Israel trusts India, and the country's quick condemnation of the Hamas terror attacks has earned it a place on the table when it comes to resolving the current crisis, the Israeli ambassador to India has said.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV on Tuesday, Ambassador Naor Gilon also blamed Iran for the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 and has claimed at least 4,000 lives.
To a question on whether India can play a role in resolving the decades-long issue between Israel and Palestine, Mr Gilon said, "I don't think we are going into resolving the decades-long issue. We have to resolve the crisis we have now. I do believe that India, over the years with the relations with Israel, has acquired a lot of credibility. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is much appreciated in Israel."
The ambassador said he had seen a few recent surveys showing that, among the countries surveyed, Israelis had the most positive outlook towards India.
"We saw the incredible emotional support to Israel. I think that people, like PM Modi and India, who were fast to condemn the terror attack as a terror attack, which not everyone did in the beginning, they bought themselves the right around the table. In the sense that they understood the situation," Mr Gilon said.
"The Americans are there, India is very close also to the US these days. I don't know about the big-picture solving but India certainly is trusted by Israel and we don't have a problem seeing them involved in our issues. We trust India," he added.
The ambassador said around 1,000 Indians have been evacuated from Israel and 20,000 are still there, asserting that most of them did not want to leave Israel.
Humanitarian Aspects
When it was pointed out to him that US President Joe Biden is set to visit Israel on Wednesday and he was asked whether there could be a diplomatic solution to the crisis, Mr Gilon said he did not think so.
"I think the humanitarian aspect of the war, like releasing Israeli hostages that were kidnapped could be a solution. But when it comes to Hamas, ISIS, terror organisations, there is no solution with them. The only solution to make sure that they cannot execute horrific, barbaric attacks like they did last Saturday is to go after them and kill them. We don't see any other solution," he said.
On aid being allowed into Gaza, Mr Gilon said negotiations were on as part of the larger humanitarian aspect of the conflict. He claimed people are speaking about the humanitarian issues in Gaza but not about the 200 families from Israel whose relatives are being held hostage by Hamas.
The WHO has warned of a real catastrophe with just 24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left. When he was asked about this, Mr Gilon said people are missing the context and forgetting what happened in Israel, where 1,400 people were killed in the October 7 attack. He said water supply has been restored and claimed that Israel cares more about the Gazans than Hamas and warned them to evacuate from the north, while Hamas was stopping them and using them as human shields.
'Can Fight On Multiple Fronts'
Asked about the possibility of the war expanding and seeing the involvement of more countries, Mr Gilon trained his guns on Iran.
"I think the Arab nations, the moderate countries, know that jihadist Islamist extremism is a risk to them as much - or more - as it is a risk to us. The issue is not Arab states, it is a non-Arab state called Iran. It is very much connected to everything that happened... We know that Iran has been training, arming and financing Hamas for years. Just three days ago, the Iranian foreign minister went to Beirut and met with Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives," he said.
"Hezbollah, which is the de facto ruler and wing of Iran in Lebanon has been threatening to open another frontier in the northern border and started shooting and also killing some Israelis on our side. We prefer not to have another front, but we say very clearly that if Hezbollah, Iran decide to open another front, Israel is able to fight on multiple fronts," he claimed.
Mr Gilon said Hezbollah is not the master of its own will and has Iran behind it, and claimed that it is even closer to Iran than Hamas is. "It's Shiite and Hamas are Sunnis. (Hassan) Nasrallah, their leader, has said more than once that he is a soldier in the army of Iran," he said.
Derailing Key Initiatives
He said he hoped the attacks would not set the clock back on the normalisation of Arab-Israel ties and claimed that it was something Iran and the perpetrators of the attack on Israel would want.
"The Middle East was changed by the Abraham Accords. Now Saudi Arabia was getting close. The economic initiative I2U2, which includes India, was also part of it. Now we were talking about creating a route from India to the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia, into Israel and the Mediterranean. I think they wanted to derail all of that, that was their aim. But, from a logical point of view, these extremists like Hamas and ISIS are the enemies of Saudi Arabia," the ambassador said.
