Pakistan Should Recognize Israel

On his recent visit to the US, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan ignited a contentious debate back home by suggesting that Pakistan should reevaluate its policy towards Israel and consider recognizing the Jewish state. For the increasingly strident and vocal Pakistani religious parties it was further proof that Musharraf is an American stooge. For moderate and pragmatist Pakistanis it is an idea whose time has come. And none too soon.

Both Pakistan and Israel were created on religious grounds; Pakistan in 1947 a homeland for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent and Israel in 1948 a homeland for Jews. At the time of the creation of Israel, Sir Zafarullah Khan, Pakistan’s foreign minister tried to persuade Arab countries to accept the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. Pakistan itself was inclined to recognize Israel in 1949 as was reported by Abba Eban, the Israeli envoy to the UN, after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Ahmad Shah Bukhari. While the long and tedious process of recognition was taking the course, the assassination of Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951 scuttled the plan.

The contacts continued however and there are records of Pakistani foreign minister Firoz Khan Noon meeting Israel’s ambassador at large and legal advisor Shabtai Rosenne in the early fifties.

Though there were no official contacts between the two governments, informal clandestine contacts have been going on between them. It is said that during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Israeli secret service Mossad trained Afghan Mujahideen with the knowledge and approval of Pakistani officials.

In the fifties and sixties as Pakistan moved more towards the Arab point of view in its foreign policy the idea of recognizing Israel became more distant. The Arab countries however, with the sole exception of Saudi Arabia, did not reciprocate by supporting Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir. In fact most Arabs are woefully ignorant of the dynamics of Pakistan’s ongoing conflict with India.

Why did then Pakistan continue to support Arab causes at the expense of its own national interests?

The answer lies in the psyche of Pakistani people. A majority of Pakistanis consider themselves an integral part of Ummah or the global Muslim community that is supposed to transcend all ethnic, linguistic and political barriers. Whereas most Arab and Muslim countries have moved away from that utopian concept of a unified Muslim world, many Pakistanis still cling to that notion. The concept of Ummah dictates that if any Muslim community/country is threatened all others must come to its help. We saw that concept during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan where hundreds and thousands of young Muslim men from all parts of the world went to Afghanistan to wage jihad against the Soviets. The orthodox Islamists the world over still subscribe to that creed. To them Muslim unity is the only solution to prevent foreign domination in their affairs.

In Pakistan people are equally divided on the issue of recognizing Israel. The religious parties, who now govern two of the four Pakistani provinces, are vehemently against any such proposal. One of its leaders the uncompromising Qazi Hussain Ahmad of the Jamaat Islami (a college contemporary of mine) says such a decision has to be made by every Muslim in the world. He cautions that if Musharraf takes the step, it would be the last nail in Musharraf’s (political) coffin. Musharraf on the other hand says that Pakistanis need not be ‘more Palestinian than the Palestinians or more catholic than the Pope’. It is indeed ironic that while most of the Arab world has already recognized Israel, non-Arab Pakistan is still acting more Arab than the Arabs themselves.

Both Pakistan and Israel stand to benefit from their mutual recognition. Pakistan would gain Israel’s neutrality on its feud with India on Kashmir and Israel has said that publicly. It would also open alternate educational opportunities for Pakistanis, opportunities that have become scarce in the post 9/11 America. Pakistan could learn from Israel’s advances in science and technology. And then there is the global arms emporium in which Israel features rather prominently. Pakistan recognition would also pave the way for other non-Arab Muslim countries to follow suit. While the Palestinian-Israeli issue is far from resolution and the current Road Map is studded with many expected and unexpected road- blocks, Pakistan should not allow the Middle East conflict to get in the way of recognizing Israel as a sovereign country. It is in the best interests of Pakistan.