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Current Affairs The Istanbul
meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel on September
1 marked a radical departure from Pakistan’s traditional policy
with regard to Israel and the Palestinian issue .The change, however,
did not come totally unannounced; there had been subtle hints for quite
sometime, the last one was the announcement only a few days before the
meeting that President Pervez Musharraf had accepted an invitation to
address the American Jewish Congress during his impending visit to the
United States.
As one could expect, the foreign ministers’ meeting evoked sharp reaction not only in Pakistan but also abroad; the Islamic parties alliance together with the other opposition parties called a countrywide strike in protest, many circles in the Arab countries too expressed shock and surprise. And despite Pakistan’s assertion that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had been taken into confidence, the first reaction from the Palestinian Authority was unfavourable. The Palestinian deputy prime minister, Nabil Shaath, said he was “worried”about the meeting “because it’s not a good time to start relations with Israel …it is not good to give Israel gifts before it really implements the peace process, not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and Jerusalem.” On the whole, the Arab world was taken by surprise by the move. That necessitated reassuring the Arab leaders by the prime minister Shaukat Aziz that Pakistan would not recognize Israel until Palestinians get their independent state. In telephonic conversations with the prime ministers of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan and the secretary general of the Arab League, the prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s principled position on the issue emphasizing that recognition of Israel would depend on the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. One of Pakistan’s professed aims in starting the dialogue with Israel is to help accelerate the peace process in the Middle East. The other aim is to counter India’s growing influence not only with Israel but also in the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States and to apprise them of Pakistan’s stand on various international issues with special emphasis on the Palestine issue and the Kashmir dispute with India. What the Pakistani government leaders have avoided to mention is America’s desire to have Israel recognized by all the Muslim countries and to push forward the US-Israeli roadmap for settlement of the Palestinian issue. It should also be noted that the US spokesmen have discreetly avoided comment on the matter. Although Pakistani leaders have reiterated that there is no question of recognizing Israel without the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, the New York handshake between President Pervez Musharraf and the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and other reports of increasing cordiality between the leaders of the two states, have given rise to strong apprehensions in many Pakistani and Arab circles. These circles feel that Pakistan was only waiting for an opportunity to start open negotiations with Israel and the part evacuation of Gaza by Israel provided that opportunity. Merely vacating a strip of Gaza does not meet even the bare minimum conditions of a viable state. There is the question of West Bank and the most important issue of Al-Quds. Israel is adamant about the West Bank; it has been strengthening its settlements there instead of vacating them. It has no plans to surrender Gaza’s air space and it has declared Jerusalem as its future capital. It is also sticking to its refusal to let the Palestinians return to their homeland. Under the circumstances Pakistan would be well advised to reiterate its demand in clearer terms that the future Palestinian state should be a contiguous area which should include the Israeli occupied areas of the West Bank and Al-Quds as the state’s capital with full sovereignty on its land, air and sea links with the outside world. |