Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and US President Donald Trump held a meeting to announce Gaza Plan at a joint press conference, White House, Washington, Sept 29, 2025
The much-awaited olive branch from India to the Trump Administration to let bygones be bygones comes as a pleasant surprise with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s exuberant support for the Gaza Plan congratulating Trump in two successive statements (here and here) within four days.
The Gaza war is an issue over which Modi government has been sleepwalking. The Indian jubilation creates an perception that India’s heart-rending pain over the Gaza situation is not to be doubted, despite its close ties with Israel, and that it is so at the highest level of leadership in the Hindu nationalist government.
Both statements commend President Donald Trump personally and bear the touch of a diplomatic initiative to gatecrash into his charmed circle as a well-wisher and supporter on a vital issue of regional and international security, which may even become the clincher in his race for a Nobel. Suffice to say, Modi has countered with elan Pakistan’s recent oneupmanship.
How will Trump reciprocate? What if he seizes the golden opportunity to take another shot at mediating the Kashmir problem?
Suffice to say, India and Pakistan will be on dead heat on the diplomatic track as they compete for Trump’s attention. The stakes are high for Trump too, as the Gaza Plan is anchored on a massive business content to it strictly under his watch that has the potential to fuel MAGA programme.
Modi’s diplomatic initiative nonetheless is timely and welcome, serving certain long-term interests. Most importantly, India is vetting its toes in the tortuous geopolitical whirlpool that began forming in the Middle East in the downstream of October 7 attacks in Israel. Delhi was caught in a no man’s land as the Arab / Muslim region began seeking new alignments following the acute isolation of Israel, which has been India’s closest ally in the Middle East.
The Indian leadership has high stakes in Israel’s welfare and prosperity, especially the political survival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Modi underscored this by choosing Israel as the only foreign country where he holidayed since becoming prime minister in 2014.
Simply put, Netanyahu battled domestic opposition and brushed aside US reservations to award a billion-dollar management contract to an influential Indian corporate house to develop Haifa Port and develop that city as a tourist haven in East Mediterranean like Turkey’s Antalya.
Although the churning of the past two-year period lacked clarity, the core of Trump’s Gaza Plan is to launch Abraham Accords 2.0 pivoting on the integration of Israel into its Arab-Muslim neighbourhood in West Asia. Gaza Plan carries the imprimatur of both Riyadh and Tel Aviv although attributed to Trump.
Suffice to say, India’s West Asian predicament is withering away as it may no longer have to worry about the opprobrium of taking sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Arguably, India may even be in a position to turbocharge its alliance with Israel sans the stigma of being ‘anti-Muslim’.
The India’s present ruling elite subscribes to the queer hypothesis of an ideological affinity between Hindu nationalism (‘Hindutva’) and Zionism, which remains a contradiction. But that is for the future. For the present, what matters is that Israel is being enabled by the Western world to purge its pariah status as a country practising apartheid, and Modi government wants to be on the ‘right side of history’.
Delhi watched with growing alarm that the ‘2-state-solution-train’ is about to leave the station with Pakistan cosily sharing a berth with Trump. It is scurrying to get on board. The angst shows in the frantic effort to catch Trump’s attention. The ensuing India-Pakistan diplomatic pirouette inside the Train to Palestine will be fun to watch, but is also consequential in geopolitical terms as India positions to compete with Pakistan for Trump’s favour.
This situation is cut out for Trump. But there is a catch, as Trump also has a wish list. While Pakistan is used to perform the role of an abject junior partner, the same cannot be said for India which claims ‘strategic autonomy’. Also, a tsunami of anti-Americanism is sweeping India.
True, Pakistan also has to reckon with anti-Americanism internally, but the powers-that-be have been used to finessing it, and in the present situation, Saudi Arabia’s backing for Gaza plan is a mitigating factor.
To be sure, Modi government, which thrives on anti-Muslim politics to remain in power, will have some quiet explaining to do to its ‘core constituency.’ The opposition parties will not allow the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party to get away with sophistry and opportunism, and will ridicule the BJP in the bazaar. But the common belief will acquiesce to it where Hindutva is but a form of opium for occasional consumption to create a sense of ecstasy.
Then, there are other contradictions. First, of course, there is no certainty that Gaza Plan will succeed. Israel is a law unto itself and has no reason to abandon its Greater Israel project. Israel has already vetoed and got removed the 21st item per the original Plan which would have prevented it from annexing the West Bank.
Suffice to say, the Gaza Plan is deeply flawed, as Israel enjoys veto power, thanks to its control over Trump and Marco Rubio, Congress, Wall Street, media, US foreign policy. On the contrary, Palestinian wishes have not even been ascertained. Gaza Plan is an imposition.
No need to secondguess what folks like Tony Blair serving in the Board of Peace under chairman Trump are capable of doing in a region awash with petrodollars. Make no mistake, the sheer weight of western dominance may bring the roof crashing down on Gaza Plan at some point.
Another contradiction is that Russia and China are not shareholders. And they are respectively the ‘natural allies’ of India and Pakistan. While Trump is not yet on a warpath vis-a-vis Russia over the defeat of Nato in Ukraine, tempers are running high, as evident in President Vladimir Putin’s scathing remarks at the Valdai event in Sochi on October 2. (The Kremlin is yet to release the official text.)
However, the most formidable contradiction will be the Iran Question. The number one military power in the Muslim Middle East and the only authentic regional power in that region, stands excluded. What happens if Israel launches another attack on Iran, which most US analysts predict to be ‘imminent’ — a matter of weeks, if not days?
As the snapback sanctions against Iran take hold, the Trump administration is in a celebratory mood. This is despite storm clouds gathering with Moscow’s strong condemnation of the Western move and its forewarning that it considers the new sanctions in such a contrived manner as illegal.
Nonetheless, in good faith, Russia has supported Trump’s Gaza Plan and held back any scepticism over its implementation. Simply put, Moscow has aligned its position with its Arab partners, especially Saudi Arabia.
However, keeping in mind the strong likelihood of an Israeli attack on Iran, Russian foreign ministry has issued a statement underscoring Moscow’s commitment to undertake “joint efforts to strengthen stability and security in the region, as well as countering common threats and challenges” with Iran under the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries came into force on October 2, which, interestingly, came into force just three days after Trump announced the Gaza Plan.
The Russian statement stops just short of a commitment to mutual security with Iran but the implications are clear — namely, Russia will not remain a passive bystander if Netanyahu orders an attack on Israel. By the way, Moscow is also incensed over Mossad’s growing involvement in Ukraine’s attacks inside Russia.
The paradox is, Moscow may have also provided an underpinning for the Gaza Plan, which Trump is in no position to give if Israel were to undermine it by attacking Iran.
All of this entangled spiders’ web only goes to show that India’s cherrypicking is reflected in PM’s ecstatic stance on Gaza Plan is not only episodic but somewhat myopic. Delhi is yet to muster courage to speak a word about the new UN sanctions on Iran or its increased potential to trigger another “imminent” Israeli attack on Iran, which Trump is either unable or unwilling to prevent. The ambivalence in India’s stance on the Middle East crisis continues. Modi’s message is primarily aimed at a rare opportunity to complement Trump on an otherwise bleak diplomatic landscape.