Political experts and analysts have said that the Israeli and Indian nations share a great deal in their modern histories as both were forged in the crucible of British colonialism.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the political experts and analysts in their interviews and statements in Srinagar said in ruling both, colonial officials employed “divide and conquer”: setting tribes or religious groups against one another to maintain inter-group conflict, which prevented them from uniting against a common colonial enemy.
They said in India, in 1980s a new Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), arose from an anti-Muslim paramilitary movement, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which maintained a mystical belief in the racial supremacy of the Hindu nation that was modeled on German and Italian fascism. Similarly, they added, in Israel, right-wing parties have ruled almost without interruption from 1977.
The political experts and analysts said right-wing parties in Israel, employed creeping Palestinian land and resource appropriation leading to de facto annexation of the West Bank. In this apartheid system, they said, Jewish settlers are full citizens and Palestinians, persona non grata. Israel and India increasingly view themselves facing a common Muslim enemy.
For Israel, they said, the enemy is ‘Islamist’ groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and countries like Iran and in India, it is the Pakistani ‘jihadi’ threat and the rising Kashmir protest movement. Both Israel and India have substantial Muslim minority communities which the religious majorities (Jews and Hindus) view as a threat to their dominance. Both Israel and India maintain powerful US lobbies to advance their respective interests, they maintained.
The political experts and analysts said given the religious extremism of the ruling parties in each nation, the domestic lobbies reflect the same Islamophobia as scores of domestic pro-Israel organisations offer tens of millions in support of Israel’s settler colonies. Others offer political cover for Islamophobia, including the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, StandWithUs, Middle East Forum and others, they added.
American Hindus, they said, have torn a page from the American Jewish community, building a network of think tanks, foundations, and lobbying groups which promote Hindutva values. Among them are the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the Dharma Civilization Foundation (DCF), and Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (RSS), they said.—KMS
