India’s Condemnation of Hamas Attack

Why in the News?

Indian government has unambiguously condemned the terror attack and expressed its solidarity with Israel.

Indian policy on the Middle East in the recent years:

1. Establishment of full diplomatic relations with Israel.
2. India has aligned its position closer to the realities on the ground. 
   1. Though India stands for the “Palestinian cause”, it has considered the fact that several Arab countries have begun to make their peace with Israel without preconditions.
   2. India has recognised that violent religious extremism of Hamas and other forces threatens not only Israel but also moderate Arab states in West Asia.
   3. The divisions within Palestine have become deep between the Palestine Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas in Gaza.
3. Political focus on India’s current solidarity with Israel masks the extraordinary transformation of Delhi’s ties with the Arab world in the last decade. 
   1.  The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have emerged as important strategic partners.
      1. I2U2 grouping: India, US, Israel, and the UAE 
      2. India has teamed with US, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to build a corridor between the Subcontinent and Europe through the Arabian Peninsula.
   2. India’s traditional anti-Western stance in the Middle East has been changed as limiting the Anglo-American role in the Middle East was among the main objectives of Indian diplomacy in 1960s.
   3. India’s move of de-linking of India’s regional diplomacy from religion.
      1. The partition of the Subcontinent based on religion and Pakistan’s quest for mobilising support in the Middle East in the name of Islamic solidarity severely complicated India’s engagement with the region. 
4. India’s response of condemnation of attack underlines its interest-driven foreign policy.
   1. Refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine was shaped by the need to protect Delhi’s long-standing equities in Russia.
   2. India’s staunch support to Israel is rooted in the centrality of the terror question in India’s security calculus.