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America in the Middle East

Analysis: US-brokered ties


By Ryan Jones
September 08, 2005

Israel and, based on a cursory scan of the international press, much of the world have been abuzz this week with news of the Jewish state?s ?historic? high-level meeting with one of its self-proclaimed enemies, Pakistan.

As is their want, peace-starved Israeli Jews took last week?s meeting in Istanbul between their foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Mehmud Kasuri, to mean a new dawn of coexistence had arrived.

The price they paid for that single meeting, which was widely protested in the Muslim world, was the surrender of strategic parts of their ancient homeland and the forced expulsion of some 10,000 Jewish civilians from their homes.

Was it worth it? Will there be peace between Israel and Pakistan, and if so, will other nations follow suit?

The word out of Islamabad: Israel should hold its horses.

Immediately following the meeting, Kasuri made it clear full diplomatic relations were not imminent.

On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz confirmed official recognition of the Jewish state was not in the offing, according to Germany?s DPA.

Furthermore, Islamabad said Aziz had ?talked to his counterparts in Jordan, Syria and Egypt,? and urged them to also reserve recognition of Israel until after a Palestinian Arab state had been born with Jerusalem as its capital.

These are not the statements of a nation on the brink of full diplomatic ties with Israel.

So why the meeting in Istanbul?

Some speculate the summit was an effort to check growing Israeli-Indian defense ties, but the timing ? just as Israel is completing its withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria ? is no coincidence.

On Monday, Middle East Newsline quoted US officials as saying the Bush Administration had been in contact with several Arab and Islamic allies recently, urging them to meet with Israeli officials in order to bolster Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

?These countries were asked to undertake some high-level gesture to highlight Sharon and the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,? one official said. ?The hope is that Arab and Islamic leaders will agree to meet Sharon during his visit to New York later this month.?

It seems just as Washington found an Israeli leader both willing and capable of uprooting the Jews from their land, his tenure as prime minister is in jeopardy of meeting an unceremonious end in early elections.

Sharon is likely to face off against rival Binyamin Netanyahu in a Likud primary election this November. He is expected to lose, as the voting will be conducted among the party?s central committee members, most of whom are none too pleased with Sharon for tossing aside Likud?s core platform in favor of unilateral retreat.

In steps Washington, fully aware of the enormous importance all Israelis place on forging ties with their neighbors, most of which have been trying to exterminate the Jewish state for over 50 years.

Helping Sharon to make contact with some of these states, even if only on a temporary basis, is certain to swing some votes in the prime minister?s favor.

What it all amounts to is a very cleverly concealed act of election tampering aimed at forwarding Washington?s strategic goal of birthing an Arab Muslim state on Israel?s biblical heartland, thus winning it the acclaim of the entire Muslim world.

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