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Rumors about an Israeli secret visit to Pakistan sparked a rare debate in the Muslim majority South Asian country about the pros and cons of relations with the Jewish state. These come as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a dramatic development, visited the state of the Persian Gulf, Oman. While it is true that Israeli officials met with their Pakistani counterparts in Islamabad, it would then be an extremely important geopolitical development. But even if it's a rumor, it provided us with the opportunity to publish this article that we have been keeping for almost a year.
As a nation founded on a Muslim identity, Pakistan had to be deeply attached to the Islamic causes of the whole world. Pakistanis, in particular, have shown a strong emotional attachment to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. As a result, and like many of their Arab and Muslim brethren, Pakistanis regard Israel as their enemy. Geopolitics, however, is anything but an emotional exercise; it is rather the art of skillfully pursuing the national interest.
Over the last seven decades, Pakistan has supported the Palestinians without Islamabad actually doing much for their busy brothers. Many things have happened over the decades, however, Pakistan's policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue remains frozen in time. Many Arab and Muslim states have adopted a pragmatic attitude towards this issue. Islamabad, however, did not realize that he was not only lagging behind the realities on the ground in the Middle East, but he did not care about the emerging realities in his own South Asian milieu either.
The Muslim-majority South Asian nation does not really calculate in Israel's strategic calculation. There are far too many threats in its immediate strategic environment for Israel to worry about Pakistan. The same is true for Pakistan, which has far too many problems to deal with in its immediate vicinity that does not allow it to worry too much about what is happening on the Israeli-Palestinian front.
The conspiracy theory that Pakistanis believe that the "Zionist-Hindu-Crusader" plot is aimed at undermining their country is for many. However, there is no indication that Israel has ever acted against Pakistan. Before saying that Bokhari and Libel are ignorant of relations between Israel and India, we would like to emphasize that this does not matter. India might be able to take advantage of its relations with Israel against Pakistan, but Israel's motivation to forge ties with the Indians is very different. At a time when Israel is facing growing international opposition from around the world for its occupation of the Palestinian Territories, it needs all possible allies and close relations with the world's most populous nation are goals that the world has. Jewish state will continue logically.
Israel's efforts to establish close relations with India have very little (if any) relationship with Pakistan and the six-day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six-day trip to India earlier this year. January must be placed in this context. The Muslim-majority South Asian nation does not really calculate in Israel's strategic calculation. There are far too many threats in its immediate strategic environment for Israel to worry about Pakistan. The same is true for Pakistan, which has far too many problems to deal with in its immediate vicinity, which does not allow it to worry too much about what is happening on the Israeli-Palestinian front.
But the most important thing is that Israel is not the one who fled Pakistan. It is the reverse. In recent decades, it might have made sense that Islamabad ignores the state of Israel – in symbolic solidarity with the Palestinian people. But it is high time for Pakistan to reconsider its position and realize its benefits for the Palestinians and, more importantly, what Islamabad is doing for its own national interests. Let us first examine the first.
The non-recognition of Israel by Pakistan has not helped the Palestinians. This is particularly the case when the Muslim powers (who happen to be close allies of Pakistan), who are much more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have formal diplomatic relations with Israel or are in the process of doing so because it is in their country. interest. Turkey, which is the most powerful country in the Middle East, has had diplomatic relations with Israel for almost as long as Pakistan was a sovereign state. The largest Arab state, Egypt, has normalized relations with Israel since the 1978 peace treaty.
Similarly, in 1994, Jordan formalized its longstanding relationship with Israel. In Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's closest ally for the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, an otherwise ultra-conservative religious regime, is also moving openly toward a relationship with the Jewish state. The common denominator to all these relationships is that they were forged on the basis of their respective national interests and not a vague notion of pan-Arab or Pan-Muslim solidarity. This does not mean that these countries have thrown the Palestinians under the bus.
In fact, their position vis-à-vis Israel stems from the realization that if they manage to make a difference to their brothers who have long suffered under the occupation, they will not boycotted. By having relations with Israel, they have a seat at the table and can do much more for the Palestinians. What they have really been able to do is another story and still a function of their national interests. Far from the Palestinian conflict zone, it is even less logical for Pakistan to maintain a clearly outdated and useless policy.
On the contrary, Pakistan has a lot to lose from having no links with Israel. Netanyahu's visit to India speaks volumes. Whereas Pakistan's national security doctrine is heavily focused on India, Islamabad can not afford to New Delhi monopolize the relationship with Jerusalem. In fairness, under the Musharraf regime, Pakistanis turned to the Israelis when the then foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, met with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, in Ankara – a meeting hosted by the government Turkish. This diplomatic meeting gave no result as the Pakistanis did not want to be out of step with the "Arab-Muslim consensus".
Ten years later, the situation has changed not only in the Middle East but also in Pakistan in South Asia. Relations with the United States have deteriorated significantly, and India is feverishly trying to take advantage of these benefits. Pakistan is therefore obliged to diversify its foreign policy portfolio. The logic is for Pakistan to reconsider its attitude towards Israel.
We recognize that this review will be extremely difficult for Islamabad given the rise of the religious right in the country, particularly its violence. But this is not an impossible task. The country's political and military stakeholders will have to argue that it is in the interest of going beyond an irrational policy that has not benefited Pakistanis or their Palestinian brothers. Normal diplomatic relations take a long time to develop and both parties may not be able to do this for a very long time.
However, the process itself can be beneficial for Pakistan. Much can be done to counter the negative international perception (especially in Washington) that Southeast Asian policies are based on extremist Islamist ideas. A channel of communication with Pakistan means that Israel will not expand its relations with India without taking Pakistan's concerns into account. For Israel, a kind of relationship with a great Muslim nation is of immense value. By being at the table with Israel, Pakistan will also be able to influence Israeli policy towards Palestinians – Something Islamabad has never been able to do because of its rejectionist attitude. Millions of Pakistanis who want to go on a pilgrimage to Masjid al-Aqsa and who have never been able to escape the purchase could do so if Pakistan had some sort of working relationship with Israel.
We realize that we are proposing a radical policy change – to which Pakistanis may not be prepared – at least not for a while. What is clear, however, is that Islamabad's historic position has neither helped Pakistan's national interests nor improved the situation of the Palestinians. If Saudi Arabia changed its position because of its own national security concerns, what is stopping Pakistan from doing the same? Fortune favors the brave!
Kamran Bokhari is a Washington-based specialist in national security policy and foreign policy, the Institute of Professional Development at the University of Ottawa, and tweeted at @KamranBokhari. Dr. Tamir Libel is an Israeli researcher based in Germany and a specialist in security studies. He was until recently a university researcher at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI).
Posted in Daily Times, October 30th 2018.
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