320 12. normalization and after- The most se nior career diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs and the
equivalent of the permanent undersecretary in the U.S. State Department. - J. N. Dixit’s interview to The Week (February 9, 1992): 37.
- For example, during the June 1967 war, some opposition members of parlia-
ment cried that India was acting like “the fourteenth Arab state.” - Pradhan, “India’s Policy Towards the PLO,” 69.
- Shukla, “Talking Too Much,” 40.
- Pradhan, “India’s Policy Towards the PLO,” 73. See also Dasgupta, “Betrayal
of India’s Israel Policy.” - He was referring to the INC meeting in the southern city of Tirupati in
April 1992. Aiyar, “Chutzpah.” See also Rubinoff , “Normalization of India-
Israel relations.” - Aiyar, “Panchayati Raj in the Gaza Strip.” See also Aiyar, “The Moral
Dimension.” - Agwani, “Inaugural Remarks,” 3.
- Dixit, My South Block Years, 311. Interestingly, Arjun Singh subsequently
became one of the se nior Indian leaders to make an offi cial visit to Israel. - Pasha, India and OIC, 52– 53.
- Pradhan, “India’s Policy Towards the PLO,” 81.
- “Diplomatic Ties with Israel,” Statesman (New Delhi) (January 31, 1992).
- Days after the Iraqi invasion, India closed its embassy in Kuwait.
- Pasha, India and OIC, 42. Emphasis added. This is a typical Indian euphe-
mism; at home refers to Indian Muslims and abroad denotes Arabs. - Agwani, Contemporary West Asia, 253– 254.
- The absence of relations with Israel since June 1967 prevented the Soviet
Union from mediating in the Arab- Israeli confl ict. - For example, see Dasgupta, “Betrayal of India’s Israel Policy,” 767– 772.
- At Khartoum, the Arab League enunciated a policy of “no recognition, no
negotiation, and no peace” with Israel. - Conscious of the Middle Eastern predicaments, India often expressed its
willingness to mediate “should both parties so desire.” - Subsequently, domestic compulsions, especially pressures from the left, re-
sulted in India becoming less vocal regarding civilian deaths in Israel.
Hence on July 31, 2006, the Lok Sabha unanimously adopted a partisan
resolution on the Lebanese crisis. See http:// meaindia .nic .in/ pressrelease/
2006/ 07/ 31pr02 .htm. - Interestingly, the position was articulated by the communist leader Sitaram
Yechuri, who was part of the offi cial delegation to the UN General Assem-
bly. See “Concern Over Israeli Violations of Palestinian Rights,” People’s
Democracy (November 20, 2005). - In the wake of the publication of the MacDonald White Paper in 1939 that
distanced the British government from the Balfour Declaration, the yishuv
leadership evolved a policy in Mandate Palestine that could be summarized
as follows: “To fi ght the War as if there is no White Paper and to fi ght the
White Paper as if there is no War.”