“We do have a defence relationship with India, which is no secret. On the other hand, what is a secret is what is the defence relationship. And with all due respect, the secret part of it will remain secret.” – Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, in a recent interview given to OutlookIndia.com.

India and Israel were born within months of each other. While the former became an independent state on August 15, 1947, the latter was born on May 14, 1948, following the decision of the United Nations to partition British Mandate Palestine.

India, which had opposed this partition, remained officially cold to the Jewish state. In May 1949, it voted (in vain) against the admission of Israel into the UN. In early 1950, after recognising the state of Israel, a visibly reluctant New Delhi allowed it to set up an “immigration office” in the port city of Mumbai. This eventually morphed into a “trade office” and then into a consulate.

But New Delhi dithered over according full diplomatic recognition to Israel until early 1992, when the two nations formally opened their respective embassies in Tel Aviv and New Delhi.

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Much has been made of a “crisis” in US-Israel relations due to Israel’s refusal to stop all settlement construction in the Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967. Washington was indignant over Israel’s latest announcement that it will build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in Arab East Jerusalem. Israeli leaders apologised for the timing of the announcement, upon the arrival of Joe Biden, the US vice-president, but not its substance.

Beyond the issue of settlements in Jerusalem, there has been no progress on resuming the Middle East peace talks, and Palestinians fear that there will be no land to negotiate about within the next few years. On Monday we take a closer look at Middle East developments with Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, Rami Khouri, the editor of the Beirut-based newspaper Daily Star, and Avi Issacharoff, a reporter for the Israeli daily Haaretz.