India voted in favour of the United Nations resolution to dump the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Modi forgot the hugs and vows of friendship. Now, after Palestine returned the favour, India has “strongly” registered a protest with the Palestinian representative in New Delhi and the authorities in Ramallah.

Indians are all too familiar with the face of global terrorist and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed – his trademark woollen cap and his straggly beard, his open threats and his boasts of waging a war with India. But before the LeT and Pakistani terrorist were there, there was the Palestinian, who India glorified as ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom-fighter’. Yasser Arafat could get away with anything.

But times have changed and for once Indians thought New Delhi was on the right course when Modi chose to reach out to Israel, and hug Netanyahu. His visit to Israel earlier this summer was one of the highlights of 2017. Israel went out of its way to “hug” Modi and India.

On December 29 all that went into the Dead Sea. Palestinian envoy Walid Abu Ali attended a rally organised by the Difa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan council), a coalition of Islamist groups, in Rawalpindi on Friday. He addressed the rally and so did Saeed. “We have seen reports in this regard. We are taking up the matter strongly with the Palestinian ambassador in New Delhi and with the Palestinian authorities,” MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said.

By late evening on Friday, social media was flooded with pictures of the Palestine envoy sharing the dais with Hafiz Saeed. India must have voted against Israel and the US in the UN but the majority of Indians did not.

The Israel government sent a strong protest to New Delhi on the UN vote. India’s continued policy of standing with Palestine has boomeranged. India will have to take an either/or stand or perish in the deep.

This was not the first time that Walid Abu Ali was at an event related to Palestine organised by Hafiz Saeed. On December 14, one week before the vote on Jerusalem.at the UN, Walid Abu Ali took part in and spoke at a conference on Jerusalem organised by the DPC. News reports from 2014 show that Abu Ali had also addressed by phone a rally chaired by the JuD chief on Palestine and had praised Saeed’s effort in highlighting the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian ambassador to India AMJ Abualhayjaa had said Modi would visit Palestine in 2017. But when Modi went to Israel, he skipped Palestine. Instead, India invited Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to Delhi before Modi went to Israel.

Israel’s Friday protest comes two weeks ahead of PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s reciprocal visit to India. The Israeli PM will be accompanied on his visit by Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were cruelly murdered by Pakistani terrorists nine years ago in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Moshe, who was saved by his Indian nanny Sandra, had expressed his desire to visit India to Modi when the Indian PM visited Israel. Modi had responded by hugging Moshe and saying India “is open to” Holtzberg and Netanyahu said the boy would accompany him to India.

Netanyahu would be the second Israeli prime minister to visit India. His five-day trip starts on January 14. It will be interesting to see how warm will be Modi’s hugs in New Delhi after the warm ones of the ‘Summer of 2017’ in Tel Aviv and the “backstab” in the UN. Modi should know that all the Israelis cannot be fooled all the time. (IPA Service)