Selective memories

As far as Surjeet is concerned, it’s true that he personally has never met the Israeli leader he has so eloquently accused of the massacres of thousands of Palestinians. Nevertheless, Surjeet’s close friend and dear colleague Jyoti Basu, as chief minister of West Bengal paid an official visit to Israel in the summer of 2000. It was a path-breaking trip and it went off without a hitch. Perhaps Comrade Basu, who had just a few years before described his party’s refusal to allow him to become Prime Minister of India as a ‘‘historic blunder,’’ was only going (in this case, to Israel) where none other in the Indian Left had gone before.

Monumental miss

Strongman Sharon shrugged away the opportunity to check out the Taj Mahal— but we may never know whether his security’s responsible or because he’s simply fed up with the perils of filial devotion.

Back home, two of Sharon’s sons are embroiled in financial scandals and the Opposition is already pointing dark fingers at Papa…To now go against his security detail and moon over the world’s most famous monument to love in the bright light of the afternoon sun would have been a bit much. Divine intervention came in the form of a Supreme Court ruling, which a few years ago banned disallowing petrol and diesel engines within 700 m of the Taj, with the result that all visitors have either to walk—as Bill Clinton did in March 2000—or clamber aboard battery-driven vehicles. When Israeli security protested the buses weren’t safe enough, MEA demurred. It was certainly not taking the responsibility for some over-eager PIL bringing the government to account.

Still, the Foreign Office is taking other pains to look after their visitor. The PM’s banquet on Tuesday evening at Hyderabad House has been carefully chosen—much like many Indians who need religious sanctions for their food, conservative Jews will only eat ‘‘kosher’’ meats that have been purified by rabbis—so as to preclude any misunderstandings.

So there will be no Chicken Tikka Ludhiana or Gosht Jalandhari to dig into, only fish for the main course and vegetables on the side. Fresh fruit, Indian sweets and coffee will follow.

Thanks but no thanks

What with the past running so often into the present, some juggling acts nations have to perform simply don’t add up. And so there was India refusing to accept the creation of a brand new state of Israel in 1948 at the UN, believing that the consequent, forced exodus of Palestinians from their homelands was simply not fair.

Nevertheless, some years later in 1952, Jawaharlal Nehru allowed Tel Aviv to open a consulate in Bombay—overriding strong protests by the Palestinians that this was merely a backdoor recognition of the Jewish state. The consulate continued to function for the last 50-odd years and New Delhi paid a high diplomatic price with its Arab allies—until, for some strange reason, it was shut down some months ago.

Israel argued that for budgetary reasons it was closing down 16 missions worldwide, including one in Sydney, which has a large Jewish population. Fact remains, Tel Aviv did nothing of the sort in all of Europe.

So what can one make of Israel’s diplomatic blunder? Okay, so there are a mere 6000 Jews left in Mumbai (the rest have migrated to Israel), but the coastal town remains the hub of the diamond business, which continues to have strong trade links with Israel. In fact, nearly 80 per cent of the world’s diamond cutting and polishing takes place between Surat, Antwerp and Tel Aviv.

At a time when India’s going out of its way to invite Sharon to India, ignoring all the domestic references to genocide and Narendra Modi, shutting down a mission is hardly a nice way of saying thank you.