Pakistan Press On Gulf States-Israel Deal And Social Debacle In Pakistan: New Age Islam's Selection, 2 December 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Desk
2 December
2020
• The
Gulf States-Israel Deal Is The Travesty Of Mideast Peace
By Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi
• Straight Talk The Social Debacle We Face
By Hafeez Khan
• Desperate In Dubai
By Rafia Zakaria
• The Rise Of Soft Power
By Mohammad Sameer Nasir
• Chaos Vs Chaos
By Farhan Bokhari
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The Gulf States-Israel Deal Is The Travesty Of Mideast
Peace
By Syed Qamar Afzal
Rizvi
December 2,
2020
On
September 15, Israel and the Gulf states—Bahrain and the UAE officially agreed
to begin normalizing relations in a deal brokered by the US President Donald
Trump. “We have conducted quiet diplomacy and sent very public signals to help
shift the dynamics and promote the possible,” Yousef Otaiba, The Emirati Envoy
to the US wrote. Yet an Israeli annexation, he added, “will certainly and
immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and
cultural ties with the Arab world and with UAE.” "Israel for the
foreseeable future will be focused on building this relationship and pursuing
all the advantages that can come from having this new relationship with this
country, and we also break the ice for doing more normalizations and peace agreements
with other regional players as well," one White House official told
Reuters. Yet, the question does arise whether the UAE could have done more for
its "Palestinian brothers" as it negotiated the deal with
Israel and the US. It seems apparent that it just didn't matter that
much to them.
Bahrain's
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa told visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
that the Gulf state remained committed to the creation of a Palestinian state,
according to state media, in an implicit rejection of Washington's push
for Arab countries to swiftly normalise ties with Israel. Yet hubristically-, two right-wing
Scandinavian politicians nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Leading
U.S. right-wing media pundit Laura Ingraham declared it “obvious” that Trump be
given the prize, though he is unlikely to receive it. It’s not a peace deal,
it’s a normalisation of ties,” said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Jerusalem,
Irris Makler. The move is truly significant, she added, "but it
doesn’t carry the same weight as the peace deals with Egypt and Jordan, because
they were enemies with whom Israel had been at war.” The deal-a dramatic break
with the old pan-Arab consensus—seeking the discourse of normalization of
relations on a final peace settlement between Israel and the
Palestinians—reflects a sea change in the Gulf States’ stance vis-a-vis the
Palestinian issue.
Hypocritically,
Netanyahu-coalition government has approved 2,166 new homes in settlements
across the occupied West Bank, this development came less than a month after
the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations
with Israel
The UAE
made clear that one of the benefits it sees from the normalization agreement
with Israel is that it should be easier to acquire F-35s from the United
States, a view also shared by Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner.
That would give the Emiratis the latest fighter jet in the US inventory and a
significant edge over any other military in the region, with the exception of
Israel. It is also critically important that we fully understand the
agreements’ details regarding the announced freeze of efforts by Israel to
annex portions of the West Bank,” Pelosi added in a Tuesday statement,
highlighting a House-passed resolution that endorsed a two-state solution and
discouraged unilateral annexation.
Euphorically,
while Trump administration officials have suggested that Saudi Arabia would
follow in the footsteps of its Gulf neighbours in normalising relations with
Israel, Riyadh has said it will stand by the Arab peace initiative moved in
2002 via the Arab League platform that conditions relations with Israel on
establishing a Palestinian state. But allowing the Emirates flights to use the
Saudi airspace as transit passage to Israel has raised suspicion. From the US
point of view, with President Trump’s full support for the current deal, White
House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and his team crafted a grand plan for the
so-called Middle East peace venture being realized and under review by world’s
powerful quarters. The fact remains that the so called Western claim that the
deal is aimed at weaving a soft power dynamic between the Gulf States and
Israel is not true. Factually, the deal has faded the Palestinian cause of
freedom.
In an
interesting move, Jared Kushner, the brainchild of the Abraham Accords, had
canceled his interview to the MSNBC’s anchor Andrea Mitchel as she boldly and
rightly said that the Abraham Accords is not Middle East peace. "With
pomp and circumstance, the president is heralding the first Arab nations to
recognize Israel since 1994," Mitchell reported. "Both
countries have quietly dealt with Israel for years, sharing intelligence
against Iran, a common enemy." The truth is that in many ways, “The
Abraham Accords” amount to an arms deal. The U.A.E. and other states that now
engage with Israel will find themselves armed with a better class of American
weaponry. The U.S. has pledged for a very long time to maintain Israel’s qualitative
military edge, but the U.A.E., in particular, might have just arranged for
itself a similar promise.
By no
means, the current deal serves to herald an era of peace in the Mideast in that
the Palestinians as both ‘de facto and de jure party [to the Palestinian
–Israeli conflict have no say in this deal. Obviously, Arab leaders are
signalling to the Palestinians that they have an axe to grind where there is
the question of their interests, and also that they would very much like to be
partners with Israel in high-tech development and in the fight against Iran. IF
PM Netanyahu doesn’t permanently discard the annexation plan it then clearly
suggests that the Tony Blair’s doctrine to support the American project of the
Greater Middle East (GMEI) Imitative once conceived during the Iraq war 2003 is
being replicated via smart political engineering that forms the nexus between
the US-Israel-Gulf states with the engagement of the Gulf states by the Trump
administration thereby securing the long-term geopolitically imagined
political/national interests of the United States Israel’s Knesset has passed
the regulari sation bill, which
“legalises” settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land via de facto
expropriation. Israelis now working on the lines to market their crowd control
weapons and systems of homeland security to the US, based on testing in the
POT. Yet all this financial investment in the occupation – and all the twisting
of domestic laws to protect the illegal settlement project– is rotting Israel
from the inside, turning it into an apartheid state that rules over millions of
Palestinians without rights.
Hypocritically,
Netanyahu-coalition government has approved 2,166 new homes in settlements
across the occupied West Bank, this development came less than a month after
the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed agreements to normalise relations
with Israel, which in return pledged to freeze its plans to annex swathes of
the occupied West Bank. Realistically, for a durable and sustainable peace
future in the Mideast region, we the Muslims need to oppose and condemn the
current Jewish- American synergy of occupation that prevents a just resolution
and cements a system of exploitation, expropriation and annexation power as the
genuine prognosis of the deal suggests that the said deal is intrinsically an
affirmation to Israeli security by the Arabs. Make no mistake for many Muslim
states including Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia the question of recogmising
Israel remains impossible as long as the final settlement of the Palestinian
independence.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/696290/the-gulf-states-israel-deal-is-the-travesty-of-mideast-peace/
----
Straight Talk The Social Debacle We Face
By Hafeez Khan
December 2,
2020
Growing up
in Abbottabad, each year we would spend our winter holidays with my grandfather
in Lahore or Lyallpur farms depending on his location. Dr. Sardar Ali was a
family friend. His medical practice in Baghbanpura, Lahore was in proximity of
my uncle Dr. Abdul Rasheed Khan’s clinic. My cousins and I were close to Dr.
Ali’s kids and would spend time playing during our winter holidays. Those were
the days of joint families.
It was
exciting when Dr. Sardar rented a house close to our home in Abbottabad where
his family would spend their summers. It would strengthen my cricket team as
his sons were good players. It became an annual ritual. One particular summer,
Dr. Ali’s nephew Khalid (I forget his real name) joined his family. He was
older, stronger and we thought he was very wise. A sharp dresser with a Beatle
haircut, he had impressed the neighborhood girls. We were in awe.
Dr. Sardar
was fond of expensive watches. This time it was a Rolex. Very impressive and
much talked about. A few days later the Rolex went missing. Hue and cry were
raised and we all turned into Sherlock Holmes. Khalid was leading the
investigations.
Suspects
were the workers at home with the cleaner as the primary one. The search
yielded no results and the issue died down after a few days. Khalid was the
only one permitted to go to the movies unescorted. A huge privilege from our
perspective. The cinema owner was uncle Niazi which entitled the family use of
the “proprietor’s box”. A few weeks later Khalid was sitting in the box with
some friends and uncle Niazi dropped by to say hello. The light was turned on
and guess what, Khalid was wearing the stolen Rolex. That invited uncle Niazi’s
immediate wrath. Khalid got a thrashing and his friends disbursed helter
skelter.
The news
spread like wildfire. Khalid, our icon’s image crashed and a family meeting was
summoned. All his crying and begging for forgiveness fell on deaf ears. He was
packed off to Lahore and uncle Sardar’s words still ring in my ears “Our
family, the Arains of Baghbanpura never had a thief and a liar for last seven
generations! Khalid whose blood runs in your veins? You are from not amongst
us.” He was ostracized from the family and we never heard about him.
We are
fragmented into sects conflicting with each other, trying to assert ourselves.
The leadership of this exalted thought has been abandoned to an inward looking,
self-serving clergy
Those were
the values we grew up with in the sixties. Globally, successful nations build
on a platform left by their elders. We as a nation have done otherwise. Fifty
years on, lies and theft have become a way of life and unfortunately
acceptable. The apt description is through PML(N) mantra when confronted about
their corrupt practices. “Khata tha to kuch lagata bhi tha” translates “if NS
stole, he also invested a part too.”
One can
blame the rulers for many ills prevailing in our society. However, have we ever
stopped to think how we as individuals interact within the communities we
reside in? What are the values that define our conduct in our daily lives? A
society distinguishes itself through morality, legality and economic values
prevailing at a given time. Unfortunately we have gone downhill in our moral
values; the laws are redundant and pretty much unenforceable and our economy is
a free for all grab.
The worst
part is that no national dialogue has been triggered by this sharp decline in
today’s Pakistan. A snapshot of where we stand today may help us focus on
realities as they exist. Our morality emanates from the belief system prevalent
in our society. With Islam as the beacon, how does it translate into our day to
day living? After agreeing on the unity of Allah and his last Prophet Mohammad,
peace be upon Him, what else do we agree on? We are fragmented into sects
conflicting with each other, trying to assert ourselves. The leadership of this
exalted thought has been abandoned to an inward looking, self-serving clergy.
“Riasat-e-Medina”
was not an economic miracle, it was elevating those who lived in it to become
better human beings led by our beloved Prophet. While “Haqooq Allah” were
followed diligently, what set this society apart was the fair and unbiased
dispensation of “Haqooq ul Ibad”. The duty that every Muslim owes to mankind,
and to each other. The emphasis in our Holy Quran to “Haqooq ul Ibad” has been
repeated far more times than any other responsibilities imposed.
What have
we degenerated into? The kids are being raped by unrepentant butchers.
Adulteration in every kind of food is widely prevalent. Selling dead chicken as
poultry, donkey’s meat, chilies mixed with brick powder, children’s milk mixed
with expired milk powder, spurious life-saving and other drugs are some of the
examples. Profiteers and hoarders are gouging the common man. Rampant bribery
rates are going up and police continue to be a tool of suppression. Twenty-five
million kids are being denied education. The list goes on.
It would be
unrealistic to put everything on the doorsteps of the ruling regime under the
present system. There is a need to overhaul our entire system of governance.
The recent ordinance regarding rape cases brought a whiff of fresh air but
patchwork will not work. The society needs a thorough cleansing. Like my friend
Hassan Nisar says “an acid bath” has become necessary. When such rot exists
change cannot come bottom up, it has to be top down, ruthlessly executed if we
have to survive as a society. Cynics believe the train has left. I feel it may
be possible through empowered leadership.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/696286/straight-talk-the-social-debacle-we-face/
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Desperate in Dubai
By Rafia Zakaria
02 Dec 2020
A FEW
months ago, The Guardian ran the story of a 30-year-old Pakistani man named
Hassan, one of 99 Pakistanis who have been stranded in Dubai ever since the
pandemic began in a largely abandoned labour camp on the outskirts of the city.
They have no money and no way to return home. Lately, they have begun begging
for food because they are starving. At the moment, they are at the mercy of
charitable organisations that are trying to provide for this hapless population,
still living in the squalid and cramped labour camps, and without the means to
live. The construction company that employed them has largely cut ties with
them, meaning there is little if any possibility that they will be paid their
arrears.
I had read
Hassan’s story when it was first published and was alarmed at the fact that
even as late as this autumn, these stranded Pakistanis had not been able to
return to Pakistan. But returning to Pakistan is itself a complicated issue,
not only because of the pandemic but also because of the ways of the middlemen
who get young Pakistani men into the Emirates in the first place.
The despair
and darkness of that inherently exploitative process, when combined with the
continuing problems caused by the pandemic, were revealed yet again in the
responses to last week’s column that dealt with visas. One of these was from a
young man from the Upper Dir region in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A graduate
of the University of Agriculture in Peshawar, this young man tried his best to
find employment in Pakistan. Eventually, like many others in the same
situation, he gave up and decided to move to Dubai. It was then that he came
into contact with an agent who was referred to as Ali. Ali’s job is to gather
up young men from all over Pakistan and help them procure visas to Dubai with
the promise of getting them well-paying jobs. To allow him to pay the agent and
airfare to Dubai, the women of his family had to sell all of their gold.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1593559/desperate-in-dubai
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The Rise Of Soft Power
By Mohammad Sameer
Nasir
December 2,
2020
China has
long been using soft power for persuasion and influence on other nations. A
prime example of Chinese soft power could be its infrastructural investments
and trade with various African countries.
The Belt
and Road Initiative is central to Chinese interest in such politically weak but
mineral-rich countries. China has seen great potential in Africa and believes
that it is an emerging and growing market despite the high-risk environment.
The less secure economic environment additionally provides China an advantage
as it allows for negotiate deals on favorable terms: outside the ambit of
international economic institutions.
An
important component of the Chinese business philosophy is the notion of
creating relationships through mutual favors and nurturing personal
connections. Africa can also provide geostrategic benefits to China by helping
advance its agenda on the international stage. It is an open secret that it is
home to the largest single bloc in the United Nations. China has also funded
$200 million for the African Union headquarters to reinforce its interest in
the region as well as to strengthen diplomatic ties. China is continuing its
non-interference policies in the domestic matters of African nations.
The Chinese
relationship with Africa is not new. The Tazara line railroad was a Chinese
project during the 1970s in the midst of the social upheaval of the cold war.
Around then it served as a signal of China’s long-term ambitions to the US as
well as to Russia. The Tazara, however, turned out to be another victim to the
mismanagement in the African mainland. China has renewed its endeavors and sees
opportunities to reap good returns as well as geo-strategic advantages.
These
infrastructure related ventures encompass various industries; however,
development of the railroad is at the heart of it. China has also capitalized
on the incredibly lucrative and unexplored oil markets of Algeria, Nigeria and
Angola.
The Chinese
model is in stark contrast to the Western model. While the Western world
prefers highly subsidized loans and foreign aid, the Chinese have made
economically justified investments and provision of resources to execute those
projects. It is worthwhile to note that railroads like the Tazara line were
considered unfeasible during the 1960s by the World Bank and the UN.
The renewed
Chinese focus on the continent is in one way a continuation of the old vision
also. Around ten thousand Chinese companies now operate in the continent
predominantly in Zambia and Nigeria. The contribution of these investments to
Nigeria’s GDP has been around nine percent. The amount of Chinese investments
totals more than a colossal $299 billion. This has rendered China Africa’s
largest trade partner by far, posing another mighty challenge to the Western
world. The Chinese premier has pledged a further $60 billion worth of
investments in the region.
China also
expects political advantages from these mega investments. One glaring manifestation
was the joint communique of 25 African nations, endorsing the stance of China
on the political unrest in Hong Kong. The Chinese are slowly enhancing their
political influence on the back of these economic partnerships. The
socio-political strategies that China has been attempting to enforce in
Xinjiang, South China Sea, Hong Kong and Tibet are profoundly controversial.
The Western democracies exert political and economic pressures to dissuade
China from these undertakings and such attempts meet with skepticism and
contempt from Chinese authorities. They believe that in the long run enhancing
China’s area of political influence is the best safeguard for China.
China has
been utilizing ‘soft’ power so as not to reinforce coercion through military or
economic threats. The whole concept of the BRI draws inspiration from the once
legendary ‘Silk Route’, an ancient synonym for trade, wealth, and connectivity.
China is going to be an economic savior for cash starved countries around the
world, and provide necessary funding and technical assistance for development
of much-needed infrastructure to unleash desperately needed economic progress.
China’s
investments in the African continent is one such example. China is not
employing any military or economic tactics which can be deemed coercive in any
manner. One primary aim is to create goodwill among people through economic
largesse and make these partnerships a win-win game by fueling trade and
investment in the region. Africa embodies an environment struggling with weak
economies, governments, and disenfranchised citizens.
China sees
an excellent opportunity to usher in a new era of economic progress, lifting
millions out of poverty and subsequently reaping apparent economic benefits as
well as hidden long-term political benefits. This is the epitome of Soft Power.
The long-term geo-strategic benefits which can accrue to China rattle the West.
They understand that economic integration will create more economic
interdependence for countries in the BRI initiative. Western influence will not
vanish overnight but with time it can fade. The emergence of the soft power of
China will play out in the years to come. The benefits will be easier to
calculate. That cannot be said about the costs.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/752182-the-rise-of-soft-power
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Chaos vs chaos
By Farhan Bokhari
December 2,
2020
Monday’s
defiant public protest in Multan by the opposition coalition – the Pakistan
Democratic Movement (PDM) – immediately drew harsh criticism from members of
the ruling structure led by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Yet, the
opposition is not alone in refusing to lead by example as leaders of Pakistan’s
ruling class have all equally led public gatherings with an almost complete
disregard for Covid-appropriate social distancing.
As Pakistan
remains locked in the battle against Covid-19, public gatherings – irrespective
of who gets to organize them – are blatantly irresponsible. To date, there’s no
record of any such gathering organized by the government or the opposition that
has successfully forced full compliance by participants in embracing all the
key safeguards.
As Pakistan
joins the rest of the world in facing the biggest public health challenge in
recent times, public gatherings present a potential nightmare in blocking the
spread of the coronavirus. But the matter of such gatherings is just one part
of the challenge that has fuelled the proverbial mother of all chaos in recent
memory.
As the
Multan gathering drew near, the ruling PTI oversaw a crackdown against organizers
and prospective participants, with clear disregard for democratic norms. After
tens of activists were detained over the weekend, the authorities unexpectedly
took a U-turn and allowed the gathering just hours before Monday.
It seems
eventually the reality that dawned upon almost everyone across the ruling
corridors was an obvious one: that unless the ruling class embraced an
unblemished record for responsible behavior, it could not afford to tie down
the opposition.
In brief,
Pakistan has this week witnessed a substantial widening of the chaos that has
prevailed across the power corridors for months. Beyond the matter of the
gatherings lies a palpable sense of dismay all around.
More than
two years after Prime Minister Khan took charge of Islamabad along with the
ruling structure of the populous Punjab province, there is increasingly a
widespread disconnect between policies and the realities on the ground. This
disconnect has fuelled the most obvious policy chaos witnessed across Pakistan
for years.
For Prime
Minister Khan, criticism of his rule is driven mainly by the opposition whose
leaders are keenly seeking to get off the hook on graft related charges. But
that real or imaginary impetus cannot change the many shortcomings across the
power corridors of Islamabad and/or Lahore.
Punjab,
once widely known as home to Pakistan’s industrial and agricultural heartland
has overseen a consistent deterioration in the quality of both of those key
drivers of the economy. While Pakistan’s industries in some sectors such as
textiles have recently witnessed a recovery, there’s no guarantee of the
turnaround also remaining sustainable. And agriculture which stands at the very
heart of Pakistan’s economic lifeline has witnessed one of the worst breakdowns
in recent years.
With crop
after crop set to underperform, Pakistan’s food security has been badly
hampered. Pakistan clearly needs a mix of short, medium and long-term policy
changes to tackle the catastrophe.
The most
obvious disconnect, however, stems from the regime’s failure to appreciate that
early and selective signs of recovery have failed to make a difference across
the country’s average households. And there may be more misery in store for
mainstream Pakistan as the authorities in Islamabad ponder over new revenue
measures to satisfy the international monetary fund (IMF) and keep intact a $6
billion loan program.
As
Pakistan’s mainstream population suffers from the twin effects of the fallout
from the dreaded coronavirus and policy failures, the writing on the wall is
abundantly clear. The chaos emanating from the power corridors of Islamabad and
Lahore has become comparable to the chaos unleashed by the opposition.
Going
forward after Multan, Pakistan’s opposition parties – armed with more than just
a defiant streak – have promised to mount further pressure on the Khan-led
ruling structure. The next round is set to take place in Lahore with yet
another public gathering planned for December 13. And then comes the
opposition’s target of staging a protest march towards Islamabad.
For now,
PTI leaders have chosen to denounce the opposition's protests as no more than
an inconsequential side show. But faced with mounting chaos all around, Prime
Minister Khan can ill afford to make further mistakes and also consolidate his
rule.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/752183-chaos-vs-chaos
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