Brothers-in-arms: Modi and Netanyahu’s deep ties remain unshakable

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent the past two days in Tel Aviv meeting Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his wife, Sara. According to Israel’s prime ministerial website, the trip reinforced political, strategic and even personal ties between the two leaders and their governments.

The visit came with a fair share of pomp and show. Modi offered emphatic support for Israel after the "barbaric" October 7 attacks, omitting any mention of Palestinians. He and Netanyahu frequently embraced, with the Israeli leader describing the special "Modi hug" as the "real thing". At a private dinner, Netanyahu dressed in traditional Indian attire and posed for a photo with a beaming Modi, who later received an award referred to as the “Knesset Medal”, described as “the highest honour the Knesset can bestow”. 

Modi was the inaugural winner of the Knesset Medal, references to which – much like the FIFA "Peace Award" given to Donald Trump – do not appear prior to this event in Israeli law or Knesset history. During his visit, Modi also wholeheartedly supported US President Donald Trump’s controversial Gaza peace plan, saying it "holds the promise of a just and durable peace for all the people in the region, including by addressing the Palestine issue".

Modi praised the role of Indian Jews in Israel – “in laboratories, hospitals and classrooms, and also on the battlefield” – and noted the spread of yoga's popularity to “almost every neighbourhood”. 

The timing of the visit was notable. It came months before contentious Israeli elections and as Netanyahu’s international standing has deteriorated amid allegations of war crimes, UN accusations of genocide and an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Neither leader addressed the wider humanitarian and legal controversies surrounding Israel’s ruthless attacks in Gaza, which have continued despite a Trump-brokered ceasefire.

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India has long tried to play neutral with Israel and Palestine, remaining largely silent about the roughly 75,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, according to an independent estimate by the Lancet, most of them women and children. The chummy meeting also occurred as the Middle East remains volatile – the threat of US‑Israeli strikes on Iran persists, Israel continues to hit Gaza and steps to annex the occupied West Bank have begun.

Modi’s visit crystallises a decisive tilt toward Israel, driven by ideological sympathy, a surge in defence purchases and deeper technological links.

A partnership of convenience

In the Knesset, Modi spoke of bilateral trade at large, saying that Delhi is "committed to expanding trade, strengthening investment flows and promoting joint infrastructure development". Most of that expanding trade would be in the field of defence.

Before Modi’s trip to Israel, Indian outlets began reporting on a historic multiyear $10 billion defence deal between the two countries, which, according to reports, is expected to focus on air-defence systems.

It’s a logical next step for the two military allies. India purchased roughly a third of Israel’s weapons exports – about $20.5 billion between 2020 and 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), making New Delhi its single largest customer and helping sustain Israel’s arms boom even as parts of Europe imposed restrictions over actions in Gaza.

The gains for India are immediate. Missile‑defence systems, surveillance and battlefield technologies and partnerships on AI and quantum computing are reportedly part of the deal.

Bobby Ghosh, a columnist specialising in the Middle East, said that defence deals such as this are a win-win for India and Israel.

"The Modi government sees Israel as a partner on security issues, and Israel has a great deal to offer a government that is interested in espionage whether that is spying on its own people through tools like Pegasus, or keeping an eye on hostile neighbours like China and Pakistan."

India used Israel’s Pegasus software to illegally spy on its own citizens, including dissenting lawmakers, journalists and activists.

Ideological allies  

India's historical relationship with the Palestinians was once marked by solidarity rooted in shared anti-colonial struggles that evolved into consistent diplomatic support. India opposed the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine, advocating a unified federal state instead – influenced by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw parallels with India's own independence fight. India voted against Israel's UN admission in 1949 and maintained this pro-Palestinian stance throughout the 1960s, even as it quietly accepted Israeli aid during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

But that rhetoric has almost entirely flipped. Support for Palestine has morphed into strong alignment with Israel under Modi, driven by military, economic ties and shared anti-Islamic, right-wing Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) and Zionist ideologies.

According to Ghosh, the Hindutva movement that Modi leads is closely aligned to Israel.

"[Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir speak the way that many Hindu nationalist leaders speak," he said, referring to two far-right Israeli politicians. "If you change the protagonists, and put those same words into the mouths of some of the firebrand, right-wing figures in India, they're indistinguishable from each other."

Modi was one of the first world leaders to reach out to Netanyahu after the October 7, 2023, attack, offering to provide any help that Israel needed. The two prime ministers spoke several times in the next few months, with Modi reiterating that the “people of India firmly stand with Israel”. Supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were some of the staunchest backers of Israel on social media, drawing on a shared Islamophobia.

“I don't think that India is any longer a serious supporter of the Palestinian cause," Ghosh says. "Among older Indian politicians, you may hear some traces of some vestiges of the old Indian foreign policy line, which was pro-Palestine, but that voice is fading."

When X briefly made users’ countries of origin public, several prominent pro-Israel accounts were found to be run from India. It was an unfortunate testament to the success of Hindutva forces in cultivating Islamophobia by presenting Palestine as supposedly anti-Hindu. 

India’s enthusiastic support for some of Israel’s most hardline and divisive right-wing politicians illustrates that shared ideology. In 2025, India welcomed extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was banned from several EU nations for his inflammatory statements against Palestinians and his work expanding illegal settlements.

During his visit, Smotrich emphasised the countries' common woes. 

“Both India and Israel experience the hypocrisy of the international community – countries that judge us, and countries that attempt to prevent us from responding to these threats of terrorism,” he said.

India's economic attraction

For the last year, India has aggressively pursued free-trade agreements with a host of countries and blocs including the EU, US, UK, Oman, New Zealand and now, if all goes according to plan, with Israel.  

During his speech at the Knesset, Modi frequently referenced the IMEC initiative – the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which includes shipping, energy and underwater internet infrastructure. The initiative has largely stalled in recent years due to regional instability.

Some analysts critical of India’s trade agreements with Israel believe that the association with Netanyahu may have reputational impacts on Modi, and a ripple effect on IMEC and other strategic trade relationships.

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Ghosh believes that threats of sanctions and criticism of Israel by Western blocs, particularly the EU and UN, are little more than posturing. He described the international condemnation so far on the genocide in Palestine as "a light rap across the knuckles".

"Very few Western governments seem to be troubled by Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Israel continues to enjoy enormous support in the corridors of power in the West, despite its behaviour," he said. 

The outcry against Modi’s visit to Israel has been limited to a handful of opposition parties within India. Even if Modi sustains some reputational damage, it's unlikely that any of India’s trade partners will balk at its now obvious friendship with Israel.

"Even the countries condemning Israel are in business with it," Ghosh said. "Do you really think the Europeans are going to give up access to the Indian market for the sake of Palestinians? Not a chance."