Since the 1980s Israel has been one of the world’s top arms producers & exporters with an estimated $7.47 billion a year in sales. Israel shrouds these transactions in secrecy but it has for decades operated as a US proxy in armament deals to oppressive regimes like Guatemala & Colombia, & conducts freelance profiteering in countries like apartheid South Africa & Iran under the Shah. Military links between India & Israel have grown exponentially since Modi took power in May 2014. The current 41 billion rupees (US $659 million) of Israeli arms sales to India is more than Israel’s total military exports to India for the three years before Modi took power.

Arms deals don’t mean just guns & bullets. India has billions of dollars & rupees in deals with Israel for counterinsurgency training services; assault & sniper rifles with ammunition; night vision devices; laser location & targeting equipment; drones; laser-guided bombs; high-tech surveillance equipment; anti-tank guided missiles & launchers; aircraft, cruise, & sea-to-sea missiles; border monitoring equipment; artillery radars; fast attack naval craft. You name it; Israel sells it to India. And India uses most of it against Kashmiris to maintain its force of 700,000 soldiers, paramilitary forces, & counterinsurgency thugs.

Israel’s counterinsurgency training services to India go back over a decade. It has trained thousands of Indian commandos in the brutal methods used against Kashmiris & others in India because Israel was founded by death squad battalions & has perfected its brutalities on the bodies of Palestinians.

Both India & Israel are central to US geopolitical designs & the nexus between them includes the Obama regime & the Pentagon which have brokered military contracts worth billions with both countries.

Incorporating Kashmiri solidarity into Palestinian solidarity does not weaken either but strengthens both & helps expose the roles played by India, Israel, & the US in violently opposing democracy around the world.

(Photo by Dar Yasin/AP)

The tour is sponsored by the Genesis Prize Foundation, the Jewish Agency for Israel, & Hillel International. Genesis is a prize founded in 2012 by Netanyahu’s office to promote “Jewish values.” Since it comes from Netanyahu there’s some confusion about whether genocide is included as one of those values or not. Douglas got it last year but no one is sure why since he only became Jewish again a few years ago after he nearly croaked.

Sharansky heads up the Jewish Agency for Israel which is the main Israeli agency to promote “aliyah,” the immigration to & colonialism of Palestine. He’s the guy responsible for recruiting & moving in settlers to take over Palestinian lands. He’s actually Russian & a real rightwing piece of work. It may not be Israel’s best idea to send him out on the trail for PR.

The tour begins at Brown University on Jan. 28, Stanford University on Feb. 2 & the University of California at Santa Barbara on Feb. 3. People might want to bring BDS banners to the events–since certain individuals & groups in the artistic community as well as other forces are trying to legitimize colonialism.

(Photo is from flickr)

It isn’t that we want to know about all the human suffering in the world but that knowing what’s happening to our brothers & sisters means we can build bonds of understanding, respect, & solidarity.