Jerusalem, July 2 :     After Jaswant Singh, it is Jyoti Basu's turn to walk the diplomatic tightrope, trying to maintain parity in relations with Israel and Palestine. For the three days he has been here, he does not seem to have any qualms about being in the land of the Zionists. But he is also trying to maintain his links with 'old friend' and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. While Basu's official engagement with the Israelis begins tomorrow, his managers are hard at work trying to fix an appointment with Arafat in Gaza. However, the veteran communist leader may not be as lucky as Singh, who maintained political propriety by kicking off his four-day official visit to West Asia with a meeting with Arafat in Ramalla. But Arafat is now in Paris, holding talks with French President Jacques Chirac, whose country took over the European Union presidency yesterday. No one is sure if he will be back in time for a meeting with Basu. 'If a meeting cannot be fixed today, it will be extremely difficult to do so in the coming days since the West Bengal chief minister is heavily committed with the Israelis,' an Indian diplomat said. Basu is not losing sleep over his possible failure to meet Arafat. He knows the times have changed and that there will not be too many accusing fingers if his visit does not include Gaza. 'Those were the days of the past when we opposed the regimes in South Africa and Israel. But now our policy has changed. Even the Indian foreign policy has changed and there are full diplomatic relations with both these countries,' Basu said. At the lobby of the King David Hotel, the 87-year old Marxist looked relaxed in his greyish-blue bandhgala. The recent setback in the Calcutta civic polls seemed to be far from his mind. He is looking forward to a visit to the Left-run Kibbutz Metzar, an hour's drive from Jerusalem, to get a first hand impression of 'how real communism works.'' Apart from businessmen, he is scheduled to meet President Ezer Weizmann, Shimon Perez, the regional development minister tipped to succeed Weizmann, and the head of the Israel-India Parliamentary Friendship Forum. After years of opposing the Zionists, what has brought Basu to the Promised Land? 'I was always fascinated by Israel,'' he said. 'After all three major religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) emerged from here.' He said Israeli ambassador Yohayada Haim, whose term ended recently, had been pressing him to visit. 'Earlier, I couldn't come because of prior engagements. But now I have finally made it.'' Basu said the hardline policy adopted by India's communists and successive governments in Delhi stemmed from the fact that for the India, Zionism amounted to racism. The shift came in 1992, when P.V. Narasimha Rao established ties with Israel. Since then the two sides have moved closer. Basu's presence here gives the final stamp of authority on the national consensus that India should have stronger ties with Israel.