Namaste, Modi
First-ever visit by Indian prime minister
In an unusual move that indicates just how much significance Israel is placing on the visit Tuesday of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cleared most of his schedule over the next two days so he can accompany his guest throughout the country.
“I will accompany the prime minister at many events during his visit, as befits the leader of the largest democracy in the world,” Netanyahu told his cabinet on Monday, characterizing the two day visit – the first ever by a sitting Indian prime minister – as “historic.”
Ordinarily, Netanyahu meets visiting heads of government for one meeting, and often times a dinner or lunch meeting as well. With Modi, he is scheduled to accompany him to no fewer than 12 different events over a jam-packed 49-hour period, an honor reserved for only the most important of visits – such as that of the US president.
This will be Modi’s second visit in Israel, but first as prime minister. He came here in 2006 when he was chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, on a visit to an Agritech exhibit that both Israeli and Indian diplomatic officials say did much to convince him of how much Israel could assist India in the areas of water management, agriculture and technology.
Modi, before leaving for Israel, sent an e-mail to Israelis who subscribe to his newsletter, saying that India’s ties with Israel are “special,” and that his visit will “lead to further cementing” the ties between the two countries.
“There is lots the world can learn from Israel,” he wrote. “Some of the focus areas during my visit are agriculture, disaster management, economic ties and people-to-people relations.”
Interestingly, the one area he did not mention was defense ties, which for many years was
the key pillar in Israel-India ties. Both Israeli and Indian diplomatic officials have said that this visit, however, will not focus on that part of the relationship – which has its own momentum and does not necessarily need the push of a prime ministerial visit to move it forward – but rather on enha ncing cooperation in the areas Modi spelled out.
Foreign Ministry director-general Yuval Rotem said at a press briefing that included a large contingent of Indian journalists here to cover Modi’s visit, that seven high-level delegations have come to Israel over the last few months to plan the visit, carefully choreographing every aspect.
Rotem said the visit is taking place within the context of 25 years of full diplomatic relations with India, with the aim of developing a road map for building the partnership for the next 25 years.
Mark Sofer, a former ambassador to India who is currently the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for Asia and the Pacific, said it was “difficult, if not impossible, to overstate the importance of this visit.”
First of all, he said, is the huge symbolic significance in the first visit ever of an Indian prime minister, and “the enormous excitement and expectation on both sides of the equation.”
But no less important than the symbolic aspect, he said, is “that the visit carries with it a number of concrete ramifications on the relationship between Israel and India.” He said the ramifications will be felt across a wide range of fields, “but that if there was a need to focus on one issue, it would be on water and agriculture.”
Unlike Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, who visited in 2015, and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who came to Israel in 2016, Modi will not be going to the Palestinian Authority.
Sofer explained this indicated that the Indians have “de-hyphenated” their relations with Israel from relations with anyone else.
“Israel does the same thing,” he said. “We have relations with countries and organizations with whom we may not see eye-to-eye, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk to each on their own. This is a bilateral trip to Israel, he is carrying it out as he is carrying it out, and we will make every effort to make it the most successful visit he has had abroad.”
Although Modi will not go to Ramallah, PA President Mahmoud Abbas met Modi in India in May, and asked India to play a mediating role between Israel and the Palestinians. Asked if this was possible, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said, “In general, Israel prefers to have the peace process with its neighbor be a bilateral process. I think that is something that is very much understood in India.”
Modi was elected in May 2014, and at the time there was some expectation in Israel that he would come to Israel within 12-18 months. Instead, it has taken some three years, and the trip materialized only after he first visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran.
Carmon said that had Modi come just months after his election, it would have been a much different visit. “If you look at the development of our relations over three-and-ahalf years, it was in the visibility [of the relationship], and this brought more dynamics and content,” he said.
“I’m not sure that the special, very rich-in-content visit that we are going to have now would have happened a couple of months, or six months after Prime Minister Modi came into power,” he added. “We nurtured those relations, and now we are more ready for such a visit, not only its symbolic aspect, but also in the practical aspect of doing more things together.”
Modi is scheduled to arrive at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, and will be afforded full honors upon landing, including being met at the airport – as US President Donald Trump was in May – by Netanyahu and the country’s top-tier officials.
Both men are expected to deliver short speeches on the tarmac.
From there the two will travel to Moshav Mishmar Hashiv’a and the Danziger-Dan Flower Farm, where – Modi wrote – he will “learn about the latest innovations and advancements in floriculture.” Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel will also take part in that visit.
From there Modi will go to Yad Vashem. In his e-mail, Modi wrote that he will visit the memorial “as a remembrance to those brave women and men who sacrificed their lives for values of peace and humanity.”
He will then go to the Prime Minister’s Residence for dinner.
The next day Modi will meet again with Netanyahu and his top aides for some four hours.
In addition, he is scheduled that day to meet President Reuven Rivlin and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.
Modi will also visit the Israel Museum, accompanied by Netanyahu, where they’ll see the rebuilt interior of the 16th-century Kadavumbagam Synagogue in Cochin. He will then go to Tel Aviv and hold a rally with people of Indian origin living and working in Israel.
He is also scheduled on Wednesday to meet with 10-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents, Rivka and Gavriel Holtzberg, were killed in the 2008 terrorist attack at the Chabad House in Mumbai. Modi is also expected to meet with Holtzberg’s grandparents and the Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who saved Moshe – who was then nearly two years old – by picking him up and running out of the building under attack. She was granted honorary citizenship in 2010.
On Thursday, the two prime ministers will helicopter up to Haifa where they will visit the cemetery in which Indian soldiers killed fighting in World War I are buried.
Modi will also get a demonstration of a mobile water desalination unit at Olga Beach near Hadera, lunch with Indian and Israeli CEOs, and view presentations of cutting-edge technological developments by Indian and Israeli companies.
Unlike Trump, Modi will not visit the Western Wall or tour the Old City of Jerusalem during his visit. Sofer said this was due to a lack of time.
The Indian premier is scheduled to leave at Thursday at 5 p.m., some 49 hours after his arrival. •