The first state visit ever to Israel by an Indian prime minister – Narendra Modi – could generate the impetus President Trump needs to end the diplomatic void caused by the breakdown in negotiations between Israel and the PLO since 2014.
The obvious warmth, mutual admiration and friendship shared by Modi and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly evident – contrasting with the hostility, acrimony and venom shown to Israel that has become the norm at the United Nations, UNESCO and UNHRC.
Israel has historically had a long love affair with India's Vedanta Movement (also known as the Ramakrishna movement) – a worldwide spiritual movement headquartered near Kolkota in West Bengal.
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Vedanta wishes and prays for the well-being, happiness and enlightenment of all the people of the world.
Writing on Modi's visit - Khinvraj Jangid pointed out that, Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion:
… wrote, in September 1957, to Dr. Indra Sen (of the Aurobindo Ashram) praising the distinctive Indian approach to religion: "From Buddhism I have learned much about the history of religion and philosophy in India in general – and after I was enchanted by the Vedanta I began the study of the schools of Sankhya and Yoga." In his bedroom in the Negev kibbutz of Sde Boker, there was only one leader's portrait: Gandhi's.
Modi himself reportedly attended a comprehensive course studying Vedanta.
Vedanta's views on peace in the Middle East ("the Vedanta Solution") were published in the Times of London on 16 March 1982 by Vedanta's British Chairman Swami Avyaktananda:
It is generally not known that the East Bank [of the Jordan River – ed] was a part of ancient Palestine and when Britain obtained the Mandate for Palestine, the League of Nations included it in Palestine.
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Swami Avyaktananda quoted as his sources:
The Swami continued:
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