Upon his arrival in Israel on July 4, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was accorded an honor generally reserved for American presidents; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed him in person the moment he set foot on Israeli soil and did not leave Modi's side until he boarded his plane — and for a good reason. Unlike US President Donald Trump and most leaders visiting Jerusalem, Modi did not take the opportunity to hop over to the neighboring city of Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank. It is unusual, to say the least, for such VIPs visiting Israel to identify so fully with Netanyahu’s disregard for the Palestinian neighbors living for half a century under Israeli domination. Israel need not worry that the Indian Foreign Ministry will condemn the Netanyahu government’s harassment of human rights organizations, as the German Foreign Ministry did last month.

Standing beside his guest at Ben-Gurion Airport, Netanyahu said Modi’s visit would deepen bilateral cooperation on issues of security, agriculture, water and energy. One other area — peacemaking — did not even rate the type of lip service customary on such occasions. Why spoil a festive visit with such pesky trifles? Let's enjoy celebrating the 25th anniversary of full diplomatic relations between the world’s biggest democracy and a small state that boasts about being “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Two events paved the way for the historic change in Israel’s ties with India, as with several other important states, foremost among them Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. The first breakthrough occurred at the international Middle East peace conference convened in Madrid in October 1991, attended by high-ranking delegations from Israel, the leadership of the PLO and Arab states. The second event was the signing of the Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestinians two years later, in September 1993. The “peace process” that was meant to free the Palestinian people of Israel’s occupation and to shut down the Israeli settlement enterprise in the West Bank only resulted in freeing foreign states from the primary and secondary boycott imposed on them by the Arab League for trading with Israel. The ensuing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations did not hasten the end of the occupation, nor did it slow the pace of settlement construction. But even though the peace process came to a halt after the Oslo Accord and settlements were — and are — still being constructed, the Israeli embassies in New Delhi, Moscow, Beijing and Seoul remained open.

These embassies were soon staffed by military and economic attaches. At the same time, arms dealers and counterterrorism experts popped up like mushrooms after the rain. India became the biggest client of Israel’s Military Industries, with a shopping list that included missiles, drones and cyberwarfare technologies, to name a few. In light of these developments, one has to wonder what Netanyahu meant when he spoke at the reception for Modi of “our common quest to provide a better future for our peoples and for our world.” Does the quest for perpetuating the Israeli apartheid regime in the Palestinian territories ensure a better future for the people of Israel? How does a huge contribution to the arms race between two hostile nuclear powers — India and Pakistan — benefit the future of humanity?