Notice how Israelis are very respectful of and affectionate toward Bharat and Sanathana Dharma. No post modernist slander about right wing Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism being associated with Nazism. Israelis love to visit India and Indians love to visit Israel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqSMoGMJZLg
India is probably the most pro Jewish and least anti Jewish country on earth. As the Brown Pundit Slapstik wrote,
http://www.brownpundits.com/2018/01/14/welcome-mr-netanyahu/
India swooned over Bibi during his visit to India. By contrast America is having a surge in anti Jewish sectarian bigotry.
Pakistan use to be very pro Jewish too 1947 through the 1960s
as per Tarek Fatah. Tarek Fatah in these two videos explains why India and Israel are such natural and good friends.
My hope is that PM Modi and the Lokh Sabha pass legislation that allows any Jewish person in the world–provided they can pass vetting related to crime–a pathway to Indian permanent residency and over the long run Indian citizenship. This would do a lot to reduce the fear most Jewish people feel about intense global anti Jewish bigotry.
India has no more reliable friends and allies than the Jewish people and the Israeli people.
Of course Israelis need to do right by the Palestinians. India can best help the Palestinians by being Israel’s best friend. India should simultaneously be best friends forever or BFF of both Israelis and Palestinians.
India and Israel love each other because both are extremely anti-Muslim countries. Hinduism and Zionism are natural partners. The new dispensation ruling India admires “muscular Israeli nationalism” and only wishes they could pummel Kashmir into submission the way Israel has pummeled Gaza. Both countries use the “war on terror” to justify the atrocities they perpetrate on the people they rule (West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in Israel’s case, the Valley of Kashmir in India’s case).
India is one of the largest purchasers of Israeli weapons. Under Congress, India used to be a pro-Palestinian country and the leader of the non-aligned movement. All of that has changed now…
Tarak Fatah is not representative of Islam. If you’re using him as your “good” Muslim, you will never understand the rest of us, most of whom deeply deeply dislike him and his ilk.
Islam and Judaism are very similar in practice and faith. Islam and Judaism are closer to each other than they are to Christianity, forget Hinduism, which is nowhere near any of them. I would rather say Islamism and Zionism are natural partners.
1) Both are based on monotheism and revelation.
2) Both ware skull caps, Sunnat etc..
3) Food habits are similar: Halal, a taboo on pork.
Thanks for the perspective Prashant. Neither Hinduism nor Judaism seek to convert others. Neither deny that other spiritual paths might be ideal for other people.
Islam and Christianity (Catholic, most Protestants, not all denominations) are evangelical conversion expansionist ideologies.
There are deep similarities between Judaism and parts of Sanathana Dharma. Including those who worship Brahman or Shunya alone. The five secret fires, the secret sounds. Including Kabbalah. The Merkabah (three dimensional star of David) is a Yantra. Mysticism, meditation. Sound and mantra power. It would require many books to describe all the similarities. This might be a topic for future articles.
Even if someone is not religious, Hinjew is a thing:
http://newvoices.org/2013/04/24/interfaith-gathering-highlights-hindu-jewish-relationship/
True, the religions are very similar (both Jews and Muslims circumcise for example). But the creation of Israel on Arab Muslim land caused a major rift between the two communities. This is of course a nationalist conflict which has assumed religious overtones.
Hindutva and Zionism are both based on hatred of Muslims and in that sense they are natural partners.
India should stay out of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Friendship with Israel is OK to the extent that it serves interests on both sides. The domestic Muslim population will just have to accept this.
With regards to your first paragraph, although many Jews are pro-India, there are a number of American academics and “experts” of South Asia who are Jewish who have written some rather harsh, unfair criticisms of the nation and of Hinduism. Some of these folks have been challenged by American Hindu groups. One of the Jewish political magazines some years back wrote a rather brutal hit piece on Gandhi, perhaps in revenge for some things that Gandhi had said many years before about Jews/Israel (he saw them mainly through the prism of colonialism as white Europeans living in the brown man’s land). So it can be a mixed bag, actually.
Raj, I have debated and interacted with many of these “Jewish” orientalist post modernist marxist freudian atheist indologists and hope to write a series of referenced articles about precisely this issue.
Note that while culturally Jewish their “religion” is a corrupted version of post modernism.
This article and others like it are partly aimed at winning the great and good Jewish people away from a corrupted version of post modernism and toward a deep loving friendship with the open architecture Sanathana Dharma Arya ecosystem.
This blog has secular, agnostic and atheist readers and I love them. I didn’t want to over emphasize the Sanathana Dharma – Jewish collaboration with readers who might not understand what that means.
Today millions of Jews around the world are deeply drawn toward and fascinated by Sanathana Dharma–mostly while remaining good Jews. [Although many Jews have converted too as is their right.] Many Sanathana Dharma centers all over the world are full of Jewish spiritual seekers; often in senior positions. Many great saints, devas and devis–in my opinion–are being born to Jewish parents. Because of their past life karma they are naturally fascinated with Sanathana Dharma. Why not build on this?
For two and a half millenia the closest friend of the Jewish people have been the great and good Arya Persian Iranian people. This friendship should be extended to all the parts of Asia influenced by Sanathana Dharma.
In my opinion the large majority of Jews will choose friendship with Sanathana Dharma open architecture versus corrupted bastardized post modernism. [I consider many St Thomas Christians and muslim Sufis to be part of the Sanathana Dharma extended family.]
I have always been deeply saddened by the difficult relationship between some Jewish people and Gandhiji. This subject deserves its own detailed article. In short I think this is a fixable challenge.
Gandhiji recognized that just as Britain belonged to the British and France to the French, Palestine belonged to Palestinian Arabs. I think he was exactly right.
But I’ll leave you to it. I’m not going to comment on this pro-Israel and anti-Palestine stuff anymore because it just makes me angry, which serves no purpose. Have fun with your anti-Muslim, Zionist-Hindutva collaboration.
Isn’t supporting Muslim Israeli Hindu collaboration a pro Muslim act?
I am huge fans of Mondoweiss, Peter Beinart, J street and Finkelstein. These are the natural long term friends of India and Sanathana Dharma. Please read Finkelstein’s book:
https://www.amazon.com/What-Gandhi-Says-Nonviolence-Resistance/dp/1935928791
Finkelstein bothered to read a 99 volume biography on Gandhi. How many Indians have done that?:
http://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/collected-works-of-mahatma-gandhi-volume-1-to-98.php
I love Palestinians. I love Israelis. I refuse to choose between them.
Well, you’ll have to choose. “Israelis” (a fake nationality if there ever was one) have stolen Palestine from the Palestinians. “Israelis” continue to take Palestinian land. Ahed Tamimi is in jail for slapping a soldier. What they don’t tell you is that those soldiers put her cousin in a coma.
Israelis are the oppressor and Palestinians are the oppressed. Those who side with the oppressor are on the wrong side of history. Those who remain neutral are on the wrong side of history.
This is my last comment to you. Have a nice life. From now on, I will only comment on my own posts. Or else I’ll leave BP to you and the other Hindutva people. You can bash Muslims and Pakistan to your heart’s content. Allah Khair Kharay.
I am with you here, Kabir. I do agree with Isreal, but I do not agree with its geography. It should have been placed in northern Europe. A portion of the northern coast of Germany should have been carved out to create Isreal. WWII Germans deserved it.
Glad we agree on something. Yes, the Germans should have been punished for the Holocaust. The Palestinians should not have had European Jews inflicted on them. That I think was Gandhi’s point.
The Zionist claim to Israel was of course based on the Torah. But God is not a real estate agent. In any case, Israel exists. All people are asking now is for Israel to vacate the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem and let that territory become a Palestinian state.
Raj, we are agreed on India regarding Israel/Palestine. I think that with skill-and Indians are very intelligent–India can be Israel’s best friend while remaining a close friend of the Palestinians.
This said, at some point if the Israelis and Palestinians are close to a final solution–India should use her influence on both parties to facilitate a long term peace and friendship between Israel and Palestine alongside the Quartet, China, Arab League and OIC. India has a responsibility to contribute to Loka Kalyan (welfare of the world) and the providing of global commons.
Anan, India doesn’t need to be anyone’s best friend, really. Strategically, the defence purchase arrangements that exist with Israel are just about the most they can offer India, as they aren’t the biggest of markets and many larger, more important nations are courting alliance to fulfil similar security needs. Furthermore, the supposed loyalty of a pariah nation doesn’t count for much, although their indian retainers are doing their best convince us otherwise, while profiting greatly of course.
Evidently you are quite the judeophile, and that can be an enjoyable thing to take a great interest in other cultures, but you seem to be projecting your own disposition onto all of India. No doubt theres been something of a marketing blitz to make the Indian middle class think of Israel as a special friend, with all kinds of stories about backchannel goodwill that exists. I have yet to see this goodwill on a personal basis, as Israeli tourists have a reputation in our parts for being irredeemably rude.
In final assessment, which thankfully it appears even our hindu nationalists leadership are in agreement with (India voted for the resolution rejecting Jerusalem as capital of Israel), the bilateral relationship should continue to be opportunistic, much like the dealings with Saudi Arabia.
The friendship should be with the “Jewish people” more than with Israel per say. There are many, many ways to deepen and strengthen this friendship. Jewish people are unusually brilliant, special and nice. Their friendship is very valuable.
“the supposed loyalty of a pariah nation doesn’t count for much”. It is very valuable. Israel isn’t a pariah country outside of the muslim world and post modernist/marxist circles. Israel in reality isn’t that much of a pariah in the muslim world [a lot of Iraqis and private citizen Iranians are sympathetic to both Israel and Palestine]. Many countries all over the world are deeply flawed. That doesn’t mean we can’t be best friends with them.
I don’t want to get side tracked with Israel. I also believe in being best friends with Afghanistan, some former Soviet “stans”, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Jordan [Iran after the greens take over but not yet], Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea. Most of these countries are part of the Sanathana Dharma extended family. Each of these countries deserves their own article.
Being best friends with one country enhances friendship and collaboration with third party countries. That is how the world works. I want long term close friends, not transactional relationships. Leave transactional relationships to KSA and Deep State.
Let us see what PM Modi does. I am hopeful 🙂 BTW, I don’t support recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel yet. I don’t think POTUS Trump should have done it; and neither should other countries. India is doing the right thing.
Although touche, I am a judeophile!
Do you really think KSA wants to be friends with Indians or Americans or Europeans or Chinese or Russians or any nonmuslim countries? KSA exported Islamism is one of the largest threats the world confronts.
Anan, the point about pariah nations is not about conforming to other people’s taboos, but to see overtures for what they are. Israel needs all the friends they can get, hence their offer of friendship is cheap. I haven’t advocated treating them as a pariah, in fact I have visited israel/palestine. I don’t see any great civilizational connect with their nation that would inspire the sort of grand union of national souls that you might favor. The whole thing feels like a sales hustle ..”don’t miss this unique opportunity to become best friends, or you will regret it later”…there is no urgency to have a strategic partnership. Like Russia deals with Israel, we can cooperate when necessary, have tourism and social exchange, but stand apart from their geopolitical aims, which frankly seem to be aligning quite well with Islamists these days.
Russia and Israel are close allies. In 2016 Israel strongly condemned Obama as an enemy of Israel and a supporter of the enemies of Israel. Israelis and Bibi specifically mentioned Putin as a true friend of Israel, unlike America and Obama. What I advocate for Indo-Israeli ties are similar to Russian-Israeli ties . . . plus civilization/spiritual ties.
I hope to write an article about the spiritual ties between Judaism and Sanathana Dharma some time in the future . . . but as the eminently wise girmit points out . . . Jews are not as important as the anti Jewish conspiracy crazies allege . . . so you may have to wait a while.
You mentioned that Israeli foreign policy sometimes helps Islamists. I very much agree. Israeli policies deeply harm Israel, the nonmuslim world, muslim world, and India. India needs to use her close friendship with Israel to help Israelis understand and pursue Israel’s long term interests. This benefits India since India and Israel share common values and interests. India can best do this as Israel’s best and most trusted friend.
Tarek Fatah points out some stupid Israeli policies and Jewish diaspora activities in the above two videos if you choose to watch them.
By far the largest security threat that every country in the world confronts comes from violent Islamism. We need to collaborate to deal with this problem.
Can you elaborate on some of the ways you believe Israel supports Islamists (that harm Israel, India and the world)?
One of the motivations for writing the below four articles was to describe how nonmuslims (including Israel) back Islamists against good muslims and how nonmuslims need to get their act together:
http://www.brownpundits.com/?s=nonmuslims
As an aside currently the three groups most targeted for destruction by post modernists in order are:
1. Indians (especially Sanathana Dharma)
2. Jews (Israel is a subset of that)
3. good muslims (mostly by backing Islamists against good muslims)
America, Europe, Russia are also targeted by post modernists but not as much. Asia as a whole is starting to be targeted by the economic jealousy crowd . . . but economics isn’t the main emotional driver of post modernism and marxism.
TF thinks he’s an “Indian born in Pakistan”. That makes zero sense. If your parents moved from Bombay to Karachi and you were born in Karachi post 1947, you are a Pakistani. Someone who would deny his own motherland has serious issues. He also dared to compare himself to Salman Rushdie “I am one of Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children”. Rushdie is a great writer who has written more than 10 novels. Comparing yourself to Sir Salman shows a lot of hubris.
I am proud to be ethnically Kashmiri-Punjabi. I am proud that I have ancestry from the UP. But my parents were born post-Partition, making them Pakistani. I am thus Pakistani. My grandparents were British Indians, but that is as far as the connection to India goes.
Kabir, thanks for caring about and desiring to serve and help the Palestinian people. 🙂
I saw this release from the pro Palestinian organization you support:
https://uscpr.org/gender-justice/
I deeply appreciate Palestinian organizations that support woman’s rights and LBGTQ rights around the nonmuslim world, around the muslim world, around the Arab world, inside Israel and inside Palestine. This is in the tradition of Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah, Māder-e Millat Fatima Jinnah, Nanak, Kabir, many Sufi masters, Jahanara Begum Sahib, Kadija, Fatima, Aisha Hazrat, Zaynab bint Jahsh and many other great muslim woman. I pray this effort succeeds.
Why would I not care about Palestinians? They are my fellow Muslims. Their land has been stolen by Europeans who happen to be “Jewish”.
I guess some readers didn’t understand an unsaid implied elephant in the room.
The largest post modernist attack against Sanathana Dharma (Hinduism and Buddhism in particular) since WWII is blaming Hinduism and Buddhism for Nazism and the holocaust. Being best friends with Jews (more Jews than Israel) helps deflates the conflation of Hinduism/Buddhism with Nazism.
I have recently read articles from post modernist academics blaming Buddhism for what is happening to the Rohingya–and Nazism came up. This issue is far from dead and needs to addressed head on.
Note to Kabir: Burma, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, China need to do right by the Rohingya people.
Buddhists are not particularly nice people. They have their fanatics, just as every other religion on earth does. What Buddhists in Myanmar are doing to Rohingya Muslims is basically ethnic cleansing.
Aung San Suu Kyi recently had her award taken away by the US Holocaust Museum because they recognized that she is not doing anything to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya (if not actively abetting it). There is a campaign to take her Nobel Peace Prize away.
As for India, I believe the Indian government wants to expel Rohingya refugees. They are Muslim after all.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-india/india-calls-rohingya-refugees-threat-to-national-security-idUSKCN1BP24M
Side note: How was Obama an “enemy of Israel”? Because he said that the Occupation must end? And then he turned around and gave Israel a whole lot of money. It is true that on a personal level Obama thought that Bibi was fairly obnoxious. I don’t know how much that really changed US policy.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Defense-ties-with-India-booming-like-never-before-492237