WASHINGTON, 19 September 2005 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has become the first leader of a Muslim nation that has no diplomatic ties with Israel to hold a public dialogue with Jewish leaders, many of whom are already calling it an unprecedented event.
Musharraf told members during a dinner meeting with members of the American Jewish Congress on Saturday night that his country would take steps to build ties with Israel as the Middle East peace process progresses.
Musharraf’s historic address in New York began with bread being broken and prayers from the Qur’an recited before the Jewish audience.
He was given a standing ovation as he arrived for the meeting in which he called for the establishment of a Palestinian state to end violence in the Middle East and bring security to Israel.
“Israel must come to terms with geopolitical realities and allow justice to prevail for the Palestinians,” he said.
“I am convinced that peace in Palestine that does justice to both the Israelis and the Palestinians will bring to a close the sad chapter in the history of the Middle East (and) will revive the historical ties between Islam and Judaism.”
He also criticized Islamic societies for failing to embrace modernity. “Many of us remain wrapped in a time warp, still struggling to reconstruct our political, social and economic systems to respond to the challenges of our times,” he said.
“He was incredibly well received, and all the leadership of American Jewry was there — it was a very impressive gathering of American Jewish leadership,” said David Twersky, director of the AJC Council for World Jewry, the sponsor for the event.
“American Jews are hungry for acceptance and normalcy in their relationship with Muslims and Arabs, and this represented a gigantic step in that direction. It is an extremely positive development,” said Twersky.
The meeting comes three days after President Musharraf shook hands with Israel’s prime minister at the United Nations.
Both countries are said to have held two years of secret talks, which culminated in a meeting of their two foreign ministers in Turkey, two weeks ago. After the Istanbul talks Pakistan’s foreign minister said that his country had decided to “engage” with Israel after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
Musharraf said he wants this relationship with “the most distinguished and influential community in America, which is the flip side of the anti-Semitic canard of an evil conspiracy by Jewish organizations that controls Bush, or whatever, to the detriment of Muslims,” said Twersky.
“And here comes a person of Musharraf’s stature who said he’s honored to speak with us, its almost a paradigm shift.”
In conciliatory comments that Pakistani analysts called strikingly candid in the Muslim world, Musharraf recalled the tragedy of the Holocaust and acknowledged compassion shown by Jewish groups in helping stop ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and in combating anti-Islamic prejudice after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Pakistan has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in the Muslim world. But Musharraf said the strife since the creation of Israel in 1948 was an “aberration in the long history of Muslim-Jewish cooperation and coexistence.” Islam, Judaism and Christianity shared prophets and spiritual practices but were now needlessly “pitted against each other” — a situation it would take courage to reverse, he said. His remarks received several standing ovations from the audience of about 350 people.
Pakistan has never recognized the state of Israel, and his speech yesterday irked some American Muslim leaders.
“I strongly believe that there should be no relations with the state of Israel before a comprehensive peace settlement is established, which is satisfactory to Palestinians and after Israel adheres to all United Nations resolutions and international law,” said Nihad Awad, executive director to the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Otherwise any effort to move toward establishing relationship with Israel will undermine the Muslim world consensus on this very important and sensitive issue,” Awad said.
Asked if he thought the Bush administration had pushed Musharraf to a rapprochement with Israel, Awad said: “I don’t know who’s pushing who, but I strongly believe Pakistan is a major world player, and we have to keep this in consideration regarding the need to unify the Muslim world. I agree with Musharraf that Muslims don’t have anything against Jews per say, but does have issues with the state of Israel.”
