c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Depending on whom you ask, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s agreement to accept earthquake relief from American Jews and Israel was either a diplomatic step forward in Muslim-Jewish relations or another setback in a thorny global relationship.

While some see interfaith progress in the agreement, others take offense at Pakistan’s condition that Israeli aid be delivered indirectly, through an intermediary like the United Nations or Red Cross.

Here’s how the aid agreement unfolded.

On Oct. 9, Jack Rosen, chairman of the New York-based American Jewish Congress-Council for World Jewry, issued a statement urging Jews to send blankets, tents, medical supplies and money to Pakistan in the wake of the previous day’s earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people.

On Oct. 10, Rosen received a 10-minute phone call from Musharraf himself.

According to Rosen, Musharraf called to say he would welcome aid from American Jews. When Rosen asked whether Musharraf would also accept assistance from Israel, the president said he would.

“The breakthrough,” said Rosen, is that Musharraf, head of an officially Muslim country, was “willing to publicly engage with the Jewish community.”

Although Israel and Pakistan do not have diplomatic ties, relations between the countries have appeared to warm recently. The Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers met publicly for the first time in Istanbul on Sept. 1. A couple of weeks later, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Musharraf shook hands at the United Nations. On Sept. 17, Musharraf spoke to a gathering of American Jewish leaders in New York.

“Each of these steps _ a meeting, a handshake, now dialogue about Jews contributing to the earthquake victims’ fund in Pakistan, Israel contributing aid _ all of this,” Rosen said, “is now being publicly displayed in the Muslim world, and that has to have a positive impact.”

Some observers agree with Rosen’s optimistic analysis.

“Pakistan’s opening a dialogue with the Israeli/Jewish communities is of great significance,” said Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, “not only because Pakistan is the second largest Muslim nation in the world, not only because it’s the only nuclear power in the Muslim world, but because it is always considered a political and intellectual leader in the Muslim world.”

Others, however, say Pakistan’s acceptance of only indirect aid from Israel shows that Musharraf is not serious about establishing ties to the Jewish state.

After waiting six days to formally respond to Israel’s offer of assistance, Musharraf agreed to accept aid from Israel through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and a president’s relief fund. Rather than contribute directly to the Pakistani government, “it would be better if Israeli assistance would be channeled through these” intermediaries, said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam in an interview, speaking on the phone from Islamabad.

This, said Morton Klein, national president of the New York-based Zionist Organization of America, is “a major anti-Semitic insult by Pakistan to Israel.”

“As a Jew, it’s embarrassing and humiliating to me that Pakistan refuses to accept what they perceive as tainted Jewish aid from Israel,” Klein said. “If the aid is laundered, washed through another agency, they’ll take it, but direct aid, they won’t.”

Tashbih Sayyed, editor of California-based newspapers Pakistan Today and Muslim World Today, called Pakistan’s acceptance of indirect aid from Israel an attempt to “hoodwink the world public opinion” into thinking that Pakistan was reaching out to Israel.

“It is in the interest of Pakistan to establish some kind of relationship with Israel,” said Sayyed, a Pakistani Muslim, “but it does not mean they are ready to convince the people of Pakistan that Israel is a good country or Jews are good people.”

Only when Pakistan recognizes Israel and takes steps to combat anti-Semitism will real progress be made, he said.

According to Israel, its offer of aid had little to do with politics.

“When it comes to humanitarian disasters, first and foremost, we save lives,” said Gilad Millo, spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, adding that Israel has always been one of the first countries to respond when disaster strikes.

After Hurricane Katrina, Israel sent a planeload of supplies to New Orleans. When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia last year, Israel dispatched relief to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, with which it has no diplomatic relations. Israel also sent aid after earthquakes devastated Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, in 1999 and India in 2001.

When Israel offered assistance to Iran after a 2003 earthquake, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of the Interior rejected it, saying Iran would not accept help from the “Zionist regime.”

But Muslim leaders today are challenging the appropriateness of rejecting Israeli aid.

“In times of humanitarian crisis … , one should accept relief from everyone, even if they’re regarded as the enemy,” said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Among Jews, some say Israel should not necessarily offer aid to a country that considers the Jewish state an enemy.

“I think we should act a little more circumspect, with a little more dignity,” said Daniel Doron, director of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a public policy think tank in Israel. “I don’t go to parties I’m not invited to,” he said.

Diplomacy aside, Jews helping Muslims may have a positive effect on the ground, said Brie Loskota, assistant director at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

“The idea that Jews care about what happens to Muslims, and that Jews are reaching out on a level of humanity, that’s what dialogue is about,” she said. “It’s about reaching out to each other because of a human connection.”

MO/JL END RNS

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