Pakistan And Israel – Recognition At Last?
By Cathryn Crawford (07/04/03)
There has been much excitement around the world over the last few days about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s willingness to discuss recognition of Israel as a nation by his country. The outcries from the Islamic fundamentalists that control public opinion has been predictably great, but Musharraf is as determined now as he ever has been.
General Musharraf is showing himself to be a much more insightful leader then most in the West gave him credit for when he deposed Nawaz Sharif on October 12, 1999. The general has the great leader’s tendency to recognize an exquisite opportunity when he sees one. He found his opportunity to befriend the U.S. in the early days after September 11, 2001, and now with the U.S.-backed roadmap for peace in the Middle East in place, he is continuing to realize that he has to play by the United States’ rules if he wants to play at all.
In his visit to Camp David on June 24, Musharraf and President Bush discussed all manner of things, including the new roadmap to peace - this time in Kashmir - a rollback in Pakistan's nuclear program, deployment of Pakistani troops in Iraq, more assistance to Afghanistan, and most importantly and most controversially, recognition for Israel.
Pakistan has never had any ties with Israel and its citizens have never been allowed to travel to Israel, and the issue of recognizing Israel has always been an emotional one in that country. Musharraf, however, is changing the tone. “The debate should be serious. There should be no emotionalism of the extremists," he said. "What is our dispute (with Israel)? We should think.”
Israel asked for Pakistan’s recognition at the time of its creation, and the question has gone ignored and unanswered all this time. Pakistan’s continued refusal of recognition over these last 55 years has caused Pakistan a serious problem. Since Pakistan has not even officially recognized Israel as a country, they have formulated no foreign policy towards Israel except to ignore them. Pakistan has been left behind while its archrival and nuclear foe India has been encouraging and fostering an alliance with Israel and has even been procuring weapons from the Jewish state over the last few years.
What is Pakistan to do? If they continue to ignore Israel and, by default, encourage the Indio-Israeli alliance that will ultimately work against them, it will be a serious mistake to their national security. It was not so long ago that there were fears of a full scale war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and relations are still on edge even now. The addition of tiny but powerful Israel to India’s alliances is a serious issue that Pakistan will have to face eventually.
The PLO, an organization that was once committed to the destruction of Israel, has now recognized it as a legitimate nation. Jordan, Syria, Egypt – all Muslim countries, all foes or former foes of Israel – have all come to realize that to play on the American-dominated world stage, recognition of Israel is a factor that is simply not an option.
The Arab world is slowly beginning to realize that Israel is a fact. Israel is there, Israel has big, powerful friends, and Israel will continue to exist. There is no more serious talk about “driving Israel into the sea”, because even the Palestinians realize that when push comes to shove, America will stand back and let Israel do what it will to defend itself.
Despite the outcry over Musharraf’s statement, he has done Pakistan a great service simply by bringing the debate out into the open. He called for the opposition to quit politics of ‘egoism and rigidity’, and what the hardliners don’t seem to understand is that Musharraf is softening towards Israel out of the sheer will to survive. The world in general and the Middle East in specific is changing, and Musharraf realized a long time ago that Pakistan is going to have to change with it in order to prosper. Pakistan simply no longer has the option of choosing not to recognize Israel.
Musharraf has been shown to be remarkably resilient. This is only one of many decisions that he had made in his nearly four years in power that have been in complete opposition to the religious hardliners in his country. His support of the U.S. – led war against the Taliban led to widespread protests and calls for his ousting, and the hardliners are threatening to do so again in protest of his softening of his stance towards Israel.
Musharraf is simply recognizing the new tone of the Middle East. Countries that have disputes with Israel are moving towards peace, and alliances are being encouraged and formed that would have been unthinkable twenty or even ten years ago. Pakistan has to make a firm decision regarding Israel in order to maintain its status as a power in that area. Musharraf may be under fire now for his decision, but it is the right one, and, for Pakistan’s sake, America and Israel can only hope the Pakistani people finally begin to realize that this is the one decision that cannot be delayed any longer.
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