India, Nov. 11 -- JN Dixit, India's former National Security Adviser and one of the country's most seasoned diplomats, once wrote that the establishment of relations "with South Africa and then with Israel" was the most significant achievement of his tenure at the Ministry of External Affairs. Few comments capture so neatly the quiet shift in India's moral compass during the early 1990s. What had once been a foreign policy anchored in solidarity with the Palestinian cause and the Non-Aligned Movement was now tilting towards the emerging strategic triangle of Washington, Tel Aviv, and New Delhi. Three decades later, that tilt has hardened into one of Asia's most consequential alliances.

The historical roots of the India-Israel connection ...