Headlines
Modi's Israel visit amounts to abandoning Palestine: CPI-M
New Delhi, June 4
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Israel amounts to
abandoning New Delhi's long-standing support for an independent
Palestinian state, the CPI-M said on Thursday.
An editorial in
the CPI-M mouthpiece "People's Democracy" said Modi's visit would also
give an official stamp to the existing "close strategic relationship"
between the two countries.
External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj has announced that Modi will go to Israel at a mutually agreed
date. This will be the first time an Indian prime minister visits
Israel.
"The significance of such a visit would be that the
close strategic relationship existing between the two countries will be
given an official stamp," the editorial said.
Then deputy prime
minister L.K. Advani had visited Israel in 2000. India established full
diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.
The Communist Party
of India-Marxist pointed out that the current Israeli government of
Benjamin Netanyahu was "dominated by rightwing and Jewish extremist
parties.
"Modi will be visiting Israel when the Netanyahu
government is aggressively going ahead with nullifying any possibility
of a political settlement with the Palestinian leadership...
"While
formally maintaining India's long-standing position of support to the
cause of the Palestinian people, the Modi government is now openly
working to undermine this stand...
"The initiative to put
Indo-Israel ties on a new footing is in line with the overall foreign
policy direction of the Modi government which is to entangle India fully
in the geo-political strategy of the US...
"(The visit) will signal the abandonment of India's steadfast commitment to an independent Palestinian state."