Israel's ties with the US and Europe are deep and ancient.

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Apr 14, 2016 at 18:02

Unless someone is more interested in India than most, This OP is about a very exciting subject. Maybe it would be a bit more interesting, if we sailed aloft a bit, to see a bigger picture:

I have been mapping out the various countries of the world, seeing how they get along with one another interms of freedom of movement of people and goods, and of political bonds. Most countries are tied, if at all, to only a few neighbors. The exception is the United States and its allies, which are interconnected through various alliances and ad hoc coalitions to form what Daniel Pipes has often referred to as "The West". All of the former colonial powers are part of this group: The US, Britain and its former dominions of Canada, Australia, etc., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands & the Low Countries, Spain & Portugal, etc. Through looser ties, this de facto empire has tendrils that reach into Latin America, the Middle East and East Asia. The empire has been expanding recently, with former Soviet Bloc countries joining NATO and the EU, and with trade alliances such as NAFTA, the TPP, the TTIP, etc. It is an empire that self-assembled, crystalizing on the United States, but focussed on not religion, not ethnicity, not economic systems nor democracy, but a continually changing set of worldviews, social mores, etc. They remind me of what George Orwell called "INGSOC", which might be interpreted as "English Social Values".

Lying between outposts of the Empire in places like Oman, Diego Garcia and Singapore, and southeast of Afghanistan, in which The Empire has been engaged in a war seen as vital to its interests, lies the subcontinent of South Asia, consisting of India and a fringe of countries around its borders. Over a fifth of the world's people live there. It has acquired some English social values through some 200 years of being part of the British Empire: values such as democracy, liberalism, capitalism and, because of widespread use of the English language there, the whole panoply of values espoused in the English-speaking press and literature. At the same time, it is the seat of another, ancient culture with values quite different from INGSOC: values such as caste, belief in reincarnation and karma. It has its own languages, written in their own unique alphabets, its own native religions and even its own calendars.

To the west of India lies the Middle East, a region somewhat more intimately connected than India with The Empire though its shared history and geography; but opposed to The Empire and all other countries by a religion based on world conquest. To the north of India lies China, also with its own unique history; and with a language and writing system more unique even than anything in India. To the southwest is Sub-Saharan Africa which, along with the Middle East, has become most famous for the continual wars and brutal genocides that seem to never end. Finally, in the far north, is Russia -- which historically is deeply connected with The Empire; but which is powerful enough to operate fairly independent of it.

Israel is geographically part of the Middle East; but its political ties have been completely with the West. This is because of its deep historical connections: Judaism is ancestral to Christianity (and, to a great deree, to Islam); the proto-Hebrew script the Bible was originally written in is ancestral to and resembles the Roman, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets; and also nearly all other scripts on earth except Chinese, though the similarity is ot visually apparent. Hebrew values have been absorbed by The Empire, and Imperial values by the Jews, to the point that it is impossible to separate the two.

Most Imperial powers would like India to join them in matters of trade, but not so much in matters of migration. Israel is not dissimilar in this regard: India is an important trade partner, especially in the Defense industry; and it has absorbed some 3000 "B'nei Menashe" immigrants as presumed "Lost Tribes" Jews. By contrast, though, the bulk of its trade and about half of its population has come from The Empire.

Israel certainly has a relationship with India, and will continue to have one and perhaps deepen it; but in discussing Israel's foreign policy, the West always looms large, like the elephant in the living room.

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