In 2018, Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu, while on an official visit to India, stated that Israel is not an enemy of Pakistan and that Pakistan "should not behave like an enemy" towards Israel.[5][6]
Following the success of theAbraham Accords in 2020, erstwhile Pakistani prime ministerImran Khan disclosed that theUnited States and "at least one other country" had been urging his administration to normalize ties with Israel. He did not reveal the countries' names and did not say whether or not they were from theMuslim world, but explained that "the pressure is because ofIsrael's deep impact in the United States,"[7] and that "Israel’s lobby is the most powerful, and that’s whyAmerica’s whole Middle East policy is controlled by Israel."[8] Khan's administration later reiterated that Pakistan would not establish any official bilateral relationship with Israel until a "viable, independent, and contiguous" country is created for and accepted by the Palestinians.[9][10]
On October 12, 1945, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said,[13][14]
"Every man and woman of the Muslim world will die before Jewry seizes Jerusalem. I hope the Jews will not succeed in their nefarious designs and I wish Britain and America should keep their hand off and then I will see how the Jews conquer Jerusalem. The Jews, over half a million, have already been accommodated in Jerusalem against the wishes of the people. May I know which other country has accommodated them? If domination and exploitation are carried now, there will be no peace and end of wars."
ThePakistan Air Force sent a group of itsfighter pilots to engage the Israelis in combat during the1967 Six-Day War and the1973 Yom Kippur War, greatly bolstering the Palestinians who were suffering repeated defeats to theIsrael Defense Forces. A Pakistani fighter pilot,Saiful Azam, had shot down at least four Israeli fighter planes during the Six-Day War.[19] After the Yom Kippur War,Pakistan and thePLO signed an agreement for training PLO officers in Pakistani military institutions.[20] During the1982 Israel-Lebanon War, irregular Pakistani volunteers served in the PLO and 50 were taken prisoner during theSiege of Beirut.
The relationship between Pakistan and Israel continued to be ridden with hostilities following these direct engagements, and whenMossad was unable to stopPakistan's nuclear weapons program from making major developments, a plan to bomb Pakistani nuclear facilities in a similar fashion toOperation Opera was authorized. Israel subsequently made contact withIndia in an effort to gain support and secure a launching point for Israel's aircraft. However, India refused to allow Israeli aircraft to station on its soil, whereas Pakistan'sInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had discovered the plan and prepared suicidal one-way retaliatory measures to bomb strategic sites in Israel.[21][22]
According toTime Magazine,French intellectualBernard-Henri Lévy said thatDaniel Pearl, aJewish American journalist, was assassinated by elements with backing from Pakistan's ISI over his alleged role in attempting to gather information linking a continued relationship between the ISI and theTaliban.[23] According to other reports fromBBC andTime,Pakistani militants murdered him because of their belief that Pearl was an Israeli Mossad agent who had infiltrated Pakistan under the cover of being anAmerican journalist.[24][25]
Inscription on a Pakistani passport forbidding travel to Israel.
Pakistan's religiously-oriented political parties such asJamaat-e-Islami and militant groups such asLashkar-e-Taiba fiercely oppose any relationship with Israel, and have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel due to its standing as an alleged sworn enemy of Pakistan.[26][27] Currently, as Pakistan refuses to recognize Israel until a viable solution is reached with Palestine, all Pakistani citizens are unable to travel to Israel, with Pakistani passports bearing an inscription outlining the invalidity of the passport for this purpose.[28][29][30]
Tashbih Sayyed was a well-known Pakistani-American scholar andZionist who openly expressed his support for relations between Israel and Pakistan in many of his columns and writings throughout his journalistic career.[31]
Israeli attitudes towards Pakistan
In the 1980s, Israel was said to have planned, with or without Indian assistance, a possible attack onPakistan's nuclear facilities[21][22] that would be reminiscent of the Israeli attack previously carried out on anIraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. Using satellite imagery and intelligence information, Israel reportedly built a full-scale mock-up of theKahuta nuclear facility in theNegev desert region where Israeli pilots inF-16 andF-15 squadrons practiced mock attacks.
According toThe Asian Age,British journalistsAdrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark stated in their bookDeception: Pakistan, the US and the Global Weapons Conspiracy that theIsraeli Air Force was to launch an air attack on Pakistan's nuclear facility in Kahuta sometime during the mid-1980s from an airfield inJamnagar,Gujarat, India. The book claims that "in March 1984,Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi signed off (on) the Israeli-led operation bringing India, Pakistan and Israel to within a hair's breadth of a nuclear conflagration".[32][page needed] Israel's plan met with disapproval from some Indian officials on the grounds that Israel would not face any major consequences after the strike while India would surely face full-scale retaliation—possibly nuclear—from Pakistan for its involvement in the Israeli attack. The plan was discouraged out of the fear of afourth Indo-Pakistani war starting as a consequence of this operation, and was shelved indefinitely after Indira Gandhiwas assassinated in 1984.
A paper published in theU.S. Air Force Air University system—India Thwarts Israeli Destruction of Pakistan's "Islamic Bomb"—also confirmed this plan's existence. It stated that "Israeli interest in destroying Pakistan's Kahuta reactor to scuttle the 'Islamic bomb' was blocked by India's refusal to grant landing and refuelling rights to Israeli warplanes in 1982." India's refusal to cooperate forced Israel—which on its part wanted the attack to be ajoint Indian-Israeli strike to avoid being held solely responsible—to drop the plan.[33]
Despite their hostilities, both countries are reported to have directorates to deal with each other at an intelligence level.[35] The history ofIsraeli–Pakistani intelligence cooperation dates back to at least the early 1980s, whenPakistani PresidentMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq directed theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to establish contact with Israel'sMossad.[36] Intelligence offices were set up at both countries' embassies inWashington, where the ISI,MI6,CIA and Mossad ran a decade-long anti-Soviet operation inAfghanistan, codenamedOperation Cyclone.[37] During this operation, Israel supplied Soviet-made weaponry (seized fromPalestinian militants) to theAfghan mujahideen, who were wagingguerrilla warfare against theSoviet military following itsinvasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan and Israel cooperated very closely during the entirety of the conflict and thePakistani military—which was covertly engaging Soviet aircraft (by posing as an Afghan rebel force) and providing the mujahideen with funds and weapons—received a generous amount of Israeli armaments and aid as a result.[37]
WikiLeaks, in a disclosedUnited States diplomatic cable, revealed that around early 2008, Pakistan's ISI had secretly passed on vital intelligence and data to Israel's Mossad. The ISI had intercepted information alluding to a possible major attack by terrorists inMumbai,India that Israeli citizens may be targeted in. This turned out to be a valid report as on 26 November 2008, the notoriousMumbai terrorist attacks were carried out byLashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist group which had, among other targets, attacked aJewish centre known as theNariman House.[38] Following these attacks, It was reported that PakistaniLieutenant-GeneralAhmad Shuja Pasha was in direct contact with Israel's Mossad.[39]
During theCold War, Israel was part of the United States-ledWestern Bloc to whichnon-aligned Pakistan was allied, whereas non-aligned India was allied to the Soviet Union-ledEastern Bloc. Consequently, India supported theSoviets in Afghanistan as well as the pro-Soviet Afghan leaderMohammad Najibullah. American-allied Pakistan and Israel strongly opposed the Soviet invasion, and Israel and the United States ran arms and funds to and through Pakistan in support of the Afghan mujahideen. Israel had captured the Soviet armaments from Palestinian and other Arab groups (who were all supported by the Soviet Union) from previous conflicts.[37]
Normalization of ties
Discussions on Diplomatic ties
SomeIsraeli leaders believe that diplomatic relations withPakistan should be established as the latter could possibly serve as a bridge or mediator betweenIsrael and theMuslim world, including theArab states.[40] Although the governments of Israel and Pakistan do not officially have diplomatic relations with each other, there have been a number of instances of close contact and cooperation between the two states.[41] According to the Pakistani news outletDaily Jang, there are continuous reports that many top Pakistani leaders and representatives have visited Israel.[42] FormerForeign Minister of PakistanKhurshid Kasuri supported the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Israel.[43] FormerPakistani PresidentPervez Musharraf has openly spoken for the immediate pursuit of close diplomatic relations with Israel as soon as theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict reaches a viable solution. He expressed that Pakistan will full-heartedly recognize Israel and come forward for open relations when atwo-state solution that gives equal opportunities to thePalestinians and Israelis is achieved and peace is restored. He is the firstPakistani to be interviewed byAmerican-IsraeliHaaretz writerDanna Harman inLondon.[44] In 2016, a Pakistani Ph.D. scholar and writer, Malik Shah Rukh, started theIsrael–Pakistan Friendship Group, which campaigns for a diplomatic relationship between the two nations.Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, on an official visit toIndia in 2017, responded to speculations that Israel's engagement in pursuing closer ties with India was to bolster its position against Pakistan, stating "We [Israel] are not an enemy of Pakistan and Pakistan should not be our enemy either." Following this, in 2018, widespread news (especially in Israeli media outlets) had begun to surface about an Israeli passenger aircraft stopping and staying in Pakistan for a day—stirring rumours that Israeli diplomats had made a covert official visit to Pakistan. There have been increased calls in Pakistan for pursuit of relations with Israel in light of what some Pakistanis view as the Arab world's naked abandonment of Pakistan—which had diplomatically, financially and militarily supported theArabs against Israel during theArab-Israeli wars—in regards to theKashmir conflict with India.[45][46][47] Following Pakistan's agreement to join theBoard of Peace, the country's Foreign Office stated this does not mean it is going to join the Abraham Accords, as it is committed to Palestine.[48]
Alleged Military links
Britain'sDepartment for Business, Innovation and Skills revealed in 2013 that Israel had exported military technology to Pakistan. It was also reported that Israel sought to purchase British military equipment such as electronic warfare systems and military-grade aircraft parts that were meant for the Pakistanis.[49] Israel and Pakistan both immediately denied the report and called the revelations "misleading".[50] It was unknown why Israel was possibly exporting military equipment to Pakistan covertly, but speculations were made that could be to bolster Pakistan's fight againstinsurgents andterrorists waging wars inside the country.
Sports ties
Israel and Pakistan have not participated in any sports together with the exception of a single football match in which they played against each other at the 1960AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. During the2002 Wimbledon Open, Israeli tennis playerAmir Hadad teamed up with Pakistani tennis playerAisam-ul-Haq Qureshi to play in the 3rd round doubles together. The duo would later break news headlines as the first open Israeli-Pakistani partnership anywhere, which was positively received in Israel and criticized in Pakistan.[51]
Dan Kiesel, anIsraeli Jew withGerman citizenship, served as thePakistan national cricket team's trainer and physiotherapist while living inLahore.[52] During his time in Lahore, which he described as "a beautiful city", Kiesel said he never hid his identity as an Israeli Jew and that he never faced any problems or felt threatened as a result of this.[52]
Timeline
1948—Various news outlets report that first contact betweenPakistan andIsrael were made in the early days ofPakistan's independence in August 1947, whenIsraeli Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion sent a secret message via telegram toMuhammad Ali Jinnah (the founder of Pakistan) asking him to recognize Israel when itdeclares independence, which happened in 1948. Jinnah reportedly did not give any particular response to Israel, possibly due to his severely deteriorating health and succumbed to his illnesses later that year.
1949—Philippine Airlines became the only carrier to establish a direct air link betweenKarachi andTel Aviv as a sector on theirManila–London service,[53] however it is not known whether they had traffic rights between the two which would allow passengers and cargo to be flown on the route.
1950—Initial contact between thePakistani ambassador in London and representatives of Israel andJewish organizations was made in early 1950 in an attempt to open legations in Karachi or at least conduct trade openly.
1953—A meeting took place inNew York between Pakistani diplomatZafrullah Khan and Israeli diplomatAbba Eban on January 14 to discuss Israeli–Pakistani relations.[18]
1981—After Israel's attack onIraq'sOsirak nuclear reactor, a similar plan to attack Pakistan'sKahuta nuclear facility with the help ofIndia was foiled when Pakistani intelligence discovered the plan and foiled it by taking preventative measures, including plans for retaliatory airstrikes on critical facilities in Israel.[54][32][page needed]
2001—Pakistan's ISI passed intelligence about the nuclear ambitions of Iran andLibya, whose program allegedly had the help of Pakistani scientists.[55][page needed]
2004—Pakistan postponed a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation meeting scheduled in Islamabad for March, which would have also been attended by Israel's minister for agricultureIsrael Katz. It would have been the first visit by an Israeli minister to Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign ministry insisted that while Katz may have been a member of the UN delegation, he was not issued an invitation by Pakistan. However, Katz stated he had been invited to Pakistan and was looking forward to the visit. According to Katz, relations between the two sides had improved since they were collaborating with the United States in thewar on terror.[57]
2005—Theforeign ministers of the two countries,Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri andSilvan Shalom, held official talks for the first time, in Istanbul on 1 September.[58] Before the meeting, Musharraf had met Palestinian presidentMahmoud Abbas and Saudi ArabianKing Abdullah, both of whom supported the talks.[58] Shalom hailed the talks as having a "tremendous significance" in regards to not only Israel's relations with Pakistan, but with theMuslim world. Describing it as a "historic meeting", he was optimistic about establishing a "full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan as we would like it with all Muslim and Arab countries".[58] However, following the meeting, Musharraf said Pakistan would not recognize the State of Israel until anindependent Palestinian state is established[59]—in Musharraf's words: "Pakistan will eventually recognize Israel".[60] On 15 September, Israeli media reported that Musharraf and Israeli prime ministerAriel Sharon had a cordial but informal interaction during theWorld Summit at the UN Headquarters.[61]
2005—On 17 September, Pervez Musharraf was invited to address theAmerican Jewish Congress in New York at a dinner hosted byJack Rosen in his honour. The event came in the backdrop of Pakistan's decision to "engage Israel" following the latter's pullout from Gaza and the West Bank.[62] Musharraf was given a standing ovation by Jewish Americans,[62] and talked about his doctrine ofEnlightened Moderation while adding that Pakistan wanted to pursue formal bilateral ties with Israel. He also said that "Pakistan has no direct conflict with Israel, and we are not a threat to Israel's security. We believe Israel represents no threat to Pakistan's national security. But our people have deep sympathy for the Palestinian people, and their legitimate desire for a state".[62][63] Visibly moved by the reception, he added that he did not expect a Pakistani leader "to be greeted by this community with this sort of ovation".[62]
2010—According to unconfirmed "leaked"American diplomatic cables, the head of Pakistan's ISI,Lieutenant-GeneralAhmad Shuja Pasha passed on intelligence of the discovery of potential terrorist attacks inMumbai, India to Israel through Washington. According to the cable, "He had been in direct touch with the Israelis on possible threats against Israeli targets in India." A few weeks before the cable was written, Israel had issued a travel advisory warning of possible attacks against Jewish sites in India.[38][64]
2011—Israel was alleged to have exportedBritish military technology to Pakistan.[49][50]
2012—British-Pakistani MPSajid Javid made a speech which was very positively received by theJewish Chronicle, the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.[65] Known for his pro-Israel views, Javid was tipped as the futureprime minister, to which a guest reportedly replied: "Of Britain, or Israel?"[66]
2016—A Pakistani PhD scholar and writer, Malik Shah Rukh, started theIsrael-Pakistan Friendship Group, which campaigns for a diplomatic relationship between the two nations.
2017—During an official visit to India, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu dismissed suggestions that his country's partnership with India is a threat to Pakistan, saying, "We (Israel) are not enemies of Pakistan and Pakistan should not be our enemy either."[68]
2018—It was speculated by Israel's largest newspaper that an Israeli business jet landed and stayed in Islamabad for ten hours.[69] According to the details, the private aircraft had departed Tel Aviv with a brief stopover inAmman, where it assigned itself a newcall sign en route to Islamabad. The alleged trip happened a day beforeBenjamin Netanyahu'sstate visit to Oman.[70] There was further talk that this could have been the first visit to Pakistan by Benjamin Netanyahu or high-ranking Israeli officials.[69] Responding to the media frenzy, Pakistani government officials rejected the veracity of the report and denied that any such visit took place.[70] However, a pilot and three staff members atNur Khan Airbase privately confirmed to theMiddle East Eye that they had seen the aircraft and witnessed a vehicle receive a delegation at the steps of the plane.[71]
2020—Following the U.S.-brokerednormalization agreement and establishment of diplomatic ties between the UAE and Israel, with Muslim nationsBahrain andSudan also following suit, Pakistani prime ministerImran Khan dismissed any possibility of his country doing the same, stating that "Pakistan will never recognize Israel until Palestinians are given their right of a just settlement."[72] According to Khan, this was also in line with the stated position of Pakistan's founder, Jinnah.[72] In a later interview, Khan hinted that there had been "pressure" on Pakistan from some quarters in the United States and certain Muslim countries with whom Pakistan enjoyed "good relations" (speculatively Saudi Arabia)[73] to recognise Israel, however Pakistan would maintain its position.[74] In a television interview with Israel'si24 News, Pakistani journalistMubasher Lucman supported the idea of Pakistan having diplomatic ties with Israel albeit without the involvement of any third party, remarks which earned him domestic backlash and criticism.[75][76]
2020—A political aide of prime minister Imran Khan,Zulfi Bukhari, was alleged to have visited Tel Aviv, Israel, using his British passport aboard a Pakistani military jet which landed in Amman in November. Bukhari reportedly met with Mossad's chiefYossi Cohen to deliver a message from Khan and Pakistan's army chief, generalQamar Javed Bajwa. Bukhari denied the reports. However, the Israeli newspaperHaaretz maintained its claim regarding the trip.[77]
2022—A 15-member delegation includingPakistan Television (PTV) journalist Ahmed Qureshi, Pakistani Jewish citizen Fishel Benkhald, and a group of Pakistani-Americans visited Israel to participate in an interfaith harmony dialogue. The trip was sponsored by the non-governmental organisationSharaka to facilitate engagement between Muslims and Jews. The delegation met Israeli presidentIsaac Herzog and diplomatDani Dayan among others. Qureshi claimed that former prime minister Imran Khan had been willing to establish contacts with Israel, and that the delegation's trip had also been approved by his government.[78][79] Israeli president Herzog later publicly acknowledged the meeting at theWorld Economic Forum: "And I must say this was an amazing experience. We haven't had a group of Pakistani leaders in Israel in such scope. And that all stems from the Abraham Accords, meaning Jews and Muslims can dwell together in the region...".[80]
2023—Pakistan strongly supports Palestinians in Gaza afterGaza war breaks out. "The first lesson of the Gaza war is that the so-called recognition of Israel debate or discussion in Pakistan has been buried, and rightly so," SenatorMushahid Hussain, the defense committee chair of the upper house of the Pakistani parliament, said in an interview with the media.[81]
^P. R. Kumaraswamy (June 1997)."The Strangely Parallel Careers of Israel and Pakistan".The Middle East Quarterly.IV (2):31–39. Retrieved4 July 2012.Pakistan is like Israel, an ideological state. Take out the Judaism from Israel and it will fall like a house of cards. Take Islam out of Pakistan and make it a secular state; it would collapse. —Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan's ruler, December 1981
^abcdefgMoshe Yegar (2007)."Pakistan and Israel".Dr. Moshe Yegar, Jewish Political Studies Review. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Archived fromthe original on 10 October 2008.
^abMoshe Yegar, "Pakistan and Israel",Jewish Political Studies Review 19:3–4 (Fall 2007)
^Mushahid Hussain, "How Pakistan Views Israel and the Palestinians",Middle East International, September 1988, 21; P. R. Kumaraswamy,Beyond the Veil: Israel–Pakistan Relations (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2000), 34
^abIndia Thwarts Israeli Destruction of Pakistan's "Islamic Bomb", McNair Paper Number 41, Radical Responses to Radical Regimes: Evaluating Preemptive Counter-Proliferation, May 1995
^Ayesha Siddiqa (1994)."Is Pakistan like Israel or North Korea?".The Express Tribune. Retrieved6 June 2010.Pakistan has a love-hate relationship with Israel. While we abhor Tel Aviv, secretly powerful Pakistanis happily claim similarities between the two states starting with the fact that both Israel and Pakistan were created on the basis of a religious identity.
^abCharlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times, by George Crile, Grove Press, 2007, Chapter 10.
"Pakistan Israel Friendship Group".Israel Pakistan Friendship Group. 6 January 2018. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved6 January 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
