By Ahmed Sheikh, Director Committee for Vatican Status for Nankana Sahib, Church of the holy Sepulcher & Haram Ash Sharif

CHICAGO: The recent New York Times story about 62 Israeli “tourists” sunbathing in the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir, has the hallmark of a Mossad operation gone sour. A few questions come to mind. How did a group of 62 Israeli tourists, all of them in the 20’s according to the Israeli Counsel in Bombay, managed to get in to the strife torn capital of Indian occupied Kashmir? How and why a large group of 62 battle-hardened Israeli tourists were given permission by New Delhi to enter Kashmir when all other foreigners (whether they be tourists, diplomats, newsmen or Amnesty International observers) have not been allowed in for the last 18 months because of an on-going civil insurgency, Even the story, which broke the news of an Israeli presence in Kashmir, by the New York Times correspondent Bernard Weinraub is datelined New Delhi (June 27,1991) as he is not permitted to visit Kashmir, on business or pleasure, as the Indian govt does not want the glare of international publicity on its Nazi-like program in the disputed territory of Kashmir which it is occupying in defiance of UN. Resolutions. It is common knowledge that the US State Department has had an advisory for some time recommending that travellers avoid Kashmir and Punjab (Khalistan) until further notice-the last advisory was issued on June 24, 1991.

Intentionally or otherwise the veteran NY Times correspondent Bernard Weinraub, sitting in Delhi, managed to overlook in his dispatch of June 27 the fact that Poonch, in Indian occupied Kashmir, is less than 60 miles, as the crow flies, from Pakistan’s small Kahuta Nuclear Research facility. This is the same nuclear reactor which has been an irritant in friendly US Pakistan relations for some time. Incidentally this nuclear facility has been targeted by jingoists in India and Israel for many years.

Even a novel has been written by New York Times best-selling author, Steve Shagan about an Israeli attack on Kahuta “Pillars of Fire”, Simon & Shuster pocket books, 1990. THIS is the same plant about which Milton R. Benjamin reported in the Washington Post, on Dec.30, 1982, that. “India said to eye raid on Pakistan’s Atom Plant at Kahuta”.

With this background it becomes obvious why the hush-hush arrival in Srinagar of a large group of 62 muscular, young Israeli tourists aroused suspicion among the partisan groups fighting for their lives against a brutal fascist occupying power. According to reports from Kashmir the Indians, as usual, bungled and combined operation and word was somehow leaked by a sympathetic Sikh pilot of unusual military activity at an airfield. One does not need a doctorate in Political Science to figure out, keeping in mind Israel’s “excellent” record of preemptive actions, that the company strong group of Israeli “tourists” were not sun bathing but were planning a 60 minute side trip of Kahuta on helicopters, painted with Pakistani insignia and colors, where they would have rendered the nuclear facility useless by planting a few pounds of explosives at the right places.

The possibility of a commando assault on Nuclear facilities is not a figment of a bestselling authors imagination but has been well researched by one Professor Bennet Ramberg author of the excellent book: Nuclear Plants as Weapons for the Enemy University of California at Berkeley, D.C. Heath & Company. A key passage in this book states; “Any nuclear facility is vulnerable to destruction by deliberate simultaneous sabotage by three or four commandos, with technical competence, assuming they penetrate the plants external defenses”. Thanks to detailed information on Pakistan’s radar, communication codes and the Kahuta plant provided to Israel by its Washington based spy Mr. Polard now serving a jail sentence, a helicopter borne force of 62 Israeli “tourists” could have penetrated the outer defenses of Pakistan’s nuclear research facility and put it out of commission in a matter of less than 10 minutes.

According to Professor Ramberg the safety features and safeguards is nuclear facilities, while reducing the likelihood of a nuclear accident, would be minimally effective or wholly ineffective in case of deliberate sabotage. Had the Israeli commando unit not been discovered, and they are undoubtedly the best in the world at what they do, one shudders to think what would have happened to the two nearby Pakistani twin cities of Islamabad/ Rawalpindi? It is assumed that the Pakistanis, once they realize how close they came 10 a national disaster, will offer their grateful thanks to the Almighty and perhaps Pay more attention to the nuclear facilities in Damonda/Nahalsoreq (Israel) and Tarapore/Trombay (India) which are much more vulnerable than Kahuta.

It is obvious the United States did not give a “wink and a nod” to Israel, for this operation, against Pakistan its loyal and faithful ally of 40 years. However it is possible, nay probable, that Tel-Aviv got the wrong impression, and felt encouraged by the State department’s one-sided statements on nuclear proliferation, to take preemptive action. Al these statements on nuclear proliferation do not say much on Israel’s clandestine nuclear program but react very vigorously to statements, postures and behavior of “Paper Caesars” that abound in the Muslim Middle East. It seems that this partisan attitude of the State Department is a result of the fact that nowhere in America think tanks and govt agencies does historical awareness of the Islamic world in general, and Middle East/South Asia in particular, extends much further than a generation. As a result the United States tends to depend on “colored” advice from chauvinistic Israel, colonial Britain/ France, greedy oil companies and pseudo experts like congressman Stephen Solarz all of whom have their own agenda not necessarily parallel to Washington’s, In the process the United States keeps stumbling, sometimes missing the boat, and ends up unwittingly strengthening “Islamic fundamentalists” at the expense of its Westernized friends and natural allies in the whole region. One shudders to think what would have happened to the pro western elite and fledgling democracy in Pakistan had the 62 Israeli “tourists” succeeded in their mission in Kahuta? Tehran of 1979 comes to mind immediately.

Americans generally seem to have difficulty understanding the “ardor” for nuclear research in the Middle East. It is very simple. It is a handy tool for the “Paper Caesars” (of which there are many in the region) to impress the burgeoning , uneducated deprived and ill-informed masses, Then there is the other major factor of no accountability as all nuclear programs in the region are shrouded in a cloak of national security millions of dollars can be spent with no questions asked, On top of that she the people living in these countries, majority of whom are illiterate, have lost their political will and have become accustomed to submitting to anything demanded from them by any group which somehow manages to get in control of the instruments of power. Therefore Americans in particular and the Free World in general, need not be unduly alarmed by tall claims of scientific/nuclear achievement accompanied by arrogant and boastful rhetoric that is the nature of the beast. One of the simplest tests of a society’s industrial sophistication is the ability to manufacture, a basic daily use item like, steel screws or different gauges. All the countries from Morocco to Malaysia have not been able to achieve self-sufficiency in this basic item to this day except for the possible exception of Turkey and another country. This should give an idea of how long it will take for any one of these countries to produce, on their own, a nuclear weapon of mass destruction which would explode on command.

 Claiming possession of a Nuclear Bomb is nothing new to the Middle East. Most people have forgotten that a “nuclear bomb” was introduced into the Middle East in the 1940’s by a Syrian President by the name of Shukry Al Kuwaitly. He boasted at that time that a German scientist in Damascus had perfected a nuclear bomb with which he was going to wipe out the Jewish presence in Palestine. His declaration got him some headlines, and he strutted around for a lite while, till the Israelis came and whipped and his country back to reality. After that there was a coup tat and a new ruler appeared in Damascus. Since then Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Algeria and Pakistan have started nuclear programs which, one can safely assume, area continuation of the “Shukriy Al Kuwaitly” syndrome.

There is not a chance of any Islamic country going Nuclear in the next decade or two or three, What the United States (Europe and Japan) should be conceded about is Israel which is at least 30 years ahead of its neighbors. The western world needs to purr Israel on a tight leash as it has its own agenda not necessarily parallel to its own. For example a majority of Israelis hope that God will destroy one of Islam’s holiest shrines the Haram Ash Sharif Masjid Al Aqsa located on a plot of land, which through an extraordinary conjunction of mythologies, is hallowed by the world’s three monotheistic religions Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Some Israelis are itching to lend “God a helping hand to destroy these mosques on the Temple Mound” according to the words of Meir Yehuda Getz, the very influential Rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, as quoted verbatim in the excellent book: “Jerusalem has proved, without a doubt, that the Pakistan Prime Minister’s call on June 6, for regional talks on proliferation, was very timely but very flawed. It did not include Israel, a regional nuclear super power with nuclear bombs in the basement, a reliable delivery system and geopolitical ambitions stretching from Morocco to Pakistan to quote Israel’s ex-defense minister Arial. The United States/Soviet Union/China now have the opportunity to invite Israel to the Pakistani proposed Nuclear Proliferation talks where it could join India and Pakistan to declare the Middle East and South Asia a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone without which no stand-down is possible or probable. If India refuses to join the nuclear proliferation meeting then the United States should encourage talks between the only two countries whose creation in the 1940’s was based on religion and partition, Pakistan and Israel Khalistan will soon be the third. Perhaps Pakistan and Israel could meet in a country like Turkey which is friendly to both. The aborted Israeli commando raid on Kahuta gives them an excellent reason to talk. They could start the meeting by signing a treaty not to attack each other’s nuclear research reactors, located at Damon and Kahuta, both of which are vulnerable to hostile action located as they are 5 minutes from unfriendly borders.

Perhaps Israel could usher in a new era in its relationship with the Islamic world by allaying, at the nuclear proliferation meeting; the apprehensions of Muslims everywhere that it plans to destroy the harm Ash Sharif to build the third temple. It seems as if the time has come for Israel to be magnanimous and light unto other nations by carrying out its solemn pledge made to the United Nations that “Israeli would not claim exclusive jurisdiction or unilateral responsibility in the Holy Places of Christendom or Islam” and would discuss arrangements for growing effect to this principle. Mr. Abba Ebb and felt (“My country-The Story of Modem Israel, Random House New York) that this unique gesture contains a seed of a political settlement with its neighbors it still does. Perhaps Israel can follow the example of the Italian govt which, after many years of controversy with the Papacy, established the Vatican City under the 1929 Lateran Treaty. A similar arrangement could be made for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Haram Ash Sharif and other Christian and Muslim shrines located in Israel. Even if a Vatican like treaty is not signed tomorrow at least Christians, Jews and Muslims from all over the world, from all walks of life, from different schools of thought and distinct ethnic backgrounds and nationalities could debate and discuss with candor a method of co-existing peacefully in a land considered holy by all. Maybe Israel and its neighbors can take a cue from the dialogue now taking place, between two ancient enemies (and now friends) the Sikhs and the Muslims of South Asia, about a Vatican like status for the holy Sikh shrine of Nankana Sahib located in Pakistan. The brave young Israeli “tourist” who died in Srinagar in the service of his country and the two valiant Kashmir Freedom Fighters who were killed serving their cause would not have died in vain if the aborted Israeli raid results in negotiation and peace rather than war and death in the Middle East.

 

Article extracted from this publication >> July 12, 1991