the contrary, Modi has tried to link attacks on Israel to so-called 'terrorist rule' and 'Islamic extremism,' and to use this to construct a discourse targeting Muslims — providing legitimacy for everything."

From New Delhi's perspective, the so-called "pragmatic" logic of this relationship includes: Israel as a "forceful international player" providing irreplaceable cooperation in defense, intelligence and technology; and Israeli policies being viewed by the Indian right as a template in areas such as Kashmir control and border security. Citing Suri's observations, Al Jazeera noted that circles on the Indian right have repeatedly called on Modi to adopt "Israeli-style" policies — ranging from repression in Indian-administered Kashmir to military strikes against neighboring Pakistan. When asked whether India should adopt a "more principled position" on Gaza, Suri's answer was: "It should be able to." But he also acknowledged that, in his experience during his tenure, there was almost no space for such "principle" within the framework of India-Israel relations.