AL-QAEDA-ISI UNHOLY NEXUS:
Israel is busy with her Arab neighbors attempting to defend its citizens and its geographic borders. But a larger and potentially more dangerous threat is probably being cooked up in South Asia, in Pakistan. The alliance of al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s ISI is now planning to target Israel. It may be recalled that in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, besides the many other centres in Mumbai that were targeted, the Chabad House, a centre for serving Jews visiting Mumbai, was attacked, resulting in the killing of 6 Jews. A trial dealing with that terrorist attack is taking place in a Brooklyn court in New York City, without any results so far.
Encouraged by lukewarm response of Israel and the international community, the Pakistani ISI, in cooperation with al-Qaeda, is planning to attack Israel to cause maximum damage. I think Israeli strategists may be pondering such possibilities and its Mossad may have plans to stop any such attack by al-Qaeda on its territory. I think the threat is credible and strategy in advance is needed to be devised to avert this threat. The ground is being prepared in Pakistan for facilitating such attack. After last year’s Thuggish Flotilla, now a “Nuclear Flotilla” is about to attack Israel, for which Israel must be well prepared.
Pakistan thinks that intelligence relations between India and Israel established formally in 2003, threatens Pakistani security. In the early nineties Israeli tourists were spotted visiting the Kashmir Valley. Pakistan suspected they were disguised Israeli army officers there to help Indian security forces with counter-terrorism operations. These tourists were attacked by Pakistani proxies in Kashmir, resulting in the killing of one and kidnapping of another. It was here that the secret war between the ISI and the Mossad began.
The Pakistani military establishment has been angry with the Israel for quite some time, for having a strategic alliance with its arch-rival India, with whom it has already fought 4 wars since its came into being in 1947. It has expressed its anger and frustration consistently throughout the history of Pakistan through different fanatic religious groups like Jamat-e-Islami and JUI(F). Journalists on the pay-roll of the Pakistani military establishment leave no stone unturned in criticism of Israel or Jews in the Pakistani media. Whatever wrong that happen in Pakistan, Israel or Jews are held responsible for it without any reason or research.
Now the question arises as to why Pakistan is stock-piling its nuclear arsenal, which has now reached the estimated count of 110 warheads? What is the use of developing long-range missiles beyond the boundaries of India which is considered to be the sole enemy of Pakistan?
Has the Arab nationalism or Jew-hatred reached full gear to Pakistan due to Wahhabist propaganda in Pakistan – propaganda whose publishing is assisted by the Pakistani military establishment?
Can Pakistan be used as a mercenary against Israel by its Arab bosses, as has been done in case of Shi’as here in Pakistan?
If we minutely analyze the thinking within the Pakistani military establishment, its hatred towards Israel, its active military assistance provided to Arabs in the Middle East and its nuclear and long range missile programme, all roads appear to lead towards Israel. It means that Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programme is not India-specific. It has aims and ambitions beyond India and the main target can be none other than Israel.
It is believed that recent al-Qaeda attack on Mehran Base in Karachi was not aimed at killing military personnel, but to solely attack and destroy the Orion-3 surveillance aircraft.
Why the Orion-3 aircraft?
The involvement of Pakistan Navy officers in this attack and the existence of al-Qaeda cells in the Pakistan Navy, pointed out by a renowned journalist Shaleem Shahzad, point to very a grim situation. The journalist further claimed that similar al-Qaeda cells are present in Pakistan Air Force and military. So, there are ample possibilities that al-Qaeda can get a nuclear “dirty bomb” to attack its main target in the Middle East, and that is nobody else but Israel.
In the event of such an attack occurring, Pakistan could claim to have a valid excuse that the reason for al-Qaeda easily sneaking under its nose a dirty bomb (nuclear, biological or chemical weapon of mass destruction) to attack Israel was because its own surveillance capabilities were damaged completely, so it could not detect the al-Qaeda nuclear attack on Israel. Therefore, using this excuse, al-Qaeda passed by without being detected by the Pakistani Navy or Air Force monitoring the Arabian Sea. That would be the mask behind which the Pakistani military would hide: that Pakistan could not adequately monitor the region and al-Qaeda entered and attacked Israel by the sea.
The new development, which lends a false note to all this possible excuse-making is the recent high level military visits of Pakistan to Iran, which are heading towards a strategic alliance based on antagonism against Israel. So, the al-Qaeda dream of attacking Israel can be realized with the active assistance of Pakistan and Iran. Osama bin Ladin had stated earlier on many occasion that “Afghanistan is a training camp. Our target is Israel.” There seems to be convergence of ideas of the Pakistani military establishment and al-Qaeda on the issue of Israel in the recent past about which the renowned journalist Saleem Shahzad was about to make revelations, but he was silenced before he could reveal the ISI-al Qaeda nexus to the world. America is persistently harping the tune, though privately that there is a danger of Al-Qaeda taking possession of Pakistani nukes. But, she (USA) easily over-looks the reality that in fact, the Pakistani nukes are already in the hands of more dangerous terrorists (the uniformed Pak-Army generals, who are the founders of the Taliban & Al-Qaeda). These generals can provide dirty bombs to Al-Qaeda to be used against Israel.
So, after the death of Osama Bin Ladin, his ideological ally, the ISI, along with Al-Qaeda, are bent on a project to attack and to destroy Israel. As Pakistani policies appear to be India-centric and the friend of an enemy is considered an enemy, one can argue that this is the reason that Pakistan developed hostility towards Israel, too. So, it will be beneficial and illustrative to briefly discuss the relationship between India and Israel and the benefits that India has gotten from Israel. We will also discuss what we have got from our Arab bosses all these years. I believe that a comparison will make it clear which country profited and which country lost. Pakistan’s policy of hostility towards Israel is based on Israel’s strategic alliance with India on one hand, and on the other hand, the religious blind support of the Middle Eastern Arab States because they are Muslim countries.
Following the example of India, which maintained normal relations with Iran, Pakistan could have also nurtured friendly relations with Israel, but failed to do so. Instead of following the path of logic and reason, Pakistan, adopted an emotional strategy of declaring the friend of an enemy to be Pakistan’s enemy.
INDO-ISRAELI RELATIONSHIP:
India established full diplomatic relationship with the state of Israel in 1992. Surprisingly, it is from that time that the real ascent of India to a great power status began. This occurred in spite of the covert relationship that existed between the two countries since 1950. Good relationships with Israel gave a boost to the relationship with United States. India is one of the most pro-Israel countries in the world, followed by the United States, as revealed by an international opinion survey conducted by Foreign Ministry of Israel.
Bilateral trade, which was at $200 million in 2001, grew to $4.1 billion by 2009, excluding defense contracts, which are expected to exceed $12 billion in the next couple of years. Software, communication, homeland security, science and medicine, bio and agro-technologies, and water management are the main areas of co-operation.
This co-operation extends to military and intelligence fields as well, in order to counter the state sponsored Islamic terrorism fueled by hostile neighbors against both countries. In 2008, Israel surpassed Russia as the largest arms supplier to India.
The first weapons deal was the purchase of Barak-1 vertically-launched surface-to-air (SAM) missiles from Israel.
In 1996, India purchased 32 IAI Searcher unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Electronic Support Measure sensors and an Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation simulator system from Israel.
Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd signed a $2.5 billion deal with India to develop an anti-aircraft system and missiles for the country.
IAI is developing the Barak-8 missile for the Indian Navy and Air force.
In March 2011, defense news reported that India is about to buy 8,356 Israeli Spike anti-tank missiles costing nearly $1 billion.
It is to be noted that Pakistan was having an almost an upper hand militarily over India until India developed its military and diplomatic relationship with Israel. It is after this strategic alliance with Israel began to flower that India started getting superiority over Pakistan in the field of military and civilian technology. It is believed that even during the war of 1971, Israel helped India by providing it with 160 mm mortars and ammunition, exclusively manufactured in Israel. During the Kargil War, despite heavy pressures from international community not to help India, Israel supplied UAVs for high altitude surveillance, laser–guided systems to India within 24 hours. This expansive assistance of Israel to India in the field of technology and arms angered the Pakistani military elite and started them hatching conspiracies against both India and Israel.
Ironically, Pakistani generals, instead of taking a path of cooperation with Israel, have followed a path of antagonism and destruction. Pakistan started an asymmetrical war with both India and Israel by using its proxies in India to inflict human and material loss to both India and Israel which were consequences of the Mumbai attack of 26/11 wherein terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group sponsored and trained by ISI of Pakistan, entered a Mumbai synagogue (the Chabad House mentioned above) in Mumbai and brutally murdered 6 Jews, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah. Two more rabbis, Rabbi Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Rabbi Ben-Tzion Kruman, and two Jewish women, Yocheved Orpaz and Norma Shvartzblatt Rabinovch, were also murdered, leaving some thirteen orphans, of which the oldest is thirteen and the youngest a baby of only two months. This attack was the second of its kind in which Pakistan caused human loss to Israelis. Unfortunately, it seems that Pakistan is still bent upon this policy of destruction.
For all of this, Pakistan has gotten no benefits from Arabs, despite blindly following the Wahhabist puritanical interpretation of Islam and whole-heartedly supporting the Palestinians at every national and International Forum.
THE ARAB-PAKISTAN RELATIONSHIP
What could have Pakistan achieved if it had developed diplomatic and military relationship with Israel? It is ironic that Pakistan is still supporting the Palestinian cause despite the fact that the late Yasser Arafat had publicly supported India on Kashmir Issue. It is the end of folly of statehood to have such illogical positions on the international level without any reciprocity.
Most of the Arab States have more cordial relations with India than with Pakistan. They have never supported Pakistan in international forums on the issue of Kashmir, the primary reason that 4 wars have been fought which cost Pakistan many lives and much treasure; and because of this overwhelming Arab support of India on the issue of Kashmir, Pakistan has never had a fair hearing in the United Nations. Resolutions passed in the General Assembly reflect this anti-Pakistan “tilt”.
Pakistan Army is physically in Saudi Arabia and providing training and equipment of some Arab States, but in return, Pakistani workers are treated like slaves in these countries.
Even Pakistani pilots were sent to fly the fighter jests of Syria against Israel in Arab Israeli wars.
In return, Pakistan has received humiliation, terrorism as all the Arab terrorists from around the world have been sent to Pakistan to fight a holy war against unseen enemy. These Arabs are now killing Pakistanis on daily basis.
Arabs have given us an Islam of hate and killing not only non-Muslims but the Muslims too.
Arabs have been fighting a proxy war with Iran in Pakistan where Shi’a and Sunni groups (respectively supported by Iran and Saudi Arabia) are killing innocent people.
HOW PAKISTAN COULD HAVE BENEFITED FROM ISRAEL?
All that has been achieved by India with the help of Israel, and possibly even more, could have been achieved by Pakistan had we developed our policies on logic rather than emotion.
India has been given an international credibility, regional power status, and has become an economic super-power only due to its good relationship with Israel. What India has achieved due to its pro-Israel policies have been lost by Pakistan due to its anti-Israeli policies. India is a vast market for Israel’s super specialty – agro-tech industries. Most of the ills of Pakistan – like power shortages, economic mismanagement, military problems, the menace of terrorism, lack of law & order, daily bombings, resultant low morale of civil and military bureaucracy, and the political and social problems that all come in the wake of low morale and low self-esteem could have been resolved with the help of Israel.
Why?
Israel treats its friends like equal partners, not like slaves as we have been treated by the USA and Saudi Arabia. Israel teaches its friends how to catch fish rather than giving them fish so as to force them to remain always dependant beggars as we have been made by our Arab “allies”.
THE SOLUTION LIES IN ACCEPTING ISRAEL AS LIGITIMATE LAND OF JEWS OR BANI ISRAEL:
We are losing economically, diplomatically and militarily due to our following these wrong policies. I would like to draw the attention of ordinary Pakistanis towards an important sin we are committing in our naivety and ignorance. How much we are losing religiously as Muslims due to our anti-Israel policies when we blindly follow anti-Israel policies on behalf of Arab rulers who continually oppress their own people to hide their own failure to create viable societies?
Are we not violating the edicts of Quran when we do not accept the right of Jews or Bani Israel to the Land of Israel?
To prove this fact, I would like to quote a renowned American writer, Lowell Gallin, author of the book “Cracking the Qur’an Code”, who has found the truth through thorough research and who has cited many verses of Holy Qur’an which prove the right of Israel to the Land of Israel. Some of them are presented here for easy reference. I do not think any Muslim could deny these verses from our Holy Qur’an.
1. “We gave the Children of Israel the Book, the Judgment, and the Prophethood, and We provided them with good things, and We preferred them above all beings”. Qur’an, Sura al-Jathiyah (“Hobbling”), 45:15 (Arberry translation, page 517) (standard numbering: 45:16).
2. “And when Moses said to his people: ‘O My People, remember God’s blessing upon you, when He appointed among you Prophets, and appointed you kings, and gave you such as He had not given to any being. O My People, enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you, and turn not back in your traces, to turn about losers’”. Qur’an, Sura al-Ma’idah (“The Table”), 5:24 (Arberry translation, page 103) (standard numbering: 5:20-21).
3. “And We brought the Children of Israel over the sea (10:90); And We settled the Children of Israel in a sure settlement, and We provided them with good things” (10:93).Qur’an, Sura Yunus (“Jonah”), 10:90, 10:93 (Arberry translation, page 207) (standard numbering: 10:90,10:93)
4. “Hast thou not regarded the Council of the Children of Israel, after Moses, when they said to a Prophet of theirs, ‘Raise up for us a king, and we will fight in God’s way’. He said, ‘Might it be that, if fighting is prescribed for you, you will not fight?’
They said, ‘Why should we not fight in God’s way, who have been expelled from our habitations and our children?’ Yet when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned their backs except for a few of them; and God has knowledge of the evildoers”. Qur’an, Sura al-Baqarah (“The Heifer”), 2:246 (Arberry translation, page 35) (standard numbering: 2:246)
Gallin further explains to his Muslim reader through the verses of the Holy Qur’an, that the Qur’an confirms the special link between the People and Land of Israel. The return of the Children of Israel to the Land of Israel at the End of Days is also proclaimed by Qur’an. The Qur’an speaks of the final return of the reunited House of Israel, both Jews (House of Judah) and Lost Ten Tribes (House of Ephraim), to the Land of Israel:
1. “He desired to startle them from the Land; and We drowned him and those with him, all together. And We said to the Children of Israel after him, ‘Dwell in the Land; and when the promise of the world to come comes to pass, We shall bring you a rabble’”. Qur’an, Sura al-Isra (“The Night Journey”) – Bani Isra’il (“Children of Israel”), 17:105 (Arberry translation, page 286) (standard numbering: 17:103-104)
“Twenty patient and persevering Muslims fighting for a good Islamic cause will vanquish two hundred of their enemies, while a hundred of those Muslims will vanquish a thousand enemies”. Qur’an, Sura al-Anfal (“The Spoils of War”), 8:65 (Palazzi translation)
Elaborating these last verses, Sheikh Palazzi proved that Jews were right while Arabs were wrong when a small number of Jews defeated the numerically larger Arab group of States in the Wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973. He said, “In the case of the Arab-Israeli wars; on the contrary, it happened in exactly the opposite way: Arabs always outnumbered Israelis, and notwithstanding this they were always defeated. I cannot conceive a more evident proof of the fact that war after war against Israel. Would God have permitted this if the Arab Muslim cause was just? Surely not.“
Lowell Gallin, in his book “Cracking the Qur’an Code”, has posed some serious questions to be analyzed by Muslim scholars and clergy: “Can Muslims prove that the Land of Israel was or is rightfully their Land? Muslims defeated the Byzantines and took it from them. Were the Byzantines entitled to this Land? Were the Crusaders, whom the Muslims later defeated, entitled to it? Muslims, and even more so the Jewish People, were initially delivered into the hands of the Crusaders, who murdered all the Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem when they captured the city.
Do Muslims really think that they became heirs to the Land of Israel because they took it back from the Crusaders?
Were Muslims not guardians and stewards until the rightful heirs (Children of Israel) would return at the appointed time?”.
In order to open the eyes of the so-called champions of Islam, Mr. Gallin gives an example from not so far a history of Turks, “The attitude of the early Turkish sultans could have set an example for Muslims. The Turks opened the doors of their empire and welcomed Jewish refugees expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. Cities such as Safed in the Galilee began to thrive with the Jewish influx. Some Muslims also acknowledge a prophecy in the Qur’an according to which the People of Israel might return to its homeland, not at this time but at the End of Days, which they calculate will occur in about 250 years.”
CONCLUSION:
Are we going to be cursed if we do not follow the Commandments of God, revealed in the verses of Holy Qur’an? Surely, we are in the process of being cursed and we will be completely wiped out if we continue to follow anti-Israel or anti-Jewish policies. We should be pragmatic rather than sentimental. We have to protect ourselves from take-over by emotions and religious bigotry. Facts are facts. The sane elements in the society should come forward now and openly support Israel as legitimate owner of the Land of Israel.
Looking at Pakistan and its constituent peoples, one thing is clear: most of the Pashtuns, Sindhis and Balochs may not be pro-Israel, but they are not anti-Israel either. The only group which is against Israel and which perceive the Indo-Israeli co-operation a threat to their existence are Punjabis. These three important groups have been made hostage in the hands of dominant Punjabi group. Punjabis are pocketing petro-dollars from Saudi Arabia and promoting the Wahhabist puritanical interpretation of Islam in Pakistan.
They are using Jihad as a state policy against the infidels like Christians, Hindus and Jews. The possible American exit-plan from Afghanistan in the near future, has rung alarm bells in Punjabi military elite which has been sustaining itself on the funds received from USA. Now, this source is going to dry up. So, to keep the flow of dollars coming from Americans, the Pakistani (really Punjabi) establishment is in hurry to create even bigger problems, so that Americans remain in the region so that their money will continue to fill the pockets of these mercenaries (army generals).
In this rapidly changing scenario, it is a real possibility that Pakistan may be planning a surprise attack on Israel through its proxies, which seems to be an easy target. Thousands of religiously indoctrinated Punjabi Taliban, Palestinians and Arab dominated al-Qaeda terrorists groups can be used to do this. Israel and its security apparatus may not be unaware of the fact that Pakistan is a real threat and enemy for Israel. It is assisting the Arabs in the Middle East, with thousands of soldiers in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries as a counter force to Israel. It has twice attacked Israeli interests in India. The third attack could be a possibility and could cause unimaginable destruction if not prevented.
The USA, Russia and China, along with Arab countries of West Asia, all have noticeable political, economic and defense cooperation with Israel. Afghanistan is also seems to be on the right path and sooner or later will accept Israel formally. It is Pakistan which has to accept the reality and recognize Israel or face the eminent disintegration in the days to come which seems inevitable.
Instead of learning from the past experiences and failed policies, Pakistan is on the verge of committing yet another blunder by evolving a military strategic alliance with Iran. According to reliable reports, recently several high level members of Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership have visited Iran to bolster a joint strategy to counter the pressures and possible US-Israeli strikes on the nuclear installations of both the countries. Pakistan has to revisit its wrong and failed policies now, if it wants to protect itself. Otherwise it is already heading towards a bloody breakup.