Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India is long overdue. Reports say he was due in 2019 but that was cancelled owing to internal political crisis, the Covid pandemic and the Gaza conflict.
In 2019 alone, Moneycontrol reports, he postponed plans twice due to parliamentary elections in Israel. He last visited India in 2018, during a six-day trip that became only the second visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to the country.
That visit followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic trip to Israel in 2017 and was seen as a milestone in bilateral ties.
So what is the issue this time? Israel has launched a major counter-terrorist operation in the northern West Bank, one which is expected to take several days. But other reports say that in the wake of the Red Fort blast, security concerns caused the trip to be cancelled.
But the Israeli leader’s office clarified that “Israel’s bond with India, and between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very strong. The PM has full confidence in India’s security under PM Modi, and teams are already coordinating a new visit date.”
This year, his visit has been cancelled following domestic issues including political instability. Moneycontrol reports that “In both April and September this year, he called off scheduled visits due to mounting pressure from within Israel. Reasons cited included the threat of snap elections and growing unrest linked to the war in Gaza.”
Protests in April demanded a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages seized during the Oct 7,2023 Hamas attack on Israel. There were also demonstrations against Netanyahu’s sacking of the chief of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, and moves to remove the attorney general.
His feuding with coalition partners over the Gaza campaign, judicial reforms and exemptions for the ultra-Othodox Jewish groups were other reasons for not travelling overseas.
