Comment by Riaz Haq on February 27, 2026 at 5:40pm

Epstein Received Sensitive Military Intelligence Amid Gates Foundation Polio Campaign in Pakistan

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/epstein-sensitive-military-intellige...

Justice Department emails show that Epstein helped the Gates Foundation gain access to the Taliban—and received confidential reports and intelligence on Pakistani military operations.

Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice reveal surprising details about one particular episode: Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan. Epstein long maintained a close personal relationship with Gates as well as with officials from his charitable foundation, which he used to steer resources toward politically sensitive research projects and technology firms.

The email correspondence in the disclosures about Pakistan came a few years before the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in neighboring Afghanistan. They also suggest that Epstein’s interest in the region was not strictly limited to public health matters. In a series of emails on the polio vaccination campaign from the International Peace Institute (IPI)—a nongovernmental organization that Epstein funded and often used as a vehicle for backchannel diplomatic efforts—Epstein also received confidential reports and on-the-ground military intelligence, including sensitive information about NATO operations at Zhob Airport, a small domestic airport in Balochistan, only an hour’s flight away from the Afghan capital in Kabul.

Epstein leveraged his relationship with Gates and contacts in the region to become a central figure in Pakistan’s anti-polio efforts from 2013 to 2018. By personally orchestrating the partnership between the Gates Foundation and IPI, Epstein positioned himself as the gatekeeper for the Gates-Pakistan relationship for five years. During this time he also explored developing backchannel contacts with the Taliban over polio eradication.

The fallout for Gates from his connection to Epstein continues. This week, he was scheduled to be one of the headline draws at India’s high-profile AI summit—a gathering to showcase the country’s ambitions to become a global artificial intelligence powerhouse—before the Microsoft founder abruptly announced he was dropping out of the event.

At a town hall meeting Tuesday with foundation staff, Gates acknowledged having two consensual affairs that were known to Epstein, but denied any involvement in illicit activity or contact with victims of sex trafficking, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Gates said he deeply regretted his relationship with Epstein, claiming that he had been aware of an “18-month thing” that had previously restricted Epstein’s ability to travel—a reference to his conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution—but had failed to properly scrutinize Epstein’s background before associating with him.

This is the latest in Drop Site’s series on Epstein. We are partnering with Jmail, a searchable inbox of Epstein’s emails, to make all the Epstein messages public.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 27, 2026 at 8:59pm

Whatever the reason for the visit, Prime Minister Modi humiliated both himself and India. He acted and spoke like the leader of a minor state visiting a global power, desperate to curry favour.

https://thewire.in/diplomacy/prime-minister-modi-humiliated-india-d...

From the outset, the visit to Israel by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was questionable in its timing – months ahead of elections and at a moment when most world leaders are avoiding visits to the country or meetings with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, widely regarded as politically toxic to their public image. This is so even as, despite condemnations of the brutality of Israel’s war in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, many of those same leaders continue to do business with Israel as usual.

Yet the first day of the visit exceeded anything one might have imagined from a trip by the leader of one of the world’s largest and most important countries. In fact, it stands out as one of the most baffling – and embarrassing – visits by a foreign leader to Israel in recent memory.

Prime minister Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are not merely spouses but political partners, currently in the midst of an election campaign in which Modi served largely as a prop. When Modi’s plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport, he was greeted by Netanyahu – heavily made up, like a theatrical actor – and by Sara, who wore an orange-saffron suit, a color symbolising holiness in Hinduism. In a photograph Netanyahu posted on X, he can be seen pointing to his wife’s outfit; both of them also shared an image and a video of Modi warmly embracing Netanyahu.

On the morning of the visit, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement that effectively presented Modi not as an official guest of the State of Israel but rather as a private guest of the Netanyahu family. The statement said Modi had arrived at Netanyahu’s invitation, noting that the two leaders “maintain a close personal relationship, and that the deep and long-standing friendship between them powerfully radiates onto relations between the two countries.” It also announced that a “personal meeting” would take place, followed by a joint dinner hosted by the Netanyahu couple. The language fits neatly with the authoritarian trajectory Netanyahu has taken in recent years, one in which no distinction exists between him and the state. The State of Israel is him – and without him, there is nothing.

Prime minister Modi sought to address the Knesset, despite the fact that it no longer functions as a democratic institution but rather as a rubber stamp for Netanyahu. Opposition parties announced in advance that they would boycott the event after the speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana – widely regarded as Netanyahu’s puppet – violated protocol by refusing to invite the president of the Supreme Court, whom the government has been boycotting while conducting an incitement campaign against him.

To prevent the plenary hall from appearing empty, Speaker Ohana invited former members of Knesset to fill the opposition benches. Among them was Oren Hazan, who was exposed by the Israeli media as having run a casino in Bulgaria that also provided escort services, while he was using hard drugs, and who later confessed in a plea deal to assaulting a mayor after his mother’s bank account was frozen. He was joined by Pnina Rosenblum, a cosmetics businesswoman who occasionally records and releases war-themed songs drenched in heavy Auto-Tune – this time, at least, she limited herself to a selfie with Modi and did not break into song.

https://youtu.be/eZ8xhuvv7js?si=ttFg-DHn_vj508by

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 11, 2026 at 4:31pm

Indeed, India faces significant risks from global instability as it strives to become a prosperous, advanced economy. While its leaders often project confidence through "strategic autonomy," the reality of a "world in chaos" threatens India's growth trajectory, energy security, and regional stability.
The Economist
The Economist
+2
1. Economic Vulnerabilities and Trade Barriers
Energy Security: As a massive crude importer, India is acutely sensitive to oil price spikes triggered by conflicts in the Middle East, particularly those involving Iran.
Closure of the Strait of Hormuz could push oil prices to $108 per barrel, widening the current account deficit.
Reliance on discounted Russian oil became unsustainable in 2025 after the U.S. imposed punitive 50% tariffs on associated Indian products.
Trade Disruptions: Global fragmentation and "America First" policies have led to severe tariff shocks.
In 2025, U.S. tariffs of 50% put $87 billion in annual trade at risk for India.
Sectors like electronics (-12%), gems and jewelry (-15.3%), and steel (-18%) face significant export revenue declines due to these barriers.
Financial Volatility: Trade tensions and conflicts triggered negative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outflows for three consecutive months in late 2025.
The Indian Rupee hit a historic low of ₹88.78 per US dollar in 2025, raising the cost of debt-servicing and imports.
2. Geopolitical and Regional Risks
"Nervous Neighborhood": Instability in neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar creates border security issues and refugee pressures.
The "China-Russia-Iran" Nexus: If global chaos deepens Russia's dependency on China, it weakens India's long-standing defense partnership with Moscow while strengthening its primary rival, Beijing.
Remittance Threats: Conflicts in West Asia threaten the livelihoods of the Indian diaspora; the Gulf region provides a large share of India's record $135 billion in annual remittances.
The Economist
The Economist
+4
3. Market Resilience Amid Chaos
Despite these headwinds, India's domestic fundamentals remain a buffer against total derailment.
Forex Reserves: India maintains record foreign exchange reserves (over $725 billion as of early 2026), capable of covering current account deficits for an extended period.
Growth Outlook: While global growth slows, India's GDP growth for FY2025–26 is still forecasted at 6.5% by S&P Global, driven by domestic demand and services.
AKIpress News Agency

Comment by Riaz Haq on Tuesday

Social media platforms spread hate music in India despite policy violations, new report says | PBS News

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/social-media-platforms-spread-ha...

Yogi Adityanath's face fills the screen before a single lyric is sung. The Hindu monk-turned-politician, who governs India's most populous state, is pictured as dramatic music swells beneath images of cows, saffron flags and Hindu nationalist iconography. Then comes the threat.

In "Gau Mata" ("Mother Cow") posted on YouTube, singer Biru Kataria warns India's Muslims that anyone who slaughters a cow will be hunted down, burned alive and cut to pieces. The song repeatedly uses the slur "katwein," a derogatory reference to circumcision, to describe Muslims.

Adityanath is among the most recognizable faces of India's Hindu nationalist movement. He has championed aggressive cow-protection policies as cow vigilantism, where mobs attack people they accuse of slaughtering cows, considered sacred by Hindus, has been linked to the killings and lynchings of dozens of Muslims. Today, multiple versions of this track remain available on YouTube, and it has been used to create more than 40,000 Instagram reels.

In India, music engineered to dehumanize religious minorities reaches hundreds of millions of listeners, delivered by big tech companies across popular social media platforms. Known as Hindutva pop, or H-Pop, the genre is rooted in Hindu nationalist ideology, a far-right supremacist belief that India is fundamentally a Hindu nation whose culture, politics and public life should be defined by its Hindu majority. Across hundreds of songs, India's Muslims and Christians are portrayed as enemies, invaders, traitors, demographic threats and legitimate targets of violence.

A new report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington-based research organization, argues that this ecosystem of hate music is being hosted, amplified and monetized by four of the world's largest digital platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Meta.

The report, "Profiting From Hate Music," documents what researchers describe as the first comprehensive mapping of hate music across India's digital landscape. It identifies 523 songs that promote hatred, dehumanization, conspiracy theories or violence against religious minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians, in violation of platforms' content policies.

To test how and whether platforms were enforcing their rules on hateful or violent content, researchers reported a sample of 225 songs using the companies' own moderation systems. Only 18 were removed. More than 90% percent of flagged songs stayed online.

"Even after reporting the content, most of it is still up after six or seven months, and it's not only up, it's still running advertisements," said Tavishi Ahluwalia, a researcher specializing in digital harms and extremism who worked with CSOH on the report.

Nearly half of the songs analyzed by researchers contained direct threats of violence or explicit incitement against religious minorities, a large number of them (104) hosted by YouTube.


https://www.csohate.org/2026/06/15/profiting-from-hate-music/

Comment by Riaz Haq 1 hour ago

Zhuo Chen | Katrina
@SouthernM46171
The FT report reveals how deeply India and Israel are now connected. This relationship goes far beyond arms sales or personal chemistry between Modi and Netanyahu. It reaches into political leadership, military institutions and intelligence networks.

1）Modi and Netanyahu maintain frequent direct contact, creating a channel that can bypass normal diplomacy. Israeli officers also reportedly visit Indian Army headquarters regularly; even during the current conflict, more than twenty were said to have travelled there.

2）Mossad and India’s external intelligence service have cooperated for years on Islamist militant networks. The detention of eight former Indian naval officers in Qatar also raised allegations of sensitive intelligence work linked to Israel in a third country.

India calls itself the voice of the Global South and a “Vishwaguru,” yet it is closely aligned with a state condemned across much of the Global South. India can continue saying one thing and doing another, but the contradiction is now visible. Sooner or later, it will pay a diplomatic price.

https://x.com/SouthernM46171/status/2068355395845013948?s=20

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Netanyahu and Modi: the making of an unlikely alliance
As Israel’s isolation deepens, ties with New Delhi are growing — from drones to statues

https://www.ft.com/content/5829cf25-42c0-4aa4-84d7-9142ab66d6d4?syn...


When Hamas militants attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people, the first call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came not from Washington or Europe, but New Delhi.

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, used the conversation, confirmed by two people with knowledge of the exchange, to express his support for Israel. “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel,” he posted on X afterwards. “We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour.” 

Modi’s gesture epitomised the strong bond that has developed between him and Netanyahu over the past 12 years, rooted in what both men cast as their shared fight against terrorism, as well as their visions of their nations as homelands for their religious majorities.

Critics argue that the two leaders also share authoritarian traits. Both have fostered an environment, they say, in which hostility to Muslim and Christian minorities has intensified, the power of independent institutions has been eroded and the activities of foreign NGOs restricted.  

The flourishing relationship spans intelligence sharing, surveillance, billions of dollars of arms sales, joint weapons development, trade, agricultural technology and cultural ties.

Diplomats say Modi and Netanyahu speak regularly on the phone and understand each other well. Modi was the last world leader to visit Israel before Netanyahu attacked Iran with the US on February 28. After Israel bombed Tehran, Modi spoke to the Israeli leader and called for “an early restoration of peace” but did not criticise the strikes.

“In a world that was going towards universalism and post-national institutions,” says Reuven Azar, Israel’s ambassador to India, Modi and Netanyahu “were different . . . not just embracing nationalism but embracing identity”.



The closeness in ties between Netanyahu and Modi contrasts with Israel’s increasing isolation on the world stage, including among some of its closest western allies, amid outrage over its devastating offensive in Gaza, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave, and its conduct in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu is now persona non grata in many European countries due to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes. Even Donald Trump has become increasingly critical of the Israeli prime minister, whose offensive in Lebanon appeared to endanger the US president’s push for a deal with Iran.

Comment by Riaz Haq 1 hour ago

Netanyahu and Modi: the making of an unlikely alliance
As Israel’s isolation deepens, ties with New Delhi are growing — from drones to statues

https://www.ft.com/content/5829cf25-42c0-4aa4-84d7-9142ab66d6d4?syn...


The view in New Delhi is different.

“Mr Modi and his followers . . . believe that Israel is standing up to an evil force in the world, which is radical Islam and we all need to also fight radical Islam,” says Professor Sreeram Sundar Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs in Sonipat. “There’s an ideological affinity.”

Once a leading light in the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations, which resisted cold war superpower alliances, embraced the Palestinian cause and criticised Israel, India now leans much more closely towards the Jewish state.

Jonathan Spyer of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, a think-tank, says that at a time of mounting international pressure, particularly in western Europe, for Israel “to have a massive trading partner in Asia, with which it also shares a geopolitical or even maybe ideological world view, is a major asset”.

Israel’s closeness to India is also viewed in the Middle East as part of a deepening alignment between both countries and the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is doubling down on its relations with Israel and India, while Saudi Arabia has become more closely aligned with Pakistan, signing a defence pact with Islamabad last year.

A senior Indian official dismisses criticism of the ties with Netanyahu’s government as partisan, maintaining that New Delhi’s position on the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine “has not changed”.

But others in India question whether Modi’s administration is drawing too close to Israel, risking its traditional position as a moral leader in the global south and its policy of maintaining alliances with multiple partners.

India initially opposed the creation of Israel. Scarred by the August 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s diplomats voted against the division of Palestine at the UN three months later and at first opposed Israel’s admission to the world body. 

It was not until 1992 that New Delhi fully recognised Israel. Another turning point came in 1999 during the Kargil war, when India was struggling to fight off a Pakistani incursion along the de facto border between the two states in the mountainous region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Israel stepped in, providing mortars and laser-guided missiles at a time when India faced arms restrictions from western powers because of a 1998 nuclear weapons test, according to accounts that have surfaced since.

When Modi was first elected in 2014 he found in Netanyahu an ideological soulmate who, like him, believed that the correct response to militant attacks was not to negotiate but to crack down. 

In 2017, Modi made a bold political gesture by becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, where he held an emotional meeting with Moshe Holtzberg, an Israeli boy whose parents were killed when Islamist militants attacked Mumbai. Netanyahu reciprocated with a state visit to India the following year.

Azar, the Israeli ambassador, says the visits were pivotal. “The relationship became more public, more legitimate . . . there was finally an acknowledgment of the things that we have together.”

Almost a decade later, India is firmly established as a top buyer of Israeli arms and a key partner in developing and manufacturing new weapons. 

“Israel often ends up offering these technologies,” says Kabir Taneja, head of the Middle East arm of the Indian think-tank Observer Research Foundation, who adds that the equipment comes without the conditions imposed by other arms exporters. “From an Indian perspective, it’s like going to a very, very well-stocked Walmart for armaments.”

Comment by Riaz Haq 1 hour ago

Netanyahu and Modi: the making of an unlikely alliance
As Israel’s isolation deepens, ties with New Delhi are growing — from drones to statues

https://www.ft.com/content/5829cf25-42c0-4aa4-84d7-9142ab66d6d4?syn...


The Barak anti-missile system widely used by Israel’s armed forces is manufactured by several companies including Rafael and IAI of Israel and Bharat Dynamics and a subsidiary of Bharat Forge in India. Israel’s Mossad spy agency co-operates with India’s foreign intelligence service in the hunt for Islamist militants.

Gautam Adani, India’s wealthiest man, has companies working with Israel’s Elbit to develop and manufacture Hermes reconnaissance drones, and with Israel Weapons Industries to make small arms in India. Adani Ports also spent $1.2bn on a 70 per cent stake in Haifa port, Israel’s largest.

Indian companies are now starting to manufacture Israeli-designed killer drones such as the Harop, according to people with knowledge of the industry.

“We have a strong collaboration with Israel in the areas of innovation, defence, security, sustainability, start-up, innovation,” says the senior Indian government official. “Those are key areas.”

Israeli military officers are frequent visitors at India’s army headquarters, with up to two dozen going there even during the current war with Iran, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

“Defence is what truly leads this relationship with Israel,” adds Taneja at the Observer Research Foundation. “Defence is absolutely the critical driver.” 

But the collaboration goes much further. Israeli negotiators are working on a free trade deal with India, while young Israelis often head to the beaches of Goa or Indian yoga retreats after military service. Israeli scientists train their Indian counterparts on how to manage water supplies in arid areas. Tens of thousands of Indians now work and study in Israel.

There are other cultural bonds too. Hindu nationalist scholars from Modi’s power base are due to visit Israel this month to meet officials and academics to learn about Zionism, according to two people familiar with the plans. 

Both India and Israel point to the fact that the subcontinent has traditionally welcomed Jews and that they share a past as victims of conquest and colonisation.

“The Indian subcontinent, the Jewish people, they’re ancient nations,” says Azar, adding that both were “subject to millennia of invasions by foreign powers that plundered the country”.

India has also taken surprising risks on behalf of Israel. 

In August 2022, Qatar arrested eight former Indian naval officers and later sentenced them to death. Neither country gave details of the case but a person briefed on the matter told the FT at the time that the eight were engaged in spying for Israel on Qatar’s submarine programme. The officers were released after a state-owned Indian company signed a 20-year agreement to buy large volumes of Qatari liquefied natural gas.

The idea of India and Israel as nations engaged in a mortal battle with terrorism has also been reflected in popular culture. 

Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the second highest-grossing Bollywood hit of all time, released in March, offers viewers a gory nearly four-hour epic of slaughter in which an undercover Indian commando infiltrates and then destroys a Pakistani jihadi network.

The plot has parallels with a popular Israeli TV drama, Fauda, which features an undercover Israeli unit hunting down a wanted Hamas militant.

Dhurandhar has been shown in Israel and the country’s embassy in New Delhi invited diplomats this year for a discussion with the film’s lead researcher, according to one invitee. During his February visit to Israel, Modi met actors from Fauda and Israel’s consul-general in Mumbai, Yaniv Revach, is planning to bring key figures from the drama to India before the fifth series airs on Netflix India.

Comment by Riaz Haq 1 hour ago

Netanyahu and Modi: the making of an unlikely alliance
As Israel’s isolation deepens, ties with New Delhi are growing — from drones to statues

https://www.ft.com/content/5829cf25-42c0-4aa4-84d7-9142ab66d6d4?syn...


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Modi “wanted something that would connect the people of Israel to the people of India for many many years and not just one specific event”, Revach says. “So the first idea that I had is to bring the team of Fauda to India . . . We wanted to connect Fauda with Dhurandhar.”

The consul is working on another project to make Indian culture still more visible to Israelis. A bronze statue of Shivaji, a Hindu warrior king revered by nationalists for his fight against Mughal invaders, has been commissioned by Israel and will be placed later this year in a major Israeli city.

Modi’s closeness to Israel has unsettled India’s foreign policy establishment. They are alarmed by his government’s downplaying of the Palestinian cause, its lack of criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and how New Delhi has played down its relationship with regional partners such as Iran.

Nirupama Rao, formerly the top civil servant in India’s foreign ministry, says Modi’s proximity to Israel “risks creating the impression that India has diluted its long-held position” on Palestinian rights.

“I believe that perception does matter, not only in the Arab world but also in the global south,” she says.

Sonia Gandhi, the parliamentary chair of India’s main opposition Congress Party, described India’s reticence on the Gaza war as “an abdication of both humanity and morality” last year, adding that it was driven by the personal friendship between the two men rather than India’s strategic interests.

The senior government official rejected that characterisation, saying that India’s support for Palestine remained solid and that the country was continuing humanitarian assistance for Palestinians both bilaterally and through the UN.

More recently, Congress has accused Modi of “moral cowardice” for not condemning Israel’s strikes on Iran and said his visit to Jerusalem just beforehand created “the perception of a political endorsement of military escalation, which is deeply antithetical to India’s historic commitment to a rules-based international order”.

India had traditionally kept an open channel to Iran, a fellow Brics bloc member, valuing its oil supplies, its strategic location bordering Pakistan and the access it affords to Afghanistan and central Asia.

Yet when an Israeli attack killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the end of February, there was silence from New Delhi. Four days passed before the top civil servant in India’s foreign ministry signed a condolence book in the Iranian embassy. The ministry said that the condolence book was not made available earlier. 

Flanked by photos of the late Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba, the supreme leader’s emissary to India denies having a problem with India’s relations with Israel but hints they may come at a cost.

“We never said to Emirates, or to Bahrain or Qatar: ‘Why do you have relations with America?’” Abdul Majid Hakim Ilahi tells the FT. “But we said to them: ‘Please don’t let their bases on your land be used against us.’ Otherwise, we’d have to defend ourselves. And defending ourselves means that we have to attack these places.”

Modi’s current term as prime minister still has more than two years to run and his Bharatiya Janata Party enjoys a level of political dominance not seen in India since Indira Gandhi’s heyday in the late 1970s. 

Comment by Riaz Haq 1 hour ago

Netanyahu and Modi: the making of an unlikely alliance
As Israel’s isolation deepens, ties with New Delhi are growing — from drones to statues

https://www.ft.com/content/5829cf25-42c0-4aa4-84d7-9142ab66d6d4?syn...

With India fixated on Pakistan as its arch-enemy after the brief conflict between the two nuclear-armed states last year, the defence and intelligence partnership with Israel is becoming more important than ever. Analysts believe it will endure beyond the premierships of Modi and Netanyahu, whose far-right bloc is trailing rivals ahead of elections this year.

“The high-tech, defence and agricultural collaboration has taken off . . . I don’t think India will stop this,” says Rotem Geva, chair of the Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Another Indian government might be more emphatic in its criticism of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians and in calling for an end to the occupation . . . But I don’t see a dramatic shift occurring.”

For Israel, India represents a steadfast ally in an increasingly critical world. Neither India’s government nor its Muslim minority has been anything like as vocal over Israel’s offensive in Gaza — which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, and reduced most of the enclave to rubble — as their counterparts in Europe.

“Israel is probably today the most trusted partner as far as India is concerned in terms of strategic partnerships,” says Happymon Jacob, director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, a New Delhi-based think-tank.

He adds that “even the Russians . . . may be ambivalent about their support for India” given the Kremlin’s ties to China, India’s big regional rival, and also cites Trump’s increasingly strained personal relationship with Modi.

“Therefore, you are probably looking at Israel as the country that comes without any strings attached, even when it comes to intelligence sharing, when it comes to weapon systems.”

Azar, the Israeli ambassador, notes parallels in the evolution of India and Israel as independent nations from 1947 and 1948.

“We both started as states that are secular and socialist,” he says. “And we became more conservative and more capitalist” and “to a certain extent” more religious. That, he says, makes the two countries “natural partners” in a sometimes hostile world.

Comment