Opinion in Arab world largely against Pakistan’s move

CAIRO: A surprise meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan in Turkey has run into considerable disapproval in the Arab world. But many Arab nations are themselves reconsidering ties with Israel. Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri met in Istanbul on Sep. 1. It was the highest-level meeting between officials from the two countries. Mr Kasuri was quoted as saying that Islamabad intends to establish relations with Tel Aviv.

“Kasuri announced that his country had decided on a diplomatic relationship with Israel, in light of the latter’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” the independent Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm reported. It quoted Kasuri as saying: “Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel’s ending of its occupation of Gaza. We see this development as the beginning of the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Therefore, Pakistan has decided to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.”

But Mr Kasuri was reported as clarifying that the meeting itself did not represent official Pakistani recognition of the Jewish state. That recognition, he was quoted as saying by state daily Al-Ahram, “would come later, within the context of a solution to the Palestinian problem.”

Mr Shalom expressed the hope that the meeting would lead to full diplomatic relations and serve to open a further dialogue with the Muslim world.

“Now is the appropriate time for all Arab and Muslim nations to reconsider relations with Israel,” he was quoted as saying to media.

But the move triggered demonstrations in both Pakistan and the Gaza Strip, and faced broad criticism across the Arab world.

The Sept 3 edition of pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat quoted a Friday sermon delivered in an Islamabad mosque: “General Musharraf plans to sell Pakistan and Pakistani Muslims to the Jews and their allies,” an imam was quoted as saying. “Every Muslim will resist his plan.”

Hasan Youssef, a leading member of Palestinian resistance group Hamas was quoted by Egyptian government-run daily Al-Akhbar as saying: “We urge the government of Pakistan to reconsider this agreement. Hamas condemns any hasty moves towards the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel.”

Islamabad’s tentative step towards Tel Aviv comes in the midst of a wider Israeli diplomatic offensive following its recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to normalise relations with traditional, mainly Arab adversaries. “Normalisation of diplomatic relations is a major goal of the Israeli government,” Emad Gad, expert on Israeli affairs at the state-run Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told IPS. “It has been one of the few cards with which Arab and Muslim countries could exert pressure on Israel.”

Aversion to relations with Tel Aviv is widespread in the Arab region. The antipathy dates back to the inception of the Jewish state, but it has intensified with Israeli heavy-handedness after the eruption in late 2000 of the second Palestinian uprising.

“Normalisation always runs counter to general sentiment, not because of history or long-held grudges, but because of current (Israeli) policies of aggression,” Wael Khalil, member of the Egypt-based Palestine Solidarity Movement, told IPS. “Even if all governments in the region normalise their relations with Israel, it will never be welcomed by the people — not with these policies.”

But despite such reservations, the diplomatic bombshell in Turkey comes within a wider context of gradual, if often downplayed tilt towards conciliation. Pakistan itself has long had covert relations with the Jewish state. “There have been secret Israel-Pakistan contacts in the past,” Gad said.

In Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, the trend has been more conspicuous. Last year saw a flurry of conciliatory gestures including high-level visits to Cairo by Israeli officials, prisoner exchanges, a major bilateral economic agreement, and the return earlier this year of an Egyptian Ambassador to Tel Aviv after a four-year absence.

Jordan, which like Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel, has been no less accommodating. A Jordanian proposal for across-the-board normalisation of Arab relations with the Jewish state was roundly rejected at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Algiers in March. League chief Amr Moussa was quoted as saying at the time that Arabs should not be expected to “make concessions, and even normalise, without anything real in return.”

Tel Aviv is concentrating its diplomatic efforts on Arab North Africa and the Persian Gulf, where several Arab governments have long flirted with the idea of official conciliation. “Senior ministry officials are waiting to see who will break the ice first,” Israeli daily Haaretz commented earlier this year. “Some say it will be either Morocco or Tunisia. Others expect a breakthrough from the Persian Gulf.” Moroccan foreign minister Mohammed Bin Eissa vehemently denied reports in March of an agreement to open a Moroccan liaison office in Tel Aviv. But Israeli media reported on Sept 3 that an Israeli special-interests office had been opened in the United Arab Emirates. There have been indications that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II may visit Israel.—Dawn/Inter-Press Service