Modi's Israel Return: When Pragmatism Meets Moral Reckoning

July 4, 2017. Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped off his plane—the first Indian PM ever to visit Israel—Benjamin Netanyahu waited at the end of a red carpet rolled across the tarmac. Minutes later, they embraced. "We agreed to break down the remaining walls between India and Israel," Netanyahu would recall of their 2014 New York meeting.

Nine years later, as Modi prepares to return to Israel on February 25, those walls have indeed crumbled. But the landscape has shifted dramatically. Netanyahu now faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes during Israel's war on Gaza—yet Modi still calls him a "dear friend."

The Ideological Alliance

This isn't just diplomatic pragmatism. There's a deeper current flowing between Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Israel's vision of itself. Both leaders champion their nations as homelands for their respective peoples—Hindu India, Jewish Israel. Both frame "Islamic terrorism" as an existential threat, language that critics say provides cover for broader anti-Muslim policies.

The numbers tell the story of this alignment. Under Modi, India became Israel's largest weapons buyer. In 2024, even as Gaza burned, Indian arms firms sold Israel rockets and explosives. The two countries just signed a memorandum exploring joint development of anti-ballistic missile defense systems.

Trade has exploded from $200 million in 1992 to over $6 billion in 2024. When Israel banned Palestinian workers after October 7, thousands of Indians lined up to fill construction jobs.

A Friend When Friends Are Few

Modi's visit timing is no accident. As the Gaza war has shrunk Israel's circle of willing allies—especially among emerging economies—India stands almost alone among Global South nations in maintaining such visible ties.

"Israel doesn't have many friends globally at the moment," notes Kabir Taneja from the Observer Research Foundation. "So India is playing that role. It sort of shows that Israel is not fully isolated."

For Netanyahu, facing elections that amount to a referendum on his leadership, Modi's visit offers a lifeline. The optics of a major Global South leader addressing the Knesset—as Modi is scheduled to do—provides international legitimacy at a crucial moment.

The Price of Pragmatism

But this pivot comes with costs that extend beyond Palestine. India was once a champion of the Palestinian cause, opposing the 1947 UN partition plan and becoming one of the first non-Arab states to recognize Palestine in 1988. Mahatma Gandhi himself had decried the "imposition of Jews over Arabs."

"The so-called realist turn of India has cost its moral power, which it used to enjoy in the Global South," argues Anwar Alam from the Policy Perspectives Foundation. Modi's visit, he says, "amounts to legitimising the apartheid Israeli state."

Indian diplomats counter that this is "strategic autonomy"—the evolved version of Cold War-era non-alignment. They point to India's continued support for a two-state solution and efforts to maintain ties with Arab allies and Iran. The Middle East, they argue, is where this balancing act actually works.

The Jeffrey Epstein Shadow

Modi's 2017 Israel visit recently came under unexpected scrutiny. Emails released in the Jeffrey Epstein files showed the convicted sex offender claiming he had advised a Modi-connected billionaire during the trip. "The Indian Prime minister modi took advice," Epstein wrote, "and danced and sang in israel for the benefit of the US president."

India's foreign ministry dismissed these as "trashy ruminations" of a convicted criminal. But the revelation adds another layer to questions about the visit's broader implications.

The answer may determine not just India's role in the Middle East, but its credibility as a leader of the developing world.