‘Worse than ISIS’: India’s Ruling Hindu Nationalists Back Israel After Hamas Carnage

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued multiple statements this week effusively condemning the Hamas jihadist terror group for its massacre of Israeli citizens and expressing support for the government of Israel – placing India firmly against radical Islamic terror and cementing its place as a Jerusalem ally.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry has not separately weighed in on the Hamas butchery of civilians in the country, instead reposting Modi’s statements, indicating that support for Israel is of such importance to New Delhi that the head of government is not leaving the matter to cabinet officials.

As multiple analysts noted on Wednesday and Thursday, Modi’s support of Israel – which omitted any support for Hamas’s goal of carving a Palestinian state out of Israeli land or calls for “restraint,” as countries such as China and Russia have issued – is a dramatic change in diplomatic policy for India, which had for decades supported the Palestinian opposition to Israel’s existence.

Hamas unleashed an unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians on Saturday – the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the final day of the annual High Holy Day cycle. The attacks targeted families in their homes; terrorists went door-to-door butchering unsuspecting families. At a music festival, Israeli officials found at least 260 bodies. Hamas terrorists filmed themselves abducting young women from the event. In some communities, Israeli soldiers found headless bodies of babies.

As of Thursday, Israeli authorities have documented more than 1,300 people dead.

Modi revealed on Tuesday that he had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express support from India.

“People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour,” Modi wrote on social media. “India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”:

I thank Prime Minister @netanyahu for his phone call and providing an update on the ongoing situation. People of India stand firmly with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 10, 2023

Modi similarly condemned the attacks and backed Israel in a post as the Hamas mass murders were ongoing on Saturday.

“We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour,” Modi wrote. “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel. Our thoughts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families.”

While the Indian government did not offer a separate statement, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) echoed its leader’s support for Israel in a statement emphasizing that Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians is not a conventional war or political dispute.

“It is not about supporting Israel or Palestine but condemning the act of terror. It is not a war between two countries,” BJP spokesman RP Singh told the Emirati newspaper the National on Thursday. “The way it has happened and done on the ground, children are killed and put in cages, and hostages have been taken up. Who has died, and who are the sufferers? Israelis.”

“Hamas has hijacked the Gaza strip and is worse than ISIS. They started it so we can’t say people from both sides have been killed,” Singh added.

Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon thanked the Modi government and emphasized that his country recognized the categorical rejection of Hamas and violent Palestinian attacks on Israel as distinctive from many other countries.

“Since we get SO MUCH support from our Indian brothers and sisters, I’m unfortunately unable to thank each and every one of you personally,” Gilon wrote online. “Please accept this as my gratitude to all our friends.”

“India neither called for a cessation of the conflict nor stressed the need for restraint. There was no word on Israeli occupation or mention of a two-state solution,” The Diplomat, an Asian affairs site, observed on Thursday.

India is a standout in its region, where the government of its top geopolitical rival, Pakistan, responded to the killings by urging “restraint” and repeating Hamas’s demands for a “sovereign State of Palestine.” North of Pakistan, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan openly praised the atrocities. To India’s east, the Chinese Communist Party put the blame for the Hamas attack squarely in the hands of the American government, an “enemy of world peace,” and not to the virulently anti-American, genocidal Hamas jihadists.

Even within India, the BJP’s opposition parties repeated sentiments in favor of giving Hamas land. The largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, demanded an “immediate ceasefire,” implying that the Israeli military should not respond to the mass murder of civilians. The Indian broadcaster NDTV reported on Tuesday that the statement enthusiastically supporting the Hamas goal of a Palestinian state caused a “rift” in the Congress party between those who pushed for the statement and those who felt the party should express more sympathy with the Israeli victims – or at least mention Hamas at all.

“The UN must ensure the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, withdrawal of all Israeli illegal settlements and occupation of Palestinian lands and implement the ‘Two Nation-State’ solution,” Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India, said in response to the attack, according to the National.

The Modi stance in favor of Israel follows decades of India, prior to BJP rule, recognizing “Palestine” as a state and supporting the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). India only established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992; Ariel Sharon became the first Israeli prime minister to visit the country in 2003.

“For many years after India’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, Israel was extremely enthusiastic about establishing a close relationship with India. However, for more than four decades, India refused to respond to Israel’s overture,” the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) explained this week.

Under Modi, India began abstaining from the prolific votes at the United Nations to condemn Israel for self-defense against jihadist threats. Trade with Israel and diplomatic ties grew. Modi himself became the first prime minister of India to visit Israel in 2017.

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