The News, July 15, 2006
Engaging Israel was wrong
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Israel's recent acts of aggression against the hapless Palestinians in Gaza are neither new nor unusual. It will continue to kill and destroy as it has been doing with Western support since its creation in 1948 until no Palestinians, or Arabs in its neighbourhood, are left to challenge its existence and military superiority.
From the Pakistani context, the Israeli incursion into northern Gaza on June 28 and its reoccupation of Palestinian territory was a timely reminder that our uniformed President, General Pervez Musharraf, committed an error last September when he sent his seemingly eager Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri to Istanbul to meet his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom. The unexpected meeting, hosted on Pakistan's request by Israel's only friend in the Islamic world, Turkey, was ostensibly meant to reward Israel following then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to pullout his occupation troops from Gaza. Events of recent days clearly show that it was naïve on the part of the Pakistan government to believe the Israelis or expect them to respect Palestinian rights.
Known for his openness and not one to mince words, it would be fair to ask President Musharraf to admit his mistake and do so publicly. Recently, he conceded that his popularity was falling and members of the public and commentators praised him for his frankness. It would contribute to his stature if he were to concede that he acted in haste and erred while undertaking the ill-timed initiative to befriend Israel. The move no doubt pleased the US and Israeli governments and paved the way for an invitation to President Musharraf to address the American Jewish Congress in New York on September 17, 2005, but it displeased the Palestinians and a large number of Muslims worldwide.
As pointed out by the then Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Shath, who belonged to the nationalist and secular Fatah and not to the Islamic Hamas, it wasn't proper on Pakistan's part to give gifts and reward Israel for pulling out its troops from Gaza. His plea and that of other Palestinian and Arab observers was that Pakistan should have waited until Israel vacated all Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem, and allowed the creation of an independent Palestine state.
It would be useful to revisit the issue now that Israel under its new Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister and Labour Party head Amir Peretz, is busy destroying whatever is left of the Palestinian infrastructure and inflicting collective punishment on the people of Palestine. Its reasons for raining death and destruction on Palestinians include some innocuous rocket attacks in southern Israel with a range no more than 10 kilometres and the capture of one of its soldiers, Corporal Gilad Shalit.
In fact, Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Mashal, who is based in Syria, had a point when he argued that the 19-year-old Israeli soldier was taken prisoner in a legitimate military operation that spared civilians and targeted Israel's servicemen, who are part of the occupation forces. After all, soldiers die and become prisoners in the course of duty and Israeli soldiers are no exception to this rule, more so when they routinely indulge in extra-judicial killings and use tanks, armoured personnel carriers and warplanes to fight militants possessing little more than rifles and crude home-made bombs and rockets.
Once again it is Israel which violated the rules of engagement by killing more than 60 Palestinian civilians, including women and children, in retaliation following the seizure of its soldier by fighters loyal to Hamas and other Islamic groups and destroying Gaza's only power plant, roads, bridges and drinking water supply system through some indiscriminate aerial strikes and artillery shelling.
Predictably, Israel turned its revengeful attention to Lebanon when Hezbullah guerrillas killed eight of its soldiers and abducted two others in a daring cross-border operation on July 12. This again was a military operation, which is legitimate given the fact that Israel refused to pullout its troops from the Lebanese territory known as Sheba Farms after vacating southern Lebanon six years ago to end its 22-year occupation.
Israeli forces are now pounding Lebanon from land, sea and air after having sent troops into the country in a brazen display of power and arrogance. Dangerous new fronts have been opened in the long-running conflict in the Middle East and the situation will worsen if the Palestinian groups and Hezbullah stand by their pledge not to release Israeli soldiers without a prisoner swap.
If there had been a just world order in place right now, instead of the US-dominated universe, the Palestinians and Hezbullah would have been hailed for taking three Israeli soldiers prisoner while resisting the occupation forces, and the Israelis condemned for imprisoning hundreds of civilians including eight democratically elected Hamas ministers.
In view of the intensity of the conflict and the bitter polarisation in the Middle East, no country will be willing to undertake mediation between the adversaries. Even the US openly supportive of Israel, is standing aside and refusing to intervene to save the on-again, off-again peace process in the region, from collapsing. Apparently, the American policy is to delay the inevitable and enable the Zionist state to eliminate all sources of threats to its existence. Given the volatile nature of the conflict, how come Pakistan entertained any idea of playing, in the words of our Foreign Minister Kasuri, a helpful role in moving forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?
One of his arguments in favour of his meeting with the Israeli Foreign Minister in Istanbul on September 1, 2005 was that Pakistan could not play the role if it is not on talking terms with one of the parties to the conflict, i.e. Israel. By engaging Israel, he and President Musharraf were hoping to position Pakistan to become an acceptable peacemaker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Little did they realise that the Palestinians, neither under Fatah nor Hamas, would be willing to accept such a role for Pakistan in view of its subservient position vis-a-vis the US.
Israel too would not assign Pakistan this role keeping in mind the fact that most Pakistanis oppose US and Israeli policies. Besides, weak and unstable nations such as Pakistan should set their own house in order instead of poking its nose in others' affairs and harbouring illusions of being important players in international affairs. Islamabad would do well to remember that even the European Union, Russia and important Arab countries such as Egypt have little or no role to play in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unless the US wishes to involve them as partners in its pro-Israel ploys to further subjugate the unfortunate Palestinians.
Looking back at the Istanbul meeting between the Pakistani and Israeli Foreign Ministers, it is clear that it affirmed Islamabad's acceptance of the Jewish state as a legal entity and set the roadmap for establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries once the unequal and unjust peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians made further headway.
One still has the feeling that the Pakistani rulers, either under US pressure or due to some false notions, were waiting for an opportunity to talk to the Israelis and they jumped to take their chance when the opportunity presented itself following the Israeli forces' withdrawal from Gaza. It is clear that Pakistan has gained little after taking that infamous plunge because no peacemaking role has been assigned to it by the world powers, Israelis or Palestinians. We also don't see any blunting of the anti-Pakistan sentiment in the Jewish lobby and India's growing friendship with Israel too hasn't been checked. The negative fallout of that move is perhaps much stronger with Palestinians in particular and many Arabs in general still unhappy with Pakistan. For President Musharraf, it meant giving more ammunition to his opponents for branding him a stooge of the US. There is strength in their argument that the president tried to engage Israel in the hope of appeasing America and prolonging his rule.
The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in Peshawar. Email: bbc@pes.comsats.net.pk
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