Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, will become the first leader of that country to visit Israel when he travels there later this year, Tablet Magazine reports.
Modi’s impending visit follows his September meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, at the U.N. General Assembly. It also signifies deepening cultural and economic ties between the two countries:
Like the elections of leaders like Menachem Begin and Barack Obama, Modi’s meteoric rise embodies many fundamental generational shifts in his country’s political and social fabric. One of these is an increasing identification with Israel as a successful entrepreneurial culture–something India seeks to emulate–and as an ally in the battle against Islamic extremism. At the same time, there is a growing rejection of the traditional narrative that cast the Zionist project as akin to India’s colonial oppressors, which partly underlay the country’s 1975 vote for the infamous "Zionism is racism" resolution at the United Nations. Consequently, where previous Indian governments privately did extensive business with Israel while publicly excoriating it over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the new government rejected a resolution condemning Israel’s conduct during the recent Gaza war.