Pakistan Has Been in Two Minds About Recognising Israel More So After Arab-Israeli Detente
By
Khaled Ahmed
August 22,
2020
The common
man in Pakistan is jolted by the “peace deal” between Israel and the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) that will “lead to a full normalisation of diplomatic
relations” between the two. Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty
to areas of the West Bank that it was prepared to annex, but that doesn’t
console the conspiracy-soaked mind of the common man in Pakistan. Most of the
more “pragmatic” Arab neighbours of Israel have behaved differently towards
Israel and they didn’t care that Pakistan continued to be so completely
anti-Israel.
Most of the more “pragmatic” Arab neighbours of Israel have behaved
differently towards Israel and they didn’t care that Pakistan continued to be
so completely anti-Israel. (File)
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Most
Pakistanis also don’t know the facts behind the current political map of the
Middle East and ignore the details of how the Arab states are threatened more
by their fellow-Arab states than Israel. After the sectarian wars in the Gulf
and Iraq-Syria neighbourhood, this should have dawned on Pakistan but it
didn’t. Pakistan is greatly perturbed by the introverted policies followed by
Saudi Arabia and its neighbours with regard to India and simply can’t
comprehend the inaction of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over
Kashmir. They can’t grasp the Arab inwardness that ignores Kashmir, which they
often equate with the Palestinians living under “Israeli tyranny”.
Saudi
Arabia and the UAE feel threatened less by Israel than by Iran, which seems to
be encircling them by backing and financing the sectarian wars in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and Yemen. There is nothing that Pakistan — headed by Prime Minister
Imran Khan who tries naively to pose as the peacemaker between Iran and Saudi
Arabia — can do about it. Saudi Arabia and the UAE together with
“aid-recipient” Egypt are fighting an “unequal” war against Turkey in Libya.
Rulers in
the Gulf are more scared today of fellow-Arab states like Qatar than of Israel.
They are no longer consoled by the presence of the United States in the Gulf
region as a guarantor of their peace. Headquartered in Qatar, America’s Central
Command looks the other way as Qatar joins Turkey to support and fund the
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which had ruined the Arab Spring (2010-2012) by
coming to power through elections and subsequently threatening the “kingdoms”.
The new
American interest in its “global retreat”, where Pax Americana can be given
over to someone else, is being felt in the Gulf region too. But before leaving,
President Donald Trump wants to leave behind an order that continues to favour
US global interests. In January, Trump announced a “peace plan” that would allow
Israel to control a “unified” Jerusalem as its capital and “not require it to
uproot any of the settlements in the West Bank that have provoked Palestinian
outrage and alienated much of the world”.
The “two
nations” required by the United Nations to live in separate states will live
together in “unified” Jerusalem; and security will be solely the responsibility
of Israel, which means Palestinians will not have an army of their own. Israel
will “regularise” the illegal settlements — one-third of West Bank — built on
land belonging to the Palestinian people. And Trump promised to provide $50
billion in international investment to build the new Palestinian entity and
open an embassy in its new state.
This should
have outraged the Islamic World but it did not. The UAE, Oman and Bahrain were
present when Trump announced the “peace plan”, standing together with Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu who was not even elected but acted merely as a
caretaker PM. The plan was to be “negotiated” in four years but has been hastened
by the prospect of Trump’s defeat in the coming polls in November. The plan was
to allow Israel to immediately annex territories supposed to belong to the
State of Palestine under the “two-states” status quo recognised by the UN.
Eight months later, that annexation was postponed.
Pakistan
has been in two minds about recognising Israel, especially after India revived
its almost dead relationship in 1992 and proceeded to trade with it in the
high-tech sector without creating any negative reaction among Pakistan’s Arab
friends. Under President Pervez Musharraf, recognition of Israel was seriously
considered as the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv issued “some 30,000 visas for
Israeli travellers”. Pakistan’s foreign minister was “facilitated” by Turkey to
discuss the possibilities of a Pak-Israel normalisation of relations with an
Israeli envoy, but the move came to nought because of Pakistan’s textbook
brainwash against Israel.
Then Turkey
slid under the control of the Islamists under Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, who
now threatens the UAE for having opened up to Israel, not knowing that one
reason behind the recognition was the threat he posed to the UAE. Erdogan
doesn’t care how he would look threatening the Arabs while Turkey continues to
recognise Israel. He may be realising that his revival of the Ottoman Empire
that controlled Western Asia and Northern Africa between the 14th and early
20th centuries threatens the Arabs once again.
Original
Headline: Pakistan needs to grasp that pragmatism, strategic realities lie
behind Arab-Israeli detente
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/pakistan-been-two-minds-recognising/d/122691