Nuclear scientist, pianist, commando and finally statesman. Ehud Barak’s life seems a testament to the belief that one can be a master of anything if one puts one’s mind to it. The one thing that evaded him, however, was a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issue despite what is widely seen as a courageously generous offer to the late Yasser Arafat. Pramit Pal Chaudhuri talks to the former Israeli PM.

How does Israel view India?

We are a small but very old people. We respect the historian’s eye. I can’t find the US in the Old Testament but I can find references to India. Israel is half the size of a big Indian city. We joke we should be ruled by a mayor. We have high respect for India, not just because of strategic and defence-related issues but also commercial.

When we ask ourselves “who are the major players?”, China and India are the obvious answer. Thousands of Israelis visit India. My three daughters have too. They tell me: “If you haven’t visited Dharamsala, Ladakh, Leh, Goa or Manali, you aren’t civilised, just a narrow-minded old politician.”

What obstacle do you see in ties?

Israel is small. It is hard to convince you we can be good friends. One can live in India and ignore the rest of the world — one-sixth of humanity lives here. But in a globalised world, it is important to remain well-connected.

What are the benefits for Israel and India?

We get access to a major player. You are a country with good ties with many Muslim nations and possess a large Muslim minority.

It isn’t often known that 20 per cent of Israeli citizens are non-Jewish. India and Israel share the same dilemma of seeking to strike a balance between allowing minorities to express themselves and trying to maintain a unified social fabric.

Israel is a leader in technology, life sciences, software: there can be synergies for the two of us in areas like research and development. There is also plenty of demand in Israel that we allow Indians to come and work in hi-tech areas and tap their brainpower. Israel has a shortage of science students.

India also benefits from trade with us. Israelis are, per capita, the world’s largest consumers of Indian goods and services.

As a commando, you killed terrorists with your own hands.

When I raised terrorism with Arafat and other Palestinian leaders, they told me, “You’ve killed as well.” I’d tell them, “There is a world of difference in what I did and what terrorists do.”

Terrorists, including some backed by Arafat, deliberately tried to kill innocents in their homes, restaurants and places of worship. They never sought another target. They wanted only to terrorise, to break the will of the population. I was a soldier being sent by a government to kill a specific individual. Sometimes others were killed, but that was never the objective.