West Bank status quo shares eerie similarities with Kashmir
India’s recent moves to repeal Kashmiri autonomy are a lot like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intent to annex parts of the West Bank.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to say that he is married to politics. It is obvious that he has an agenda of Hinduism before all else, and he has no shame in implementing it. The enormous support that he got in the July election for India’s parliament encouraged him to take vigorous steps toward that goal. Last week, for instance, he led an effort in the Indian legislature to repeal the Indian Constitution's Article 370, which has granted autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir since the creation of India and Pakistan back in 1947.
I am reminded of a working visit to India in the summer of 1993, when I was deputy foreign minister. The visit took place just one year after Israel and India established diplomatic relations, and the ministry was well prepared. I still could not say anything about the secret Oslo process, but I did prepare myself for conversations about how Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government was committed to reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians and Syrians. I assumed it would be the main topic of all of the talks.
