Hindu nationalists in India and the Israeli right share a surprising kinship. “Prime Minister Modi, we have been waiting for you for a long time, over 70 years,” Binyamin Netanyahu said in welcoming Narendra Modi to Israel while 2017. We see you as a like-minded individual.”
The two premiers, who are both up for re-election in spring 2019, have a close friendship and refer to each other as “my buddy Narendra” and “my friend Bibi” on Twitter.
Much more than personal chemistry or the Israeli military-industrial complex’s substantial role in serving Indian needs underpins the Modi-Bibi friendship. It is based on generations of Hindu nationalists’ deep reverence for Zionism and its product, Israel, whose nation-state model they aspire to replicate in India.
