ISLAMABAD: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that New Delhi was one of Tel Aviv’s strongest backers, refuting US Vice President JD Vance's claim that Washington was Israel's "only powerful ally."
Last month, Vance urged Israeli cabinet members “not to attack the only powerful ally" Israel had left in the world as Israeli officials kept criticizing the peace deal between Washington and Tehran and continued attacking Lebanon, derailing their potential agreement.
Speaking on Fox News, Netanyahu rejected the claim.
"We have some other friends, like a small country called India. It has 1.4 billion people, and boy, do we have tremendous support there," he said.
India's tilt toward Israel has deepened sharply since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP took power in 2014, moving from India's historically pro-Palestine Cold War-era posture to a "special strategic partnership" spanning defense, cyber and AI cooperation.
Modi has visited Israel twice since taking office with the last one being in February this year, a trip full of long hugs that Netanyahu called "extraordinarily productive."
During the visit, Modi also addressed the Knesset and told the officials that “India stood with Israel firmly, with full conviction.” He condemned the Oct. 7 attacks as he defended Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The timing drew sharp criticism at home as Israel attacked Iran and killed the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei days after the visit.
In an article in The Indian Express, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi argued that Modi's Israel visit "will go down in history as a bewildering strategic decision."
She argued that New Delhi's alignment with Tel Aviv cost India its traditional standing as a regional peacemaker. She wrote that India had "alienated" itself from historical allies in Palestine, Iran and the wider Middle East, and had in the process allowed Pakistan to "swoop in to claim the space of a mediator."
Criticism against Israeli warmongering also increased in late June as reports from the UN found that Israel killed at least 20,000 children and wounded another 44,000 in Gaza, with the killings described as a deliberate strategy rather than incidental harm.
While Western powers, including France, the UK, Canada and Australia, have recognized Palestinian statehood, with South Africa pursuing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, India continues to get closer to Tel Aviv, signing more than just defense deals and sparking criticism from home and abroad.
