Pakistan — an Israel without America

Many people like to draw parallels between states of Pakistan and Israel

Many people like to draw parallels between the states of Pakistan and Israel. They view many similarities such as both the states being created for people belonging to a certain faith: Israel for Jews and Pakistan for Muslims. There are other similarities usually cited as well. However, what almost everyone misses is the fact that Israel is made up of people who did not live on the land that today calls itself Israel. Those people were brought in from Europe and the Soviet Union and dumped into Palestine. That is when the Nakba and the unfortunate incident of the creation of the state of Israel happened.

Pakistanis did not come from Europe or elsewhere. They lived right here and this was their land for generations. Some migration did take place during the creation of Pakistan and India but it was not like all Indians came from Pakistan or all the Pakistanis came from India and it happened over the land they already called home.

Pakistan may resemble Israel in another aspect. Israel is the one state in the Middle East that is loathed by all of its neighbours. The leadership of the countries surrounding Israel is in the firm control of the United States due to which those countries are able to prevent allowing their citizens’ anger to be expressed toward Israel in any meaningful and actionable way. Nevertheless, if democratic governments are allowed to flourish in those countries, it would mean the true expression of the people’s aspirations, which would be a bad day for Israel.

Pakistan shares that with Israel. Almost every country in its neighbourhood despises Pakistan. Only Afghanistan’s Taliban used to be allies of Pakistan. I am not sure if I can use that sentence in present tense. Pakistan took all the heat over its support for the Taliban during the US occupation of Afghanistan. When the time has come to reap the fruits of that relationship, somehow, Pakistan is finding itself to be at loggerheads with that ally.

I know many Afghans here in America. For the past 12 or so years that I have interacted with them, they hated me for being of Pakistani origin. But their hatred was for Pakistan’s not so secret friendship with the Taliban. Today, they hate me but not for Pakistan’s friendship with the Taliban but rather for the friction that exists between the two erstwhile friends. What a perfect case of failed diplomacy. How do you water a tree for decades and when it is time for the fruit to be ripe, you are distant from the tree?

We may not be able to see it right now but this could be the beginning of a much bigger security threat to Pakistan. And it wouldn’t be from Afghanistan but from India. When Pakistan lost the confidence of the Bengalis, India exploited that situation and the result was a balkanisation of the land of the pure. India would like nothing more than befriending the Taliban along with the US blessing and denying Pakistan the strategic depth it so craves in the event of an aggressive India from the eastern border. Many do not understand the concept of strategic depth. For simplicity, just look at the map of Pakistan, it is tall and thin. There is more distance between the north and the south but not much between the east and the west. So, if there is ever an attack from the east, meaning India, Pakistan would need space to move back into the west so as to better position itself to fight. And that western space is Afghanistan. Only a friendly Afghanistan would allow Pakistan that space. But that friendly Afghanistan has been lost actually. And just like Israel, Pakistan would soon find itself to be surrounded by all states that might want to do some harm to this country. Unlike Israel though, Pakistan does not have America on its side. And China is never assertive and protective of Pakistan like America is of Israel.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2024.

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