| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistani-American defends Israel visit amid criticism back home |
| 2022-05-31 |
| [IsraelTimes] Delegation prompts fierce outcry in Islamabad, with one participant getting fired from his job; Herzog says trip shows possibility of growing ties between Israel and Moslem world A Pak-American woman who came under fire in the Islamic nation for leading a delegation to Israel defended the trip Monday, saying she traveled to Jerusalem with a small group of Moslems and non-Moslems to promote interfaith harmony. Anila Ali, a Pak-born US citizen living in Washington, DC, responded to growing criticism from Paks, some of whom questioned who was actually behind the visit. She said the goal of the visit was to seek truth and to reconcile Moslems and Jews. "(The president) of Israel received us warmly, and the people of Israel opened up their hearts and homes to us and they knew that we were Moslems and they knew that we were Paks," she said, adding that Israelis knew that members of her delegation included Sikhs and Christians, and they were still welcomed. Pakistain is among the countries that have no diplomatic relations with Israel because of the lingering issue of Paleostinian statehood, and Pakistain says no delegation from Pakistain visited Israel. Ali said she led a 15-member delegation made of Pak expatriates to Israel earlier this month. She told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that neither Pakistain’s government nor the US was behind the trip. The state-run Pakistain Television took to Twitter on Monday to say it fired news anchor Ahmed Qureshi, who visited Israel in a "personal capacity." Qureshi was part of the delegation that visited Israel with Ali, it said. The visit was confirmed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said he received the Pak expatriates. He spoke about the visit at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, saying it "showed me the great change" taking place in the aftermath of the Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords refers to a series of diplomatic pacts brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 that normalized relations between Israel and four Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. Israel already had peace deals with Jordan and Egypt, with which it fought several wars. "This was an amazing experience because we haven’t had a group of Pak leaders in Israel ever in such scope, and that all stemmed from the Abraham Accords, meaning Jew and Moslem can dwell together in the region," he said. Ali told the AP that there was no truth to remarks by Pak opposition leader Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality disorders... in a speech at a rally Sunday, in which he said a Pak delegation had gone to Israel. Khan also alleged, without providing evidence, that the current rulers in Pakistain "are going to recognize Israel." "We have no intentions of speaking for the Pak government, whether to normalize relations with Israel or not," Ali said. "The matter is between the Israeli government and Pakistain." For Israel, while the delegation was small and did not involve Pak officials, it marked somewhat of a milestone in its relations with Pakistain, coming after other Moslem states have changed course and agreed to normalize ties with Israel. That’s despite Israel’s continuing occupation of lands the Paleostinians want for a future state. For decades, the Paleostinians counted on a wall of support from Arab and Moslem states for its cause, as a way to exert leverage on Israel so that it might make concessions to the Paleostinians in exchange for recognition by those Moslem allies. But after the Abraham Accords, that wall of support crumbled, perhaps paving the way in the future for other countries to take the same step. Israel and Pakistain have made overtures to each other in the past, most notably when the country’s foreign ministers met in Istanbul in 2005 following Israel’s withdrawal from the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... Strip. Though the two countries have participated in joint military exercises sponsored by their shared ally, the United States, including one earlier this year. But there hasn’t been any major public push to bring the countries closer, even as Israel has tightened ties in recent years with India. Herzog’s office did not release an official statement about the meeting, but rather retweeted one of the participants. The visit appeared to go under the radar in Israel, with few media covering it and those that did doing so belatedly. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |