Bill Drexel on Narendra Modi's Visit to Israel

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Feb 26, 2026

Bill Drexel, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who studies U.S.-India relations and technology in grand strategy, unpacks Modi's historic Knesset visit. He discusses the deepening Israel–India partnership, tech and defense complementarities, India's multi‑alignment diplomacy, domestic politics shaping ties, and regional dynamics involving China and Pakistan.

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INSIGHT

Complementarity Is Innovation Plus Scale

Israel offers high-tech innovation and trust; India brings scale for commercialization and deployment.
This creates a natural pipeline from Israeli innovation to Indian scale and global expansion.

INSIGHT

India Practices Multi Alignment Not Alliances

India's foreign policy favors multi-alignment and bilateralism, avoiding entangling multilateral commitments.
That approach lets India keep relations with rivals like Iran while deepening ties with Israel, frustrating some partners.

ANECDOTE

Hindu Nationalism Sees Parallels With Zionism

Hindu nationalist thinkers historically compared Hindu nationalism to Zionism and admire Israel's national revival.
Modi's milieu even envies Israel's revival of Hebrew and some push to revive Sanskrit echoes that admiration.

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On February 25th, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India became the first Indian head of government to address the Knesset. It was a moment that, years ago, would have been difficult to imagine. India and Israel established full diplomatic relations only in 1992. For most of the preceding decades, India had been among Israel's harshest critics—a reflexive supporter of the Palestinian cause, a country whose leaders looked on the Jewish state with suspicion or contempt.

Something has changed. And Prime Minister Modi's speech in Jerusalem made clear just how much.

Standing before the Knesset, Modi opened by describing himself as "a representative of one ancient civilization addressing another." He noted that he was born on September 17, 1950, the very day India formally recognized the state of Israel. He expressed condolences for the victims of October 7, condemned Hamas's attack as "barbaric," and declared that "no cause can justify the murder of civilians." He called Israel "a protective wall against barbarism." And in language that echoed Prime Minister Netanyahu's own, he told the assembled lawmakers: "The massacre of October 7 made it absolutely clear—either the jihadist axis of evil will break us, or we will break it. And we are breaking it—and will break it." He closed with two phrases that belong to two civilizations, and that he offered as a single statement: Am Yisrael Hai. Jai Hind. The people of Israel live, in Hebrew, and Hail India, in Hindi.

We recorded this conversation on the afternoon of February 25, as Modi was departing from the Knesset. To discuss the visit and its significance, Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver is joined by Bill Drexel, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute whose work focuses on U.S.-India relations, artificial-intelligence competition with China, and technology in American grand strategy.

This episode of the Tikvah Podcast is generously sponsored by Jessica and PJ Heyer. If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the Tikvah Podcast, we invite you to join the Tikvah Ideas Circle.