| Perv has a death wish... |
Musharraf, who resigned in 2008 in disgrace, has said he plans to return to Pakistan this month, despite possible arrest, in order to participate in a parliamentary election due by 2013.
| Praising Israel will certainly help his chances... |
Speaking in favor of relations with Israel could make Musharraf more unpopular, especially among militants who made several attempts on his life with bombings because of his support for the US "war on terror" following the 9/11 attacks. Those same groups want the destruction of Israel.
"There is nothing to lose by trying to get on Israel's good side," Musharraf, a former army chief, told the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an interview carried on its website. "Pakistan also needs to keep readjusting its diplomatic stand toward Israel based on the mere fact that it exists and is not going away."
| So long, Perv, nice knowing ya... |
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on Musharraf's remarks.
Pakistan has been a staunch supporter of demands for a Palestinian state. Pakistan and Israel, however, have maintained covert contacts for decades, officials have said. According to an October 2009 US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, the head of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said he had contacted Israeli officials to head off potential attacks on Israeli targets in India.
A senior ISI official said the agency has never established any contacts not authorized by the government to do things which were not in the interests of Pakistan.
| Easy dodge: all the contacts were in the interests of Pakistain. Or at least in the interests of the ISI... |
| The same thing in the mind of the ISI, surely. |
Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, said Israel's influence in the United States and its relations with Pakistan's main rival, India, can help Pakistan gain influence abroad. The first public talks between Israel and Pakistan were held in 2005. They were described as a "huge breakthrough" by then Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, but sparked fury in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation that is home to some of the world's most
"I felt I needed to test the waters in Pakistan when it comes to Israel," Musharraf said. "We have been anti-Israel in Pakistan because of Palestine ... But I believe in realism and in assessing ground realities."