AT PENPOINT
The most striking thing about the latest attack by Israel on the Gaza Strip is that it has come after Israel has had casualties inflicted on it. Previous attacks came after missile attacks were launched, but even though there were few or no casualties, Israel would retaliate with air strikes. While the pretext was missile launchers, the strikes would include hitting residential buildings, schools and hospitals. There is no reason to believe that Israel will behave any differently.
There is a loud international clamour for a ceasefire, but the head of the Israeli government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has an overwhelming need to be seen as strong, and able to exact revenge. Netanyahu has also been on the right of Israeli politics, and his dependence on extreme-right parties for support makes it all the more important for him to show that he is a strong and effective guardian of the Israeli people.
Behind Netanyahu’s needs are the Holocaust. Though World War II has been over for almost 80 years, Jews still recall how Hitler tried to wipe them out. In fact, it was that cataclysmic event that contributed to the creation of Israel. The position of Israel, as an American enclave in the Middle East, has made the Israel is even more worried about their security. That is why, very patiently, going back to the 1978 Camp David Accord, Israel has been making peace with Arab countries.
That may be the reason for the attack by the Palestinians: Saudi Arabia is heading a list of about six nations that are about to recognise Israel. Saudi Arabia is at the head of the list. That has created a vibe that Pakistan is also going to recognize. There has been a shift in opinion, not in favour of recognition, as what the real reason for not recognizing.
There is a general feeling that Pakistan is withholding recognition because Saudi Arabia is not recognising, and therefore if Saudi Arabia recognizes, there will be no reason for Pakistan not to. Saudi goodwill is necessary because of the financial help it has given over the years. In fact, that is one reason why Israel would like Saudi Arabia to recognize it, because of the clout it has not just among Arab countries, but in the entire Muslim world. A lot of countries are probably holding back from recognition because they do not wish to offend the Saudis.
Against that is balanced not love for Israel, but a wish to please the USA. The USA has long been the primary supporter of Israel, and it has argued that it has been a US outpost in the Middle East, where it has helped protect its interests in the oil-rich region, and Netanyahu is not the first Israeli PM to have links with the USA, where he studied. Before was Golda Meir, whose Ukrainian parents have migrated to the USA, where she was brought up. The desire to please the USA might explain why there has been so much enthusiasm among the establishment for recognition. There was quite a strong movement during the Musharraf years, and on one occasion he addressed the World Jewish Congress.
The inaction by the Muslim world should tell the Palestinian people something they probably already know: they are on their own. Terror is the last resort of the powerless. It is an attempt to restore the balance against the powerful. That almost eight decades have passed since the Holocaust can be seen from the fact that Jews are no longer the underdogs.
This attitude seems to be the result of a failure to realize why Palestine and Israel matter to Pakistan. One reason is that Pakistan has traditionally seen the Kashmir issue as linked to the Palestine issue. This is not an ex-post facto explanation designed to justify support, but was clear at the very beginning. Back in 1948, when the UN was first seized of the matter, Pakistan played a leading role, not so much because of any Muslim solidarity, as because the Arab countries involved did not have the diplomatic expertise available.
The similarities seen by Pakistan do not seem to have gone away with time. Both are the result, ultimately, of faulty British decolonization, and are thus unfinished business. Both involve illegal occupations. Both are UN disputes. Both involve a denial of the inalienable right of self-determination of a people. While Palestinian refugees abound, there is also a significant Kashmiri diaspora.
At the same time, just as it can be argued that the Kashmir cause has been abandoned, by inaction over the 2022 ending of Kashmir’s special status, it seems that Saudi Arabia as well as other Arab countries, seem poised to end their diplomatic and moral support of the Palestinian cause.
One outlier seems to be Iran, which not only reversed the Shah’s recognition of Israel (which took place in 1948 itself), but which has positioned itself as a champion of the Palestinian cause. While Palestinians are majority Sunni, Hezbollah in Lebanon follows Iran, and being also an Arab party, finds the Palestinian cause crucial to its positioning. Another factor is Saudi Arabia, which has a longstanding rivalry with Iran over leadership in the region. Iran has grown more and more strongly supportive of Palestine as it has increased its support of Hezbollah. The strength of its support for the Palestinians has also gone up as its antagonism to Saudi Arabia.
There is also a theological reason for supporting the Palestinians, and that is the special place of Jerusalem in Islam, not just as the place from which the Holy Prophet (PBUH) journeyed to Heaven during the Meraj, but also as the first Qibla. It cannot be forgotten that there are three Harams in Islam, the Haram Sharif of Mecca, the Masjid Nabvi in Madina, and the Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem. A Haram is a sanctuary, of which there are only three in the whole Muslim world. Al-Aqsa is also the Temple Mount, where the Tempe of Solomon was, and thus Ultra-Orthodox Jews want to take it over. It was an attempt to burn the mosque in 1969 which led to the formation of the OIC, which indicates the centrality of the Palestinian cause to the Islamic world as a whole. It is perhaps important for an Ajami country like Pakistan that this is not an Arab cause, but a religious one.
One of the problems with the current attacks is that it is difficult to see why they were launched. It is simply not a matter of creating terror. The bankruptcy of the terror tactic has been illustrated often enough in history, and most recently by the 9/11 attacks. Terror lacks a clear military-political objective, which is essential to any military operation. It is to the credit of Hamas that they seem to have achieved surprise over the Israeli Defence Forces, but it is also becoming clear that they had no real follow-up, either military or political. A lot of brave Palestinians have been laying down their lives, to what end?
If the move was to prevent recognition by Saudi Arabia, it will probably not more than cause a delay. It also exposes the entire ruling elite of the Muslim world as unwilling to walk the talk. All are content to leave the Palestinian people in the same sort of limbo as the Kashmiri people, the Rohingya. The list is long.
The inaction by the Muslim world should tell the Palestinian people something they probably already know: they are on their own. Terror is the last resort of the powerless. It is an attempt to restore the balance against the powerful. That almost eight decades have passed since the Holocaust can be seen from the fact that Jews are no longer the underdogs.
