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Analysts Explore Musharraf's "Israel" Gesture
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What does Musharraf have in mind?
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ISLAMABAD,
September 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
high-profile meeting between the Israeli foreign minister and
Pakistan's top diplomat offered analysts and political observers
Friday, September 2, a rich opportunity to take a journey into the
mind of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, in a bid to come up with
a composite picture about the "sudden move".
Some
analysts said it was Israel-Indo relations that dictated the timing of
going public with contacts that have always been there, but secretly.
Others
believed Musharraf has been making a lot of peace recently in a move
mainly to improve the Muslim country's image abroad.
A
third team, while not ruling out the first two possibilities, saw the
move as "staying the course" of getting closer to the West,
at the expense of "Islamists at home".
As
expected, the historic move caused shockwaves back home and Musharraf
himself was attacked bitterly during Friday sermons.
"Western"
Gains
But
analysts told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Musharraf stands to reap
benefits abroad, by improving Pakistan's terrorism-tarnished image and
lifting the heat from the west over a proliferation scandal by the
father of its nuclear bomb.
"Pakistan
is likely to gain a lot from President Pervez Musharraf's bold
decision," Ishtiaq Ahmed, professor of international relations at
Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, told AFP.
Analysts
further said it was an effort by Pakistan to increase its diplomatic
options by defusing the opposition of influential Jewish groups in the
United States, especially on Capitol Hill.
Over
the past year Musharraf himself has been touting his personal brand of
moderate Islam around the world, and is due to address Jewish leaders
in New York later this month.
"Pakistan
will now be seen as a state which acts independently and is not part
of the group of Muslim hardline states," Hasan Askari, former
head of political science at Punjab University in Lahore, told AFP.
He
added that Musharraf will be keen to overturn the continuing suspicion
with which the West -- and Israel in particular -- regards the Muslim
world's only nuclear-armed state, despite its support for Washington's
"war on terror".
Much
of this comes from the disclosure in early 2004 that Pakistani atomic
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had passed nuclear secrets to Iran, North
Korea and Libya. Khan was pardoned by Musharraf but remains under
house arrest.
Punjab
university's Askari said the basic concern of US Jewish groups was
that nuclear technology would not be transferred from Pakistan to
Israel's adversaries in the Arab world.
"Pakistan
must have now assured them that its nuclear program has relevance only
in the South Asian context," he added.
India
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Pakistani Islamists are fuming. (Reuters)
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Just
as crucially for Islamabad, though, the move could also help Pakistan
to counter the close relations between India and Israel.
Israel
last year approved a 1.1-billion-dollar arms deal with India which
included the sale of airborne early warning radar systems.
Ever
paranoid about its bigger and stronger western neighbor, with whom it
has fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947,
Pakistan said the deal highlighted the strategic imbalance in South
Asia, AFP said.
"The
Pakistani move is an attempt to successfully neutralize the
Indo-Israeli nexus," Ahmed observed.
Pakistani
newspapers, for their part, put India on top of the "list of what
Pakistan stood to gain by engaging Israel".
"First,
it will be a blow to the growing Indo-Israeli nexus," said The
News, referring Israel's sale of advanced weapons to Pakistan's
old rival, India.
"Secondly,
it would bring credible advantages for Pakistan within the American
political system, where the Jewish lobby's clout is unquestionable.
"And
thirdly, it would lift some pressure put on Pakistan by the West over
management of its nuclear arms," according to the daily.
Traitor
In
Islamabad Friday, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz defended talks held with
Israel a day earlier.
The
meeting between Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri and his
Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom in Istanbul Thursday was the first
publicly acknowledged high-level contact Pakistan has held with the
Jewish state.
"There
is no harm in having talks," Aziz told the lower house of the
National Assembly, where opposition Islamist legislators walked out in
token protest.
"If
we have met somebody this does not mean we agree with them. We may be
able to change their stand," he added, according to Reuters.
A
staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, Pakistan has stressed that
it will not recognize Israel until a Palestinian state is established.
Foreign
Minister Kasuri, talking to reporters in Dubai during a stopover
before returning home, said the move would give Pakistan
"diplomatic space".
"Frankly
(secret) contacts have been going on for decades, but we wanted to
send a signal to the Israeli government and people that the assumption
that Islamic countries cannot live in peace with the Jewish state is
not correct, if Israel were to vacate occupied territory," Kasuri
said.
But
Musharraf's policy shift sparked outbursts in mosques.
"General
Musharraf is an agent of Jews. His agenda is to sell Pakistan and
Pakistani Muslims to Jews and the Jews' ally," the imam told the
faithful at Islamabad's Red Mosque, Reuters reported.
"We
will not allow General Musharraf to disgrace Islam. Every Muslim will
resist General Musharraf's plan," the preacher said.
Munawar
Hassan, secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami (Islamic Party),
warned Kasuri would be greeted by black flags when he returns home,
but in the capital Islamabad, a protest in front of a press club
mustered less than 100 supporters.
From
his stronghold in Peshawar, the provincial capital of North West
Frontier Province, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a leader of the alliance of six
Islamist parties accused Musharraf of compromising over Afghanistan,
Kashmir and now Palestine, and pledged to launch a countrywide
protest, according to Reuters.
A
few hundred supporters came out on the streets of Peshawar Friday,
albeit chanting with gusto "al jihad, al jihad" and
"America's friend is the nation's traitor" and "al
jihad, al jihad" in a summons to join a holy war.
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