United Press International,
UNITED NATIONS: Sometimes, similarities can breed distrust. This seems to be the case with Israel and Pakistan.
The two countries were created on the basis of religion; both have constantly been haunted by existential threats — India in the case of Pakistan, the Arab world in the case of Israel — and both depend on military strengths for their respective survivals.
Yet, Pakistan continues to refuse to recognize Israel as a state.
This should change soon, said Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations during an interview earlier this month with United Press International. “In today's world there can be no reason for excluding Israel,” he said.
Gillerman said it is binding on Islamabad to extend the hand of diplomacy toward Jerusalem. “At this significant point in history it is important for Pakistan as a major influential Muslim country in the world — moderate Muslim country — to normalize its relations with Israel.”
President Pervez Musharraf has approached this issue with far more flexibility than his predecessors. On Sept. 17, he addressed the American Jewish Congress in New York, becoming the first ever Pakistani leader to do so.
Earlier this year, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri entered into dialogue with Israel's foreign minister during a trip to Istanbul. After the talks, Kasuri said Pakistan “had decided to engage with Israel after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.”
Gillerman is optimistic about the apparent shift in Pakistan's attitude toward Jerusalem. He said recent developments in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should spur Musharraf into further action.
“Palestinians are having their elections on Jan. 25. There is not a single Israeli soldier left in Gaza,” the Israeli envoy said. “Progress is being made and so we expect that Pakistan will take additional steps towards normalization. There is no reason for them to wait.”
But Gillerman may be underestimating the anti-Israel lobby within Pakistan.
Condemning Musharraf's speech, Pakistani politician Qazi Hussain Ahmed told the BBC such gestures just weren't acceptable. “They go against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing from the very beginning,” he said. Ahmed is the leader of Muttahide Majli-e-Amal, a controversial Islamist group immensely popular in some parts of Pakistan.
The Los Angeles Times published a statement by Pakistan's Education Minister Javed Ashraf Aug. 18 referring to Jews as “the worst terrorists in the world.”
Last January The News, a leading Pakistan daily, published an interview with Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres. The next day an enraged mob invaded the newspaper office, breaking windows and furniture.
Numerous analysts concluded the mob's rage simply stemmed from the fact a Pakistani news organization had dared to provide a voice to Israel.
Eleven months after the incident, Dan Gillerman advises Islamabad not to be timid.
“After there is peace with Palestinians, after there is an independent Palestine state, the whole world will do it (embrace Israel). Pakistan should not wait — should not wait for other countries to make the first move,” said Gillerman.
Pakistan would by no means be the first Muslim country to enter into diplomatic relations with Israel. Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Senegal and Turkey already enjoy peaceful diplomatic ties with the state.
But Pakistan's case is more complex.
Hussain Huqqani, a Pakistan scholar at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the BBC diplomacy wasn't going to be easy. “Anti-Semitism is so deeply rooted in Pakistani society, it would take much more than a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries to neutralize it,” he said.
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