India-Israel Relations : India is the only country which has friendship with Israel and also with Saudi Arabia, also with America and also with Russia. Today, on International Friendship Day, the story of India-Israel friendship is an example for many countries even today.

  • India and Israel friendship is very old and is a benchmark for many countries
  • Israel supported India in the 1971 war, India too offered a hand for friendship
  • India started formal diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992

The importance of a friend in our life is known only in difficult times. Countries all over the world walk each other’s hand to face the challenges in times of crisis. The whole world is like a village where friendship is the biggest support for each other. We have also seen many examples of this during the Corona period and the Ukraine war. When it comes to maintaining friendship, India always seems to stand by its friends. This is the reason that when the clouds of crisis hover over the people of India or the people living in any corner of the world, then the friends of India come forward.

India is the only country whose friendship is with Israel and also with Saudi Arabia, with US and as well as with Russia. Today, on International Friendship Day, read the story of India-Israel friendship, which is an example for many countries even today. This is the story of 1971, on one side there was a war going on between India and Pakistan and on the other side, 4500 km away in Israel, the country’s first female Prime Minister Golda Meyer was keeping a close eye on this war. Born in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Golda Meyer was called the ‘Grandmother’ of Israel. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Guries, used to call Golda, a chain smoker who smokes cigarettes without a filter, “the only man in his cabinet.”

Golda Meyer laid the foundation of India-Israel friendship

Golda Meyer has many identities, such as the former Foreign Minister of Israel, the first female Prime Minister and the third female PM of the world. But it would be better if you look at Golda as the leader who laid the foundation of India-Israel friendship, to whom India later paid the duty of being a friend. India and Israel did not have diplomatic relations during the Indo-Pakistani 1971 war. Israel’s closest friend America was with Pakistan in this war but Israel decided that it would help India.

(Photo Credits: Twitter)

India got Israel’s support in the 1971 war

The then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meyer had secretly provided military aid to India in this war. American journalist Gary J Bass has written about this help in his book ‘Blood Telegram’. Gary J Bass writes in his book, ‘Golda Mayer secretly sent some weapons and mortars to India through Israeli arms dealer Shlomo Jabludowicz. During this some Israeli trainers also came to India.

India could not establish diplomatic relations

He wrote that when Indira Gandhi’s chief secretary PN Haksar requested him for more weapons, Golda assured him that Israel would continue to help India. Although Israel wanted India to establish diplomatic relations with it in return and it had also indicated it, but India politely rejected it because it said that the Soviet Union would not like it.

India started formal diplomatic relations

India won the war, the historical picture of Pakistan’s surrender came in front of the world and Bangladesh came into existence. Israel had fulfilled its friendship and now it was India’s turn. Nearly 20 years after this incident, in 1992, the then Narasimha Rao government of India formally established diplomatic relations with Israel and in January 1992, the Embassy of India in Tel Aviv opened.

photo credit: twitter

‘Arab can forgive but…’

If we say that it was Golda Meyer who laid the foundation of friendship between India and Israel, then it would not be wrong. It is said that even at the age of 75, Golda used to work 18 hours a day and her day ended at 4 in the morning. To know more deeply about the personality of Israel’s ‘Iron Lady’, you should read her interview, in which she also asks Arab to forgive and also puts ‘but’ at the end of the sentence . According to the BBC report, Golda said in her interview – If peace comes, we can forgive the Arabs that they killed our sons, but we can never forgive them for the fact that they forced us to kill these sons of Arab.

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