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Netanyahu: Israel, India Both Face Threat From Radical Islam


An Indian man walks past a hoarding put up to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that features him along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate) near Bavla in Ahmada
An Indian man walks past a hoarding put up to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that features him along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate) near Bavla in Ahmada

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was discussing with India ways to strengthen security cooperation against the menace of from Islamist extremism that both democracies faced.

Netanyahu spoke while on a six-day tour of India, the first by an Israeli premier for 15 years, and is being feted by Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist party has long admired Israel for its tough posture against terrorism.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, is welcomed by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival at Palam airport in New Delhi Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, is welcomed by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival at Palam airport in New Delhi Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018.

India, wary of upsetting Arab nations on which it was dependent for oil, and heeding the sentiments of its own large Muslim minority, kept a distance from Israel for decades. But under Modi, the two sides have embraced a closer relationship based on security and economics.

The right-wing Netanyahu told a security conference that India and Israel were two democracies with a natural affinity, but their open and liberal societies faced risks.

"Our way of life is being challenged, most notably, the quest for modernity, the quest for innovation [are] being challenged by radical Islam and its terrorist offshoots from a variety of corners," he said.

Both Israel and India have long sought to counter militant Islamists — in Israel's case, mainly from Gaza and Egypt's Sinai region and, in India's case, mainly from Pakistan. Away from the public eye, India and Israel have been cooperating against the threat through, in part, intelligence sharing, officials say.

"We've discussed in this visit how we can strengthen our two nations in the civilian areas, in security areas, in every area," Netanyahu told the conference.

His trip to India comes just six months after Modi made the first trip by an Indian prime minister to Israel, during which he did not go to Ramallah, seat of the self-ruling Palestinian Authority and a customary stop for leaders visiting the region.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the King David hotel in Jerusalem, July 5, 2017.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the King David hotel in Jerusalem, July 5, 2017.

Netanyahu toured the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and will also visit Modi's home state of Gujarat and India's financial capital Mumbai.

He will join an 11-year-old Israeli boy, Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents were murdered by Pakistan-based militants in Mumbai in 2008, for a memorial event at the Indian financial hub's Jewish center where the attack took place.

The boy, who lives with his grandparents in Israel, arrived on Tuesday as a guest of Modi.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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