FOREIGN NEWS normally will get quick shrift in India. Yet for the previous month the nation’s tv channels have been dominated by wall-to-wall protection of occasions in Israel and Gaza, largely from Israel’s perspective. News anchors in bulletproof vests stand within the desert delivering breathless reviews on the aftermath of Hamas’s atrocities in Israel on October seventh. Talk-show hosts restage the Palestinian terrorist group’s assault from Gaza with toy troopers and miniature bulldozers. Weeks into the battle, protection stays intense.

The media’s fascination with Israel’s plight and retribution coincides with a marked shift within the Indian authorities’s stance on the battle between Israel and the Palestinians. It has moved from backing the Palestinians to roughly unqualified help for Israel. The pivot is predicated on a realist reappraisal of Indian pursuits within the Middle East. It has additionally met with sturdy public supporter from Mr Modi’s home supporters, which is gratifying for Narendra Modi’s authorities forward of state elections this month and a normal election subsequent 12 months.

In the previous, like many international locations within the international south, India tempered any expression of help for Israel with expressions of concern for the Palestinians’ plight. No extra. Mr Modi took to X (previously Twitter) inside hours of Hamas’s assault to specific his horror on the “terrorist attacks” and declare that “we stand in solidarity with Israel”. It took 5 days for India’s Ministry of External Affairs to reiterate, in response to questions from reporters, that India continued to help a two-state answer to the battle. On October twenty seventh, in a departure from its standard voting report, India abstained because the UN General Assembly adopted a decision calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza; it objected that the textual content didn’t condemn Hamas’s assault.

The shift displays India’s rising defence and business ties to Israel. Co-operation between the 2 international locations has been deepening ever since Israel supplied India with navy assist throughout the Kargil battle towards Pakistan in 1999. That was lengthy earlier than America took a severe curiosity in navy co-operation with India. Over the previous decade India has purchased missiles, drones and border-security tools (and possibly surveillance software program, although it has not admitted this) from Israel, making it the Israeli defence business’s largest international buyer.

A bromance between Mr Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has deepened the connection. So has the 2 international locations’ shared preoccupation with preventing terrorism, particularly the Islamist variant. Explaining the abstention within the UN vote, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s international minister, stated in a speech on October twenty ninth that India took a robust place on terrorism “because we are big victims of terrorism”.

India has additionally been rising its ties with Gulf Arab international locations, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And it may well unwell afford to alienate them; it depends upon them for a lot of its oil and goodwill in the direction of an estimated 9m expatriate Indian employees. Yet the truth that each international locations have lately moved nearer to Israel has allowed Mr Modi to impact his shift with alacrity. Even within the present disaster, the Saudis and Emiratis seem reluctant to permit the occasions in Gaza to trigger a rupture of their long-term rapprochement with Israel.

Domestically, the Modi authorities’s pivot is basically all upside. The Congress-led opposition has condemned it; leaders of India’s 200m Muslims have closely criticised Israel’s navy response. Yet the Indian middle-class that largely backs Mr Modi is very involved about Islamist terrorism. Its members look on Hamas’s assault and recall the tragedy Mumbai suffered in 2008, when Pakistani Islamists killed 175 folks and wounded greater than 300 throughout a four-day rampage. It included an assault on a Jewish neighborhood centre within the metropolis, the place the terrorists murdered the rabbi and his pregnant spouse.

There is a small threat the federal government will overplay its hand. As the civilian demise toll in Gaza rises, India’s Arab companions may flip towards the Israelis and their backers extra aggressively. Mr Modi has latterly hedged towards that risk. He has reached out to Palestinian leaders, providing Indian condolences and humanitarian assist. Meanwhile, his Hindu-nationalist henchmen are unrestrained in utilizing the battle to stoke the Islamophobia that has propelled their social gathering’s rise. Even if Mr Modi’s pivot turns into tough overseas, it’ll in all probability assist him win elections.■

Read extra from Banyan, our columnist on Asia:
South Korean politics is one big row about history (Oct twenty sixth)
India-Pakistan relations are becoming more marginal and worse (Oct nineteenth)
Pakistan expels undocumented Afghans. But at what price? (Oct twelfth)