An Alliance of Insecurity

When Ariel Sharon traveled to India last September, it was the first visit of an Israeli Prime Minister since the two nations achieved independence more than 55 years ago. Although his plans to commemorate Sept. 11 on Indian soil were cut short by suicide bombings back home, the trip indicated the burgeoning love affair between the two countries.

In recent years, the two nations have been sharing intelligence and cooperating over military affairs at an unprecedented level. India's second-largest arms supplier is Israel, which provided between an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion worth of military hardware to India in 2002. India is Israel's best customer, representing roughly half of its total sales in 2002. So it is no coincidence that ten out of thirty members of Sharon's delegation to India were executives of Israeli defense corporations. In addition, Israel has provided extensive counterterrorism training to the Indian military in the recent past. The Jerusalem Post reports that nearly 3,000 Indian soldiers were sent to Israel for training last year.

A big reason for the new-found intimacy is the Indian government's desire to solidify its friendship with the United States. Indian officials have been bending over backwards to ingratiate themselves with the pro-Israel lobby in Washington in order to work Congress and to gain access to the neoconservatives who dominate the Bush administration's foreign policy.

India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra first announced Sharon's visit in May at the annual dinner of the powerful American Jewish Committee. In words designed to please his hosts, Mishra extolled the "common vision of pluralism, tolerance and equal opportunity" shared by India, Israel and the United States. His speech also clearly delineated the shifting alliances created by the war of terror. The three countries, he declared, "have to jointly face the same ugly face of modern-day terrorism" and that "such an alliance would have the political will and moral authority to take bold decisions in extreme cases of terrorist provocation." The speech must have undoubtedly been effective since the committee now plans to set up a liaison office in New Delhi.

They're not alone. The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) organized a conference bringing together security experts from the United States, India and Israel, in New Delhi last year, and is set to do another such conference this month in Israel.

A group of neoconservatives, drawn from rightwing pro-Likudnik outfits such as the Center for Security Policy and JINSA, are setting up a think-tank to bring India and the United States closer. According to foreign policy analyst Conn Hallinan, the move to create the U.S. -India Institute for Strategic Policy has the support of Bush administration officials like Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Last July, the U.S.-India Political Action Committee, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the American Jewish Committee organized a reception on Capitol Hill together.

"The Indian community is learning very well from its colleagues within the Jewish community how to penetrate ... through the solid wall of the political processes here," Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY) told the Gannett News Service. "On the Jewish side of the equation, right now, Israel could use a billion new friends."

The courtship of Tel Aviv has already begun to yield tangible benefits. Last July, Israel and India joined together to successfully lobby the House to require the Bush administration to regularly report to Congress on Pakistan's moves to halt cross-border infiltration of militants and stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. They also worked together to persuade Washington to lift its objections to Israel's plans to sell India an early-warning airborne radar system.