8 introductionpo liti cal bloc. Though at times critical of India over Kashmir and the wel-
fare of Indian Muslims, the Or ga ni za tion of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
has not been hostile to New Delhi. India has been far too important po liti-
cally and eco nom ical ly for the Muslim world to adopt an explicitly hostile
stand, especially when India had closer ties with some of the prominent
members of the OIC. Israel, however, was less fortunate. The Arab League,
formed in 1945, emerged as the principal po liti cal forum against the Jew-
ish state, and an anti- Israeli posture soon became a cover for deeply seated
inter- Arab quarrels. First, the Arab League tried to prevent the formation
of Israel. Once this failed, the Arab League members sought to strangle the
newly formed state by invading Israel hours after its establishment. Follow-
ing the Arab- Israeli war of 1948 (or the war of in de pen dence, in Israeli
parlance), the Arab League used its powers and clout to enforce a politico-
economic embargo against Israel. These eff orts led to Israel being excluded
from various regional and international organizations, meetings, and
groups, thereby institutionalizing its international isolation. This was not
the case for India.
Fifth, India had to face serious challenges to its territorial integrity in
form of wars with Pakistan and later China. Six de cades after in de pen-
dence, it has unresolved border disputes with almost all of its neighbors,
both large and small. Yet India’s existence was never in question. At
worst, its regional adversaries have sought to limit its power and prepon-
derance. Israel, on the contrary, has been less fortunate. Its existence as a
sovereign entity has not been accepted by a vast majority of Arab and Is-
lamic countries. It took three de cades for an Arab country, Egypt, to for-
mally recognize the Jewish state. Until they were revoked following the
Oslo accords, the charter of the Palestine Liberation Or ga ni za tion (PLO)
explicitly challenged and denied the existence of the Jewish State. The
Hamas charter still does not accept Jewish sovereignty over the “Islamic
land” of Palestine. More than sixty years after its formation, Egypt, Jor-
dan, Mauritania, and Turkey are the only countries in the Middle East
that formally recognize Israel. Thus recognition and ac cep tance contin-
ues to be the major foreign- policy objective of the Jewish state.
Last, although both countries are formally committed to the principle
of secularism, Israel primarily sees and defi nes itself as a Jewish state.
Unlike India, it does not subscribe to separating religion from national-
identity formation. Provisions such as the Law of Return, preferential
treatments to exclusive Jewish institutions such as the Jewish Agency
and Jewish National Fund, and the primacy enjoyed by Judaism in state