At the height of Operation Parakram in June 2002, with the country’s political and military leadership steeling itself for what appeared an inevitable conflict with Pakistan, following the attack on Parliament and the Kaluchak massacre in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Air Force top brass told the defence ministry that it needed supplies. If June 14 was the likely date for war, the air force needed to replenish its stock of spare parts and precision-guided missiles urgently. The Russians, their usual source, were unable to manage the order at such short notice, and so Tel Aviv was contacted. The Israelis’ discretion was matched by their promptness: they quietly sent their defence secretary to New Delhi to assess the air force’s requirements on June 5 and three planeloads of weapon supplies landed at Palam the same week. This wasn’t the first time — during the 1999 Kargil war, too, the Israelis rushed critical supplies to cater to last-minute Indian military demands.

For the Left parties, this may only substantiate their theory that the NDA government formed a security and military alliance with Israel, and cause them to increase their pressure on the UPA regime to “disentangle” New Delhi from some evil axis with Israel and America in order to “resume” the fight for justice for the Palestinian people. That attitude, however, is misguided, and rests on an insufficiently realistic view of international relations.

All friends are not allies, all allies are not friends, and all the rest are not necessarily enemies.

... contd.