NEW DELHI: Israel will hold a general election for the fifth time in four years on Tuesday with former Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu and incumbent leader Yair Lapid as the frontrunners.
“Irrespective of who comes to power, Israel’s relations with India will continue to remain strong. India and Israel have strong trade and diplomatic ties. They are also partners in two trade groupings – a trilateral with UAE and in the I2U2,’’ said an expert on Israel.
As per statistics, India-Israel bilateral merchandise trade grew from $200 million in 1992 to $7.86 billion during the financial year 2021-2022, with the balance of trade being in India’s favor. While 6.7 million Israeli citizens will cast their votes tomorrow, more than 4,500 diplomats and their families working
across 100 Israeli missions across the globe cast their postal ballots on October 20th.
“We in India are amongst the first embassies to cast our vote. Israel is a strong and vibrant democracy,’’ said Naor Gilon, Israel’s Ambassador to India when he cast his postal vote earlier this month. His wife and daughter too cast their votes. There are three Israeli missions in India – Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu (who was the longest service head of state in Israel) is hoping to become the Prime Minister again. It was during his term as PM that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in 2017 which led to a diplomatic thaw in the relationship of the two nations.
The official visit of Israel’s PM to India has been on the cards for a while now. Experts say, after the results are out and the new PM is appointed, one of the first visits would be one to India. Former PM Naftali Bennett had plans to visit India too, but got caught in a political crisis. The last four elections (April 2019, September 2019, 2020, and 2021) in Israel ended in an indecisive mandate as alliances fell short of the majority mark in the Knesset. Lapid, who announced an early election following defections from his coalition, will remain in office in the event of deadlock.