Join Our WhatsApp Group:
https://linktr.ee/sujitnair
In this editorial episode, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses India's foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine, particularly in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. As of the fifth day of the conflict, the death toll continues to rise, with over 1,200 casualties in Israel, including 14 American citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war in response to a large-scale and highly coordinated terror attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Reports from Israeli military and civilian authorities have confirmed a tragic event described as a ""massacre"" on a kibbutz near the Gaza border. An emergency response official witnessed children among the victims, some of whom were brutally killed in the community.
President Biden has condemned the Hamas attack as an ""act of sheer evil"" and expressed concern for American citizens who are among the civilians and Israeli soldiers held as hostages by Hamas. It's important to note that Hamas has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel's retaliatory airstrikes have resulted in the deaths of at least 950 people, including around 140 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry also reported that over 5,000 people, predominantly women and children, have been injured in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
#israel #palestine #hamas #jews #muslims #arabs #india #pakistan #middleeast #foreignpolicy #gaza #westbank #narendramodi #benjaminnetanyahu #HWNews
https://linktr.ee/sujitnair
In this editorial episode, Mr. Sujit Nair discusses India's foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine, particularly in light of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. As of the fifth day of the conflict, the death toll continues to rise, with over 1,200 casualties in Israel, including 14 American citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of war in response to a large-scale and highly coordinated terror attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Reports from Israeli military and civilian authorities have confirmed a tragic event described as a ""massacre"" on a kibbutz near the Gaza border. An emergency response official witnessed children among the victims, some of whom were brutally killed in the community.
President Biden has condemned the Hamas attack as an ""act of sheer evil"" and expressed concern for American citizens who are among the civilians and Israeli soldiers held as hostages by Hamas. It's important to note that Hamas has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel's retaliatory airstrikes have resulted in the deaths of at least 950 people, including around 140 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry also reported that over 5,000 people, predominantly women and children, have been injured in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
#israel #palestine #hamas #jews #muslims #arabs #india #pakistan #middleeast #foreignpolicy #gaza #westbank #narendramodi #benjaminnetanyahu #HWNews
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00 Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of Editorial.
00:04 The Israel-Hamas conflict continues. It's claimed close to 3,600 lives.
00:14 And this, like I told you, seems to only getting bigger. And as days pass,
00:24 more lives will be lost. And that's the unfortunate part. Now, my editorial today
00:30 is slightly different from this particular topic because like I said, a lot of my colleagues are
00:35 already doing, giving you updates and a lot of other channels are also giving you updates. So
00:40 I'm sure you have your updates on what is happening on ground. But what I'm going to
00:43 talk about today is how is India impacted with all of this? What is our stand in all of this?
00:56 And what should be our stand in all of this? This is what I'm going to talk about today. And
01:03 today, it's not going to be my opinion. It's going to be yours. So let's get right into the show.
01:10 Now, the reason I wanted to do this editorial is because a lot of us are split,
01:21 have our own opinion about what's happening in Palestine and Israel. A lot of us side
01:29 one party or another in India. Now, what I also see is this siding of one side versus another is
01:39 also very much linked to the ideology. A lot of right-wingers will side with Israel and a lot of
01:45 left-wingers or whatever, centrist or whatever, people who are not right-wingers are supporting
01:52 Palestine. It's not necessary that all right-wingers are supporting Israel, neither is it
01:56 necessary that all centrist are supporting Palestine. Wo bhi nahi hai. Wo aisa bhi kuch
01:59 nahi hai. But yeah, I mean, it's becoming very ideological based. So now, what I want to put in
02:08 front of my viewers, my audience, that is you, I want you to show this, I want you to see the
02:13 situation. I'm going to clearly put the situation, I'm going to put the historic side of the situation
02:19 and then India's perspective. I'm going to put the situation in front of you and you form your
02:24 opinion. And I would like to hear, I want to know that opinion. Please write down what your opinion
02:28 is. And let us decide purely as if you were the external affairs minister of India. Let's decide
02:36 that way. Let's understand what's happened and then let's decide that way. So let's start with
02:42 the historic perspective. Look at the screen. Look at what Palestine was in 1917 versus what
02:51 Palestine is in 2020. So Palestine has been reduced. The whole country was Palestine and
03:00 Palestine has been reduced, reduced, reduced, reduced to what it is currently. 2020 or 2023,
03:05 that is current Palestine. Look at the difference between what it was and what it is.
03:09 This is what Israel has done to Palestine. So that's the first point I want to make to you.
03:15 Now let us come to the next point. Now let us come to the next point.
03:21 The next point is India's role in all of this, which will be very interesting. Now let me tell
03:30 you, in 1947, in 1947, for people who have seen my editorial day before yesterday, if you have not,
03:37 I would urge you to see my editorial day before yesterday. I have given you the chronology as to
03:41 how Israel was made and how Palestine was made and all of that. So 1947, India voted against the
03:48 partition of Palestine plan along with the Arab countries. So India stood by the Arab countries
03:55 and stood along with the Arab countries, not by the Arab countries, stood along with the Arab
03:58 countries and went against the partition plan for Palestine. India voted against the admission of
04:04 Israel in the United Nations. India was also against getting Israel in the United Nations.
04:09 India was one of the last non-Muslim states to recognize Israel. We recognized Israel in 1950.
04:17 We were the last non-Muslim state to recognize. India was among the first to recognize Palestine
04:24 in 1988. India was the first non-Arab state to recognize Palestine Liberation Organization in
04:32 1974. India had very good relationship with Yasser Arafat and Yasser Arafat has come to India
04:41 frequently during the 1980s. So we not only accepted Palestine, we not only accepted,
04:48 recognized PLO, Yasser Arafat had a fantastic relationship with Indira Gandhi. Now this said,
04:54 this said, let me not send any wrong information. India on one hand had a very good relationship
05:01 with Israel. We never had bad relationship with Israel. Yeah, but we openly had good
05:06 relationship with Palestine, but we also maintained a fairly good relationship with Israel.
05:11 Now this is what our diplomatic stance was till almost 1980s. Now
05:22 looking at it from India's perspective, Palestine is part of the Arabic countries.
05:27 We need to understand that Arab nations never favored India in the 1962 war against China.
05:35 They remain neutral. They remain neutral. 1965 war and 1971 war that is against Pakistan,
05:43 Arab countries stood by Pakistan, not by India. 1965, 1971. On the contrary, Israel helped India
05:54 in 1962 and 1965. Covertly, not overtly, not openly, but covertly. Israel helped India both
06:04 in 1962 and in 1965. So Israel was very positively disposed to India. They were very positive to
06:14 India. Now in 1992, in 1992 mind you, was the first time when India and Tel Aviv, that is New
06:26 Delhi and Tel Aviv established a full diplomatic relationship. In 1992 is when we formally
06:33 established a relationship with Tel Aviv, with Israel. So New Delhi and Tel Aviv established
06:39 relationship where we opened our embassy in 1992 in Tel Aviv. And in 1998, Israel was one of the
06:49 selected few nations, a group that included France and Russia. So France, Russia and Israel
06:56 did not condemn us for our Pokhran nuclear test. They were the three countries who did not condemn
07:03 us. France, Russia and Israel. Israel stood by us. The entire rest of the world, including Arab
07:10 countries went against us. 1999, Israel helped us in Kargil war. Now, interestingly, very
07:19 interestingly, Kargil war, they say that we won the Kargil war, Israel s help was very important.
07:26 So that is what Israel has been doing for India right since 1961. So Israel has been backing
07:33 India. So again, let me divide this very clearly for you. As far as Israel-Palestine is concerned,
07:41 Israel came into, Israel was given part of Palestine. Palestine was, the Arab land of
07:50 Palestine was divided. Israel was given a part of it. As people persecuted, Jews came into Israel
07:57 and as people grew in Israel, Israel started expanding their territory, started taking over
08:03 Palestine territory. I showed you the map, I am showing it to you again. This is where it started
08:08 and this is where it is now. So they have started occupying Palestinian territory. So it was a very
08:15 violent territory, a very violent region. So that is the stance, that is reality.
08:21 But as far as India is concerned, more than any other Arab countries, Israel has been with India.
08:30 This is from a diplomatic point of view. That does not make something right or something wrong.
08:34 All I am trying to make you aware is this is exactly the position. Now, who is right, who is
08:42 wrong is something that you can decide. And to my mind, any violent action is wrong. And this time,
08:48 the violent action came from Hamas. Now, this is where it comes. Now, let us also look at
08:52 Modi government's interaction with Israel and Palestine.
08:57 See, in 2014, India favoured the United Nations Human Rights Resolution to probe Israel's human
09:08 rights violation in Gaza. Despite supporting the probe, India abstained from voting against Israel
09:18 in the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2015. We supported the probe against Israel,
09:26 but we never voted. So to that extent, tacitly, we were supporting Israel.
09:32 In 2017, Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel. And Prime Minister Modi did not
09:40 visit Palestine. He visited Israel, he did not visit Palestine. That point in time, in 2017,
09:46 it was seen as a policy shift. Everybody said, "No, no, no, we are shifting towards Israel. Now,
09:50 we are going closer to Israel and all of that." You see, in 2018, Modi made another trip.
09:57 Modi made another trip to Palestine. Of course, he was also being given the
10:02 highest civilian award in Palestine, but he made a trip to Palestine.
10:05 And this time, in 2018, he did not visit Israel. He only went to Palestine.
10:11 But 2018, same year, Nitin Yao, Prime Minister of Israel, visited India. So, India, again,
10:21 somewhere, we maintained that balance. That way, we were not against Palestine, we were not against
10:27 Israel. We were for Palestine, we were for Israel. Earlier on also, we were openly for Palestine,
10:33 but we were, to a large extent, also maintaining fantastic relationship with Israel. And that is
10:39 precisely why Israel has been constantly helping us. Israel has helped us whenever we needed help
10:44 the most. This is the actual situation. This is what it is happening. This is the on-ground
10:50 situation. Now, let me conclude. To conclude, I have a couple of points that I wanted to make.
10:58 First of all, I think we should keep a watch out for Pakistan. Why watch out for Pakistan? Because
11:06 see, Pakistan is in its rock bottom at the moment, economically and even image-wise. They are
11:12 irrelevant as far as the world is concerned, currently. So, with this kind, this war happening,
11:19 this conflict happening, Pakistan can elevate itself to be the leader of the Muslim world,
11:26 in a way. It's a nuclear power. Pakistan doesn't have money, but all the people who are
11:33 supporting Palestine, a lot of Arab countries, they have money. And if they supply money to
11:39 Pakistan and Pakistan also gets this image booster of being a leader of the Muslim world,
11:45 maybe, and which they think, they are self-professed leader of the Muslim world. In
11:49 fact, they think they are the most powerful Muslim nation. So, if they do that, well,
11:55 they could take some steps, excuse my language, but they could take some steps which are stupid.
12:02 And that is something that India should be wary about. They could take some steps in this conflict,
12:09 which could be stupid, which could be detrimental for their own future. That is something that we
12:15 as a nation should be wary about. Because if they involve themselves in this, they would not only
12:20 get money, which they will, they will also get some kind of, there will also be some relevance
12:24 to them in the global scenario. So, that's the first point that I am, that's the first point
12:31 that I wanted to tell you. The second point is, see, at some point in time now, India will have
12:36 to play a role in this. I am not saying India will be the country that will play a role,
12:40 but India will also have to be part of the countries that will play a role to bring about
12:45 a solution to this problem. Getting both Palestine and Israel to the table without causing
12:53 each other more harm than they have already caused, getting them to a table, having a dialogue
12:59 and negotiating peace between them. This is something that is going to be very imperative.
13:06 Because if it does not happen, like I told you before, unlike the Ukraine-Russian war,
13:12 this may take a larger dimension. Because a lot of countries will get involved, both on
13:18 Palestine side and on the Israeli side, a lot of countries will get involved. So, it is better
13:25 that as soon as possible, then some kind of a compromise is negotiated and some kind of a
13:32 discussion, some kind of a peace talk starts. That is going to be important and that is where
13:39 India could play a very vital role. Amongst a lot of other countries,
13:43 India could also play a very vital role. So, this is what I wanted to say. And
13:48 like I said, you decide. You decide who is right, who is wrong. Write down who is right,
13:55 who is wrong and I will be waiting to hear from you. Till I see you next time. Namaskar.
14:03 (Music)
14:05 (Music)
14:07 (Music)
14:09 (Music)
14:11 (Music)
14:13 (Music)
14:15 (Music)