Why is Musharraf warming up to Israel?

Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres granted an interview in January with Jang, a leading Pakistani paper, in which he said Israel and Pakistan should have "direct, personal contact, publicly, without being ashamed about it."

The response to his words was quick in coming: some 25-armed men ransacked the newspaper's offices in Karachi, apparently to protest the interview. They beat security guards, damaged furniture and chanted "Allahu Akbar" [God is Greatest].

In light of that response, and the harsh criticism Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf came under at home in June 2004 when he dared to broach the idea of considering ties with Israel, the Pakistani government's announcement Monday that it would be sending a delegation to Gaza and Jerusalem to meet with the Palestinian Authority should have come as no surprise.

Musharraf is gearing up for fierce opposition criticism, if not worse, expected to greet his address to the Council for World Jewry next month in New York.

Meetings with Jews and Israelis, as the reaction to the Peres interview with Jang proved, aren't real popular with the Islamic extremists in Karachi.

As such, Monday's announcement by Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Naeem Khan of an upcoming visit by a Pakistani delegation to Gaza and Jerusalem was instructive.

The spokesman took the unusual step of announcing a visit that had not yet even been finalized in order to signal to the Pakistani public that while the president may indeed be meeting with Jews, he was not ignoring the Palestinians and was in fact dispatching a senior delegation to pay homage to the PA.

No need, in other words, for the Pakistani public to get over-heated about the New York meeting. Besides, Khan said, the meeting with the Jews would not only be with Jews, it would be an interfaith gathering with Christians and Muslims as well. Phew.

Which raises a basic question. If Musharraf was so concerned about how his public would react to a meeting with Jews, why accept the invitation in the first place? The reason, according to various diplomatic assessments, is that Musharraf wants to develop some type of relationship with Israel. Not because he has suddenly discovered his Zionistic side, but as a way to throw a spoke in the wheels of the strong and growing Israeli-Indian ties, and also of course as a way to please America.

Regarding the American angle, Musharraf s idea last year of having a debate in Pakistan about the possibility of opening ties with Israel came soon after he received a $3 billion economic package from Washington. This was widely interpreted in Jerusalem as an attempt to curry favor with Washington, interested in seeing ties develop between two countries that are both strategically very important to the US.

But as important as the American angle is in explaining Pakistani overtures, the key to deciphering Pakistan s moves toward Israel as is generally the case when it comes to understanding Karachi's foreign policy is India.

The close ties Israel and India have developed over the last decade specifically the close military relationship, with Israel a key arms supplier to New Delhi is obviously not to Pakistan s liking. Pakistan is interested in cooling down this relationship, and one possible way to do this would be by developing ties with Israel.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev was careful, while responding to the possible arrival of the Pakistani delegation, to say that while Israel would welcome such a move, this need not impinge in any way on Israel's ties with the rest of the subcontinent, an obvious reference to India.

Regev's comments were boilerplate Foreign Ministry fare served up whenever questions arise about possible ties with Pakistan. However, Regev's comments may be so much wishful thinking.

While Israel may not see why ties with Pakistan should in any way impact on its relationship with New Delhi, it is unlikely the Indians would be as accepting of a Pakistan-Israel relationship as Israel has been of India's close ties with the Arab world.

Indeed, it is clear that were ties with Pakistan ever to go beyond the putting-out-feelers stage to something much more concrete, the Indians would find a way to clearly let their unhappiness known in Jerusalem. Chances are they that have already done so.

"They beat security guards, damaged furniture and chanted "Allahu Akbar"

Pakistani reaction is more conciliatory, they beat instead of beheading the guards.

3 posted on 09/01/2005 7:12:06 AM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)