New Delhi: With Benjamin Netanyahu set to be Prime Minister of Israel for the fifth time, India may find it difficult to adhere to its decades-old two-state theory, something that every successive government in New Delhi has followed.
In a last-minute call to his Right-wing nationalist base, Netanyahu, who has been in power without interruption since 2009, asserted once again that he will not let a Palestinian state be created.
While the election results are yet to be officially announced in Israel, Netanyahu’s main challenge now will be to build a coalition and form a cabinet.
How the situation has changed
When Narendra Modi became the first Indian PM to visit Israel in July 2017, he had hoped India would be able to mediate some sort of peace between Israel and Palestine.
The India-Israel joint statement at the time had said: “The two prime ministers discussed the developments pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. They underlined the need for the establishment of a just and durable peace in the region. They reaffirmed their support for an early negotiated solution between the sides based on mutual recognition and security arrangements.”
Two months before, in May 2017, New Delhi had affirmed its support for the Palestinian cause when its president Mahmoud Abbas visited India. On his return visit to Palestine in February 2018, Modi repeated his hope of India being the mediator of peace.
However, the situation is no longer the same. US President Donald Trump has put his weight behind Netanyahu’s ambition to not to spare any land for the Palestinians, official sources told ThePrint.
Global News 
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