New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his friendship and for always standing by Israel, Reuven Azar, the Ambassador of Israel to India, on Wednesday revealed that the Indian PM was the first world leader to call the Israeli leadership following the deadly Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023.
More than 1200 people were killed in Israel during the horrific massacre and another 250 taken as hostages.
“We are actually looking with admiration to the achievements of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His friendship is very dear for us. We saw he was the first to call us following the 7th of October. We saw how he stood by us during the last-year-and-a-half. We know that we think alike on many things. We look at things in a similar way. We have similar challenges. Therefore, I am confident that in the coming years, we will be able to do many more things together,” Azar told IANS in an exclusive interview.
He also spoke on the situation in Gaza, the ceasefire, the support of the current US administration and several other issues.
Interview excerpts:
IANS: AS Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said recently, this is indeed a “historic turning point” and defining times for Israel. Your thoughts
Reuven Azar: Yes, indeed, that it is, a very important moment in our history because we have withstood, we have managed to, actually not only survive, but also to succeed in giving a decisive answer to the attack that happened to us on the 7th of October. Not just what Hamas did to us, which was atrocious but in the context of what the entire Iranian proxies have tried to do against Israel. So, we have managed to remove from Israel a very significant threat of hundreds of thousands of rockets that were coming from Hezbollah, capabilities that were being built in Syria, were being built in Iran against us. And, the fact that we have succeeded in this military operation, that there’s no longer a military machine of Hamas that is capable of threatening all the centers of population in Israel. The fact that Hezbollah is no longer a threat to northern Israel in a significant way, and that Iran got hit very severely in very strategic points of their missile programme, is very significant because when those enemies that have sworn to destroy us are debilitated, this gives peace and stability a chance. We have a window of opportunity now, a combination of the Israeli military victories and the coming of the Trump administration to do many good things for the region.
IANS: How is the situation in Gaza, right now?
Reuven Azar: We have managed to bring back most of our hostages. We are left now with about 69 hostages. Of which about half of them are dead. We have managed to bring almost 190 hostages back and we are trying to be persistent on the goal that our cabinet has determined. That means that we have to bring back all our hostages and also make sure that Hamas is destroyed and that it can no longer constitute a military threat, nor be the government in Gaza. Because we know that if Hamas comes back to become the government in Gaza, the time frame until we will have another 7th of October will shorten and therefore we are very stubborn on achieving both goals – the hostages and destroying Hamas’ capability to attack us removes them from power.
IANS: What is your take on US President Donald Trump’s offer to relocate people from Gaza?
Reuven Azar: There is an anomaly when it comes to Gaza. You know, when you look at conflicts in the region and outside the region, you can see very clearly, for example when the Ukraine, the Russia-Ukraine war started, five million Ukrainians left Ukraine. When there was a civil war in Syria, eight million Syrians left Syria. So, in any conflict zone, people are being allowed to go to refuge, to go to a quiet place until things are over, until the war is over, until things get through a construct and then they come back. The only place in the world in which it is not allowed, apparently, is the Gaza Strip. So the (US) President was saying something that is very natural. We can temporarily relocate Gazans to go to a safe haven until things get better in Gaza. This is not something that is going to happen by force, it is something based on a voluntary basis. So, if there are countries that are ready to accept Palestinians that want to take refuge, then we can do it.
IANS: How different is the Trump administration from the Biden regime?
Reuven Azar: We are optimistic because we saw what the first Trump administration did to the region. We reached the Abraham Accords. And Israel got very important achievements from that administration that have to do with the American recognition of Jerusalem, our capital, the moving of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and many other things. So, we have a hope that with this Trump administration, we can achieve more. We always had good relations with any American administration and also with the Biden administration. But, we had some gaps with them when it comes to the management of our struggle, to defend ourselves from the Hamas attack. If you remember, the administration tried to make us refrain from doing the Rafah operation or was withholding some weapons that we needed for the war. So these are no longer there. These limitations are no longer there. And, we’ve heard very clearly from President Trump himself that he’s going to back Israel in whatever decisions Israel has to make to defend itself. That’s very encouraging.
IANS: US President Donald Trump has expressed concerns over the USAID role and its fundings that could have been used for toppling govts…
Reuven Azar: That’s an American decision to make, in which way America wants to be involved in the world. That’s a decision that America will have to make. We are not interfering in that. I haven’t seen the USAID toppling governments. What we have seen is that sometimes money is being used by different agencies for different purposes. So the question is whether the administration wants to continue to use money in that way or to alter the ways in which they operate. That’s a completely, independent decision that the United States will have to make. And we’ve been working in the USA with the USA in the past, especially in coordinating assistance to the Palestinians and whenever the Americans want to give assistance to the Palestinian people, we would coordinate that whether it comes from USAID, State Department or any other American agency.
IANS: Are you concerned with the ongoing coverage of the conflict by some media outlets. Recently, the BBC has been questioned over its Gaza documentary’s Hamas link…
Reuven Azar: Yes, it is. And there are few problems that most people don’t know when it comes to covering the Middle East. First of all, there are, of course, those networks from within the Middle East that are doing a lot of propaganda for the radical Islamists. Al Jazeera is one of them. And there are many others. And this is a challenge, to us, to the Western world, to the civilized world, because these values that are being promoted by these channels are, promoting violence against, non-Muslims. And that’s problematic. In addition to that, you have many outlets in the West which are completely biased because the reporters that work in these networks, especially those that cover the Middle East and they do the coverage in Arabic, are also part of this network. For example, it is pretty well known that the BBC in Arabic, has many people affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood that are working there. So the materials that you see coming out from BBC in Arabic, is problematic. Another problem that we face is that in many cases, terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are portraying themselves as journalists, while at the same time serving terrorist organizations or even being members of terrorist organizations. So we saw the example with the BBC movie for, the BBC piece in which one of the children that were being covered, there was a relative, his father was a Hamas leader, Hamas operative. And, people many times do not know how to make the difference, do not verify the stories. And by this, propaganda coming from the terrorist organizations without checking it thoroughly. So these are all problems that we have to face. We are pretty outnumbered when it comes to the challenge, because Israel is one country, we don’t have many means of communication, and they are not spread all over the world. So we don’t invest in that enough. And even if we would have invested, it wouldn’t be enough to pair with the huge number of outlets you have in the Arab world and in the Muslim world.
IANS: What do you have to say to the sympathisers of radical Islamists?
Reuven Azar: What I can say is that we have one advantage against radicals that we love life more than they love death. Okay, so this cult of death, pretending that because of the fact that they don’t mind dying for the cause gives them an advantage is actually a huge disadvantage because in Israel, for example, because of the fact that we love life and we sanctify life, we are ready to do a lot in order to defend it. We are not ready just to sacrifice our life for the country for no reason. We want to live in a prosperous country. We are going to defend our families. We want to defend things that are important for us, and we don’t have anywhere else to go. Therefore, we have a huge advantage towards radicals. And we have to engage together to work in order to work with people, to deradicalize the societies. And this is one of the challenges where we’re facing now in the Gaza Strip. Since Hamas took over 18 years ago, they have been radicalizing the education system in a systematic way, teaching each and every child in the Gaza Strip that their role is not to live in peace or to build Gaza, but to destroy Israel and to kill Jews. This has to change because unless the education system changes, nothing will change in the future, and we will have a very grim future. So we have a challenge together, to work for moderation, to work for, to defeat radicals.
IANS: Is Hamas a threat to India as well, especially due to its Pakistan connection?
Reuven Azar: Unfortunately, terrorist organisations work in networks and many times they find ways to support each other in a way that is detrimental for many countries, not just for our region. So the fact that, for example, there was a meeting only a couple of weeks ago in the areas that are under Pakistani control in Kashmir, of leaders of Hamas tells you something about how these terrorist organisations are inspiring each other. Apparently, they are cooperating in order to achieve their common goal which is to terrorise us and to terrorise you. This is something that we have to take into account.
IANS: What advice would you give to Indian leaders who support the Palestine cause?
Reuven Azar: I’m not in the role of giving advice to anybody. I think that we have a common goal. We want to live in peace. We believe that people in our region deserve to live in peace and that we can satisfy the aspirations of everybody as long as they are not trying to destroy or to completely erase the other side. So, those Palestinians that want to live with us in peace and that are ready to recognise our right for self-determination, we will recognise their rights for self-determination and we can negotiate a peace deal. But those who refuse that and only want to seek Palestinian rights without recognising our rights and using illegitimate means to do so, this has to be completely refuted. Our expectation is that any peace-loving leader or party, wherever they are, in India or outside India, will join us with this quest of creating a better world that is free of violence.
IANS: At the same time, India-Israel partnership is making giant strides. What do you have to say about it?
Reuven Azar: This is indeed a great partnership because I think our leaders think alike. They have an agenda of development. They want to create entrepreneurs. They believe in freedom. They believe in free markets and in reform. This has brought them together. We have been working with India on many issues on defence, on defence industry, on irrigation and water-related issues. We have a challenge to work on additional issues on high tech and innovation that can create a huge effect on the economy. So, we are thinking about ways of doing that. We had two weeks ago a huge delegation from Israel led by our Minister of Economy Nir Barkat. About 80 to 100 companies came here to do business. They met with Indian companies, we also want to work together in the field of infrastructure. India has a lot to offer in the field of infrastructure. So, we have a huge task ahead of us. We want to sign agreements to ease business with us, agreements on trade and on the financial realm. We have mapped all these things we want to do together. We are working very seriously together with the Indian government. I hope that this year in which we are coming out of this war and we are energized to do more things, we will achieve it. We’ve been having a number of visits lately where a Minister of Transport came, the Minister of Economy came twice, a Minister of Tourism came. We are also working to bring additional ministers here. We have been seeing presidents of universities from Israel coming here. They want to not just do academic cooperation but also connect together the innovation units of universities to work together on the technologies of tomorrow. India is a rising power in the world. It is becoming important to us, not just as a business partner, but also as an element in our supply chain. This will become, I believe, part of our national security strategy and that’s why I’m very happy to be here.
IANS: US President Donald Trump has offered to sell F-35 fighter jets to India. Israel also uses these state-of-the-art jets, what difference could its acquisition bring?
Reuven Azar: I think that the advanced technologies in the military realm are very important to create an edge over adversaries. We already have received several squadrons of F-35s, and they are proving themselves to be very efficient in creating Israeli supremacy over the skies of the Middle East. If India manages to do the same and acquire F-35s, no doubt it will give it a similar edge.
IANS: Indian diplomacy has come in for huge praise for its balanced approach in recent times… What is your take on it?
Reuven Azar: Well, diplomacy is always a balancing act. I think that we have seen during this last year and a half that the support we needed from India came and it was a good support, both orally and also in deeds. It wasn’t on the account of any other thing that India does. So, it proves that you can have good relations with us without being detrimental to the relations you have with other countries in the world.
IANS: India and Israel are also working together on connectivity initiatives, including IMEC and the port of Haifa…
Reuven Azar: Logistics indeed works in networks. So the question is, what is the level of efficiency of the networks that you have that allow you to do trade in a way that is cheaper, that is more effective and is faster? So in this context, the quest of India to create connectivity is very understandable. We want to be part of that. It also has to stand on stable strategic foundations. So the fact that we have security cooperation in our region between Israel and our Arab countries, between Israel and the Gulf under an American umbrella, gives me the confidence that we will be able to execute these corridors of connectivity that are coming from India to Europe, passing through the Middle East, and vice versa. This has huge potential. It’s going to happen not instead but, you know, in addition to current, logistic ways in which trade happens. We are not talking only about trade, we are talking about connectivity in communications, in energy, in many other fields. So if we are going to be able to realise it, I think it’s going to serve not only India, but also all the countries in the region.
IANS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as a powerful global leader, how do you view his leadership?
Reuven Azar: We are actually looking with admiration to the achievements of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His friendship is very dear for us. We saw he was the first to call us following the 7th of October. We saw how he stood by us during the last year and a half. We know that we think alike on many things. We look at things in a similar way. We have similar challenges. Therefore, I am confident that in the coming years, we will be able to do many more things together.
IANS: How special is the partnership between India and Israel – from defence to agriculture to tech and in several other areas?
Reuven Azar: I will tell you why this is so special. First of all, when it comes to our defence cooperation, Israel has been the first country, I think, that adapted to the ‘Make in India’ policy. We today stand in a situation in which we have created a lot of joint ventures here. We’re producing together on Indian soil, advanced drones. We are producing autonomous helicopters, autonomous amphibious machinery. We are producing ammunition together. Israel industries have established factories here that do maintenance for the equipment that we have supplied to the Indian Army. We are beginning to do R&D together. So this is something that is very special and shows the level of trust that exists between the security establishments and also between the companies. This is not something you can take for granted. This was something that was built with many years of hard work. It’s very important for both countries. In the field of agriculture, the fact that India has decided to bet on Israeli technology paid off big time because today many farmers in India use these technologies and they have been able to increase their crops and to create not only food security but also has made India into a net food exporter which is also important.
