The Hindutva fascination of Israel as a strong country that responds firmly to terrorist attacks against it is one of the big drivers of the public support for Israel in its war on Gaza, Nicholas Blarel, Associate Professor of International Relations at Leiden University, the Netherlands, said in an interview with Awaaz South Asia founder-editor Nirupama Subramanian.  In this interview, Blarel, who has authored a book on the relationship between the two countries, says that while India was seen to be well aligned with the Global South in Russia's war against Ukraine, it is "at loggerheads" with the developing world in Israel's retaliation to Hamas in Gaza.

Blarel, who was interviewed for "South Asia Matters", says he is “not surprised” about how the Indian public is siding with Israel in its invasion of Gaza as “most of the support comes from pro-BJP and the Hindu nationalists, but was surprised at the the scale of the support. He said it was possible that the misinformation about the war from Indian social media accounts may be linked with Indian domestic politics the ongoing state assembly elections and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Asked if this support is orchestrated or  organic, he said that “it is a bit of both but mostly organic as the public is empathetic towards Israel, especially when it comes to Hamas and its terrorist attacks.”

Blarel said Israel has always been in support of India when it comes to terrorist attacks, "like the 26/11 attack and since both the two countries are both victims of terrorism hence, there is solidarity between them both diplomatically and publicly.”

Israel has provided India with weapons and ammunition which added to the solidarity. Blarel tells that “there is a defence relationship between them and this relationship picked up during the Kargil War where Israel decided to not discontinue its ammunition supply to India.” He said the interesting question was if Israel would be able to continue with these defence supplies if the war escalated into a regional conflict.

Blarel also talked about how China has taken a completely different position to India, with a pro-Palestine stand, and though condemning Hamas for its October 7 attack, also condemning Israel’s response.

Blarel also made the point that India's balancing act between Israel and Palestine is due to its relationship with the Gulf countries, and if these countries began taking a stronger stand against Israel, the balancing act would get more difficult.