Lt-Gen ® Asad Durrani
Since the massacre in Gaza continued despite widespread condemnation and outcry, it was obvious that Israel and her partners in crime were pretty confident that the rest of the world would simply twiddle their thumbs or fire from the lips. Countries like Pakistan had a good excuse for doing nothing – they’ve problems at home and their economies were tanking. No idea how some of the potent powers like China, Russia, and Turkey rationalised their unwillingness to intervene – even though it was in their larger interest. The American factor and the risk of a conflagration might have afforded them a ruse to watch this Greek tragedy from the side lines. Protests in the western world were very heart-warming but as one must have no0ced they did not persuade even their own governments to revise the policies.
And then we have all the bleeding hearts who only did some wishful thinking.
They consoled themselves that as the Palestinian casualties went up, Israel would lose sympathy and support. The problem is that Tel-Aviv couldn’t be bothered about some benevolent claptrap as long as it has at its beck and call, America; incidentally, a country that’s a role model for all who prefer to be feared rather than loved. Indeed, there is a good number amongst us who’re in the business of grasping at straws. Any news, real or fake, that suggested that the Israeli forces might be in trouble would have them believe that this rogue entity was now about to hit the bucket, and hence they could sit back and watch the good prevailing over the evil. Heard a rumour that the conflict had crippled Israel’s economy and the country was running out of ammo. The war of course has its costs but as the affluent West has picked up the tab, Israel is not yet bankrupt. Half a million of its citizens might have left but its ability to bomb the Gazans does not seem to have been affected.
Nearing a year now and the hot air so profusely blown in support of the Palestinians has cooled down. Some like the UN Secretary General must still make an odd mundane statement. Leaders of countries like ours asking the world to take notice was once a matter best ignored; now it sounds pathetic. Just in case some of us had hoped that after the world’s top court declared the war illegal all others would join hands to round up the culprits to hang them with the tallest trees in the desert, they must have finally swallowed the bitter pill that in the nation-state system humanity, morality, and legality take the hindmost seats – only to be called upon when it suits a particular policy. We had a western ambassador in Islamabad who after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, moaned that his faith in the rule-based world had shattered. The issue was with his assumption and not with the rule. Shorn of frills, it has always read: “our friends need not get any UN cover to attack Yugoslavia, Iraq, or Libya, but our enemy must; even if the world’s mightiest alliance was breathing down its neck.
The other factor that’s now screaming from the roof top is that whereas the state prefers to hide in its comfort zone, onus of sticking one’s neck out to change the ground realities was all on the non-state actors. In our case, they do even better: provide sustenance to the poor who were always ignored by the establishment; grow food for all; cover the yawning gaps left by the officialdom in health, education, and security sectors – but only because they remain outside the state’s stranglehold. Bring them in the tax net and before we know the bureaucracy would be milking them dry and the hoi poli would die of hunger.
There were times we sent these loose cannons to places like Bosnia, Chechnya, and against Israel. Now that our nomenklatura has been hired (the Arab World even at the best of times was led by one satrap or the other), only Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah would make a difference. If Israel and its collaborators were uneasy with these “terrorists”, it was absolutely understandable. The problem is that even our pragmatic elites are scared of them. Reminds me of a few colleagues who were so uncomfortable with the uprising in Kashmir of the early 1990s, that they asked me to tell the Indians to nip this evil in the bud. Mercifully, we have allies like Modi and Doval who will make sure that the freedom movement in the IHK remained alive and kicking. A young lady was very honest: “I endorse the struggle against oppression; as long as it’s waged away from our borders”.
And I fully sympathise with my peace-loving compatriots who hate the warring Afghans and the Mullah Regime in Iran. The Taliban fought for twenty years and won; the Iranians have remained in the western crosswire for their support of groups who could still fight. The trouble is that they make us feel small. We don’t know what we can do about Iran except occasionally field the sectarian card, but the Afghans can be scapegoated for all our ills; those who took refuge here could be expelled; and the Kabul Regime pilloried for being ungrateful despite all the support we rendered when the country was under occupation – but was now unwilling to round up the TPP and hand them over to us. The irony is that even those amongst us who have dealt with Afghanistan and know that it cannot be done, still insist that the Taliban do it. It’s physically impossible; against the tribal traditions, especially since the TTP had supported the TTA; and is precisely the stand we took when asked to do something against the Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan.
This may seem to be a bit of digression, but the idea was to posit that the state system was not suited to stand up for sublime causes. Like human rights and environment that have been hijacked by the soldiers of fortune (must have noticed how the NGOs on such subjects mushroomed, made money, and disappeared before we could do any forensic audit), the establishments too work for their own wellbeing. It’s futile therefore to blame Netanyahu or his minions in Washington for the atrocities in the Middle East. Entities like Egypt, Jordon, and Saudi Arabia who’re waiting for the Hamas irritation to move out their way so that they could get on with their Abrahamic or Satanic Accords, are the main villains.
I do not know what will happen after Haniyeh’s assassination, but there is a chance that those who were banking on the peace talks to get back to business as usual would finally see through the charade being staged by Blinken & Co. Israel cannot afford to survive in that neighbourhood except as a hegemon – otherwise it would be buried in the Arabian deserts or drowned in the Red See. Its two mentors, the US and UK, too have always followed the policy of perpetua0ng wars by all other means. Zelensky was all set to conclude a ceasefire with Pu0n within a month of the outbreak of the war. Boris Johnson dissuaded him, and Ukraine keeps Europe and Russia embroiled in a conflict that neither wants. British diplomats and American drones played a big role in prolonging the turmoil in Afghanistan that would never have started if Rumsfeld the then American Viceroy in Kabul had accepted the Taliban offer to make peace with Karzai.
Anyone who watch channels like the Animal Kingdom might have learnt how a predator takes out one zebra at a time but gives horned buffalos a wide pass because they build a cauldron. It’s now up to us to be dealt with piecemeal by Israel and her patrons or line up behind Iran and its proxies to get rid of the extra regional influence in the Middle East – quite the policy followed by Pakistan and some others in the region to let NATO get out of the Afghan quagmire. Since the chances of the later are practically non-existent, only some brave hearts operating outside the state system provide us some hope.
Must grudgingly acknowledge that our adversaries have paralysed our rulers to act in their own interest but let’s also applaud our crusaders for never saying die.
The author is the former Chief of Inter Services Intelligence, Govt of Pakistan.
