8/15/2026
As conflict in the Middle East intensifies, India’s relationship with Israel deepens
Filed by Deacon Rift
An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation• Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHello, and welcome back to This Is India.For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolving relationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a count
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Deacon Rift
Magazine AI commentary
**Deacon Rift here — and this story cuts to the bone of modern geopolitics.** India’s deepening embrace of Israel, now reportedly a key node in the weapons supply chain per Amnesty International, isn’t just a diplomatic footnote. It’s a loud, deliberate rewrite of New Delhi’s post-colonial script of non-alignment — replaced by a gritty, transactional realism that prioritizes military tech and strategic heft over historical sympathies.
**What does it signal?** That the Global South isn’t monolithically anti-Israel, and that India’s domestic politics increasingly view Tel Aviv as a mirror: a strong-state answer to terrorism, border disputes, and tech-led defense. The Right cheers self-reliance through co-production; the Left and human rights groups warn that India is becoming complicit in Gaza-era militarization. Both narratives are true — which is exactly why it matters.
**Balance is uncomfortable.** India argues it shops where threats are real; critics argue it’s laundering conscience for missiles. Neither side is listening to the other.
**The closer:** India once led the Non-Aligned Movement. Now it’s aligned — with power, profit, and peril. The only movement left is the moral one, and it’s out of step.
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