Middle Eastern Foreign Policy of India and Israel: from Conflict to Cooperation

India and Zionist regime relationships have had many ups and downs over the past six decades. Indians have been among the supporters of Arabs for a long time and had been backing the Palestinian issue long before the partition plan of Palestine. India had proved no tendency to improve its relationship with
Israel regardless of Jews and the occupier government‘s massive efforts over four decades. The efforts exerted by Jewish officials would furnish the ground for political, military and security cooperation and would add to the relative value of the mutual relationships, though Indians paid no real attention to this. India had always been an open critical to Israeli policies and attitudes before the collapse of the Soviet Union and beginning of the peace negotiations. In other words, Israel had no place in India’s Middle Eastern foreign policy. Moreover, different governments originated from diverse Indian groups and parties were reluctant to have relationships with Israel regarding the public opinion support for Palestinians and considering the desires of heavyweight Muslim minorities. However, the beginning of the peace negotiations and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) tendency to negotiate with Israel, and the collapse of the Soviet Union as India’s old ally are among the most important reasons to begin relationships with Israel. Now, after two decades their political, military, and security relationships have reached the highest levels.