Yonatan, who donated his sperm for the conception, explained, ‘Israel doesn’t allow same sex couples to adopt or have a surrogate mother. So we started scouting and found that only India and the U.S. offer surrogacy to same sex couples.’ He added, ‘The cost too was a consideration’ because the entire process cost nearly half of what it would have been in the U.S.

Some issues remain outstanding, not least the question of whether Evyatar can be brought up as a full- fledged Jewish child who goes on to become a citizen of Israel in his adult years.

But for Yonatan and Omar, who flew back to Israel with the baby earlier in November, the future for Evyatar is bright. They have now busied themselves looking for an appropriate school and they anticipate bringing the child back to Mumbai to celebrate his 13th birthday.

Across the other side of India, other, different types of Indians are also planning to migrate to Israel. These are Mizos from the northeast, members of the so-called Bnei Menashe community, who claim to be one of the lost tribes of Judaism. Some 200 of them are about to embark for Israel, joining 1,500 who have already emigrated, where they will be given a red carpet welcome. Another 7,000 are waiting for the Israeli authorities to clear their papers and authorise their entry.

More than 15 years after India established full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, the sheer breadth of contacts between the two countries is nothing short of staggering.

Until the mid -1980s ties between the two countries were cool to say the least. Israel was permitted to maintain a modest consulate in Mumbai, home to a small community of Indian Jews, but political contacts were discouraged.

Indira Gandhi and her predecessors identified with the Arab cause, befriended Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian leaders, and made sure India voted against Israel in key United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions.

A sea change took place after Indira’s assassination in 1984 and the election of her son, Rajiv, as the next prime minister. He was part of that generation of Indians who admired Israel from afar and was mightily taken in by the easy military victories of the Israeli Army in the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars. But more than that Rajiv saw improved relations with Israel as a necessary precondition for boosting bilateral ties with the United States.

Secret contacts and intensive discussions between Indian and Israeli envoys at the UN and elsewhere paved the way for a bilateral thaw that was given a further push under Rajiv’s successor, P.V. Narasimha Rao. The two countries established full diplomatic ties and exchanged ambassadors for the first time in 1992.

Ever since relations between Delhi and Tel Aviv have gone from strength to strength, prompting outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to comment a few years ago that India-Israel relations had reached a point of no return.

Scholars who have tried to further elevate the relationship by wrapping it around with a strategic imperative include Professor Martin Sherman who commented in the Jerusalem Post in 2003, ‘An alliance between India and Israel openly endorsed by the U.S. would create a potent stabilising force in the region and could contribute significantly toward facing down the force of radical extremism so hostile to American interests in Western and Central Asia.’

Another scholar, Efraim Inbar, Professor of Political Science at Israel's Bar Ilan University, commented as far back as 2003, ‘Generally, the two states exhibit a resemblance in strategic culture, entertaining similar notions about behaviour during armed conflict. Indians and Israelis display extremely high levels of threat perception, as they feel beleaguered in their region. Both states waged several major conventional wars against their neighbours and have faced limited armed incursions and terror.

The current source of threat to the two nations is similar -- the radical offshoots of Islam in the greater Middle East. India regards parts of the Arab world, Saudi Arabia in particular, as a hub for Islamic extremism. Moreover, this threat is felt closer to home regarding Saudi-Pakistani relations, which India views with suspicion. For Israel, the Islamic radicals in the Arab world and in the Islamic Republic of Iran constitute a constant security challenge."

Among the early beneficiaries of the bilateral thaw were former Israeli soldiers who now travel to India in their thousands. Profoundly affected by their experience of breaking into Palestinian homes and land, many used their end of military service bonus to trek to India for a lifestyle of large parties and easy access to cheap drugs, including marijuana, LSD and Ecstasy.

Favoured Indian haunts for these soldiers struggling to overcome their post traumatic stress disorders include Goa and parts of Ladakh, close to the China border, where restaurant menus are routinely printed exclusively in Hebrew. ‘Here one can feel normal again, no bombings, no corruption, none of that pressure (faced) back in  Israel…one comes here and feels normal again’, one Israeli woman soldier was quoted as saying in the political documentary ‘Flipping Out’, made by Israeli film-maker Yoav Shamir.

But India as a preferred destination for the R&R of ex- soldiers is symptomatic of a much deeper defence understanding that has developed over the past decade.  India is now Israel’s largest customer for weapons systems, including aerial reconnaissance aircraft and rockets.

Recently, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) won a US$ 1.5 billion contract to develop and upgrade the Indian Navy’s Barak missiles, prompting an Issraeli defence industry source to comment, ‘This is the largest single deal ever for an Israeli defence company and underscores the critical importance of India for our industry.’

The Barak deal highlights how India now accounts for nearly one third of Israel’s annual defence exports. But in other key areas, such as water, agriculture and high tech, India’s markets are proving to be irresistible for Israeli exporters.

Add to that India’s huge one billion plus population and the huge potential it offers for yet more emigration to Israel, whether in the form of more surrogate births or other lost tribes yearning to return to their ‘motherland’, and what has now come into being is a permanent marriage of convenience. The marriage may suffer occasional stress, but India and Israel are now like a permanently married couple, locked into each other’s arms for eternity.

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