Modi’s public allegiance to Netanyahu puts him at odds with widespread contempt over the ongoing war in Gaza
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during a press conference in Jerusalem on February 26, 2026. PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
In Israel, Narendra Modi has been crowned with the Knesset Medal, the first foreign leader ever to receive the highest parliamentary honor. The award is much more than a diplomatic showpiece — it rewards the Indian leader for his unwavering allegiance to Benjamin Netanyahu, a stance that, by Modi’s own standards, is no anomaly.
What makes it striking, however, is the timing. Modi has once again sworn, in full view of the world, to support Israel, but in effect he has endorsed the scale of violence that UN experts and human rights organizations have described as amounting to genocide. In doing so, the far-right Hindu leader has positioned himself squarely at odds with much of the Global South — the very bloc he claims to be courting for alliances, where public contempt for Israel’s assault on Palestinians runs deep.
While Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court, has little to lose in reputation, Modi is still not a persona non grata — even as his actions in occupied Kashmir and efforts to suppress genuine human rights concerns in the valley have been flagged as the early stages of a possible genocide, not by Pakistan, but by Dr. Gregory Stanton, the world’s foremost expert on genocide, whose model of the ten stages of genocide remains the global yardstick for such atrocities.
By throwing his weight behind the Israeli leader against the backdrop of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, Modi has laid bare not only a sinister desire to justify what is quietly unfolding in occupied Kashmir on his watch, but also the striking similarities that, in many ways, cast him as an ideological twin of Bibi Netanyahu. Both he and his Israeli counterpart, according to leading advocacy groups from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch, have been identified as leaders actively suppressing populations, denying basic human rights, and occupying territories against the will of the people who live there.
In short, for years, Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu have followed a familiar playbook, to varying degrees, and it would not be a stretch to say that in Kashmir, Modi is doing to Kashmiris what Netanyahu has openly done to the people of Gaza. Together, these leaders are effectively the wardens of two of the world’s largest open-air prisons — one in Gaza, the other in Kashmir. One facet of this nexus between India and Israel first surfaced in the wake of October 7, 2023. As the Israel Defense Forces flattened Gaza, maiming civilians and slaughtering the young and old, India’s right-wing base, comprising Modi’s most devoted followers, was busy crafting anti-Palestinian disinformation, amplifying anything that painted Palestinians as the villains. Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar, exposed much of this in an Al Jazeera analysis published the same year.
BOOM, one of India’s leading fact-checking organizations, went a step further, identifying several verified Indian X users at the heart of the campaign. These “disinfluencers” — influencers who routinely spread disinformation, according to the platform, were “mostly targeting Palestine negatively, or being supportive of Israel”. Here, as in other areas, New Delhi’s nefarious designs intersect neatly with Tel Aviv’s expertise in influence operations. Israel has long demonstrated its capacity for such campaigns; more recently, its disinformation efforts helped spark protests in Iran. The credibility of this claim was confirmed last year when Haaretz, the Tel Aviv-based newspaper, reported that during Israel’s airstrikes on Tehran’s Evin Prison, an online network circulated deepfake videos — campaigns later revealed by TheMarker and Haaretz to have been indirectly funded by Israel.
It’s no overstatement to suggest that India is tempted to follow a similar playbook in its neighborhood. Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has cast Pakistan — his country’s only nuclear-armed rival — as a perennial thorn. Adopting Israeli-style influence campaigns in Pakistan’s information space would only serve his insatiable desire to sow chaos, discord, and unrest across the country. More broadly in the region, Modi and Netanyahu share another common ambition. In subtle — and not-so-subtle — ways, New Delhi has already signaled support for plans of regime change in Iran that have long been advanced by Netanyahu’s far-right government.
This deep pivot toward Israel is no surprise — the connection has been years in the making. What is striking is that, while Modi openly pledges allegiance to Netanyahu — who, since the onset of the brutal war in Gaza, has launched military strikes in six countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and even Qatar — regional leaders continue to welcome him with open arms, some even rolling out the red carpet, offering strategic partnerships, and bestowing their highest national honors. It only raises questions that cannot be ignored: what, if any, are the Middle East’s own priorities when it comes to a genocide that continues to unfold in Gaza, even after the creation of the so-called peace board? If Modi is willing to abandon India’s long-stated support for Palestine’s right to statehood, should the Middle East follow suit? Should the region reward India for buttressing Israel’s ongoing encroachment on Palestinian territory? All that said, Narendra Modi’s “unwavering support” for Israel cannot be dismissed as routine diplomatic lip service or mere sympathy without raising suspicion about the many sinister projects the two sides might pursue together — on top of the decades of atrocities they have carried out in plain view in Gaza and Kashmir.
