Should Pakistan recognize Israel?

• It’s a matter of the first Qibla

BY Dr Tamoor Azam

Every country has an ideological narrative like India’s current mantra of “Hindutva” or “Akhand Baharat”, Marxism in China’s ideology, Israel’s “Re-establishing the 2,000-year-old Jewish State” and Pakistan’s slogan based on ideological narrative, “Pakistan Ka Matlab Kia…La IIaha Illallah” (The meaning of Pakistan is….there is no God but Allah).

With this slogan, Pakistan came into being with its more than 90% percent Muslim population in 1947, but the nation disintegrated into two in just 24 years due to the mishandling and misapplication of its ideological narrative. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s scholars have other explanations for the bloodiest tragedy in 1971. While on the contrary, Jews from the suburbs of New York City, Paris, Warsaw, and so on have been migrating to the barren and infertile lands of Palestine (now Israel) since the 1920s. Why is it? Is it meant to fulfill the philosophy of “Greater Israel” and welcome the Jewish “Messiah” to rule the world, deemed “Anti-Christ” by the Muslims and Christians?

It is perhaps not surprising that the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the Ministry of Health Yaakov Litzman (a member of the conservative Gur Hasidic Jew community) had a news conference in March 2020 where they said, “We are praying and hoping that the Messiah will arrive and redeem us from all the troubles of the world.” Their bizarre statements have never been mocked, but when Muslim clerics and scholars talk about the return of Jesus and “Mehdi”, liberals within the Muslim community poke fun at tem.

Whether someone would call it a conspiracy theory or anti-Semitic propaganda, WW1, and WW2 were exclusive wars orchestrated to establish Israel. After the denial of the Ottomans to grant land to Jews in Palestine, WW1 was concocted to disintegrate the Muslim Ottoman Empire into more than 30 states. While WW2 designed to engage the Muslim world in chaos and hunger on one side, and on the other, it gained the sympathies of Europeans by disseminating disinformation about the Holocaust to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

Pakistanis cannot turn a blind eye to the words of our founding father, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who said, “Israel is an unlawful state; created by usurping land of Palestinian Muslims.”

Now, the Jewish mega project of this century is “Greater Israel.” This project cannot be completed until different battles have been staged in many parts of the world. The unrest in the Middle East, the escalating standoff between China and India, the ratcheting up tensions between the US and Iran, the Turkish-Greece dispute over the Aegean, the US-Israel-India nexus vis-à-vis China and Pakistan, and the changing Arab leaders’ policies herald the signs of wars.

This scenario likely to add fuel to the fire of hostility between India and Pakistan. Former US President Richard Nixon said in an interview in 1992 that “Although nuclear powers have never fought in any war, the rift between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue could give impetus to a first nuclear war between them.” Looking from the distance like a gigantic arch, there seems to be a continuous loop of wars in the future.

The state of Israel has been a hot topic in Pakistan in recent years. Many people question why Pakistan does not recognize Israel as several Arab countries have established diplomatic relations, and many are in the queue to recognize the Jewish state. If Palestinians get their basic human rights, then why shouldn’t Pakistan recognize Israel? These questions are being raised without reference to context.

Both of these questions have straightforward answers. it is not the issue of Arab neighbouring countries or Palestinians to recognize the State of Israel, rather it’s about the third holiest land of Muslims, the Al-Aqsa Mosque (first Qibla) after Makkah and Madina. Second, if it’s a matter of basic human rights, then Pakistan should recognize Kashmir as a part of India if India gives basic human rights to Kashmiris. The arguments put forth by the Jews are, according to their religious beliefs mentioned in the Torah or Talmud that 2000 years ago, Palestine was the land of the Jews, so it is their fundamental right to bring this land back to the Jews.

There are two logical counterarguments to this belief. First, in the Quran(10: 85-86) it says: “The followers of Moses (AS) told him that we are Muslims and believe in the oneness of GOD.” According to the verses of the Quran 2000 years ago Muslims were living in the land of Palestine, not Jews. If Quranic evidence is not worthwhile for Muslims, then Muslims should allow Jews to capture Madina as 1400 years ago this holy city was also part of Jewish land. Instead, the questions should be raised and asked the international community that why the land of Palestine was occupied by Jews and called it Israel in 1948? What would Muslims do if the Jews build the Third Temple of Solomon by destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque?

At present, Israel is facing no threat from the Arab world, but it believes that Pakistan can be a potential threat. And that’s why the first Prime Minister of Israel and one of its founding fathers, David Ben Gurion, said in his speech after winning a war against five Arab states in 1967 that “Pakistan is a threat to our existence and danger to the Zionist movement?” Despite this bitter reality, there is no doubt that Pakistan is an antidote to this “cancer” Israel. That’s why false reports circulated in the media that Pakistani officials want to normalize relations with Israel. Pakistanis cannot turn a blind eye to the words of our founding father, Quaid Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who said, “Israel is an unlawful state; created by usurping land of Palestinian Muslims.” In response to the Israeli delegation when they demanded to recognize Israel, Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan said: “Our souls are not for sale.” Let me get the final words from the Quran (5: 82) on the debate of recognizing Israel, “You will certainly find Jews and idolaters as the greatest enemies of the Muslims.”

The writer is a Research Analyst at Kunming University of Science and Technology, China and can be reached at Email: [email protected]  Mobile No. +8615559837189