Corruption: comparison and consequences

Pakistanis love to ape America. What with the recent Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Mother’s Day celebrations. Would be so nice if America’s work ethic, punctuality, integrity, processes, legal recourse and fidelity to the state were also adopted. And most importantly what America does with corrupt members of government.

 

Recently former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife were found guilty of accepting gifts, totaling $160,000, from the owner of a nutritional supplement company in return for promoting his products while they were in office. The U.S. Justice Department said the "convictions should send a message that corruption in any form, at any level of government, will not be tolerated." The charges carry a potential 30-year jail sentence.

 

Compare the corruption in the richest nation on earth with that of one of the poorest. Say the word “Zardari” and the mind’s synonym is corruption. The return of the PPP to power in 2008 resulted in the government withdrawing his corruption cases, which were at the threshold of being successfully filed. Zardari had spent eight years in jail. He was saved by ascension to power which opened the doors to further acquisition. It is alleged that Zardari has £740 million in Swiss bank accounts as well as an over £4 million mansion in Surrey and a $2.5 million manor in Normandy. No objections can be raised if this incredible accumulation was legal. Prior to marriage to Benazir, Zardari was a man of modest means, with the cleverness to calculate the power of 10%.

 

That Zardari got away with this massive corruption actually changed the psyche of the Pakistani nation. He took the sting out of the concept of corruption, made it romantic almost, and horror of horrors Pakistanis became immune to its illegitimacy and started to justify their own at all levels-consciously and unconsciously.

 

Rod Blagojevich was Illinois governor from 2003-2009. In March 2012, Blagojevich began serving a 14-year sentence in federal prison following conviction for corruption including the soliciting of bribes for political appointments. He was charged with several “pay to play” schemes in which he sold gubernatorial and legislative appointments to the highest bidder. He was impeached in 2009. Blagojevich’s “pay to play” schemes sound so Pakistani! Though, one must say, that Pakistani leaders give out business contracts and massive commissions to family members and cronies and the nation pays while they play!

 

It’s that magical kursi of Pakistan that turns saints to satan. Military rule in Pakistan has seen the personal aggrandizement of the army. Promotions are sweetened by gifts of plots of land. In her book “Military Inc.” Ayesha Siddiqa writes that the army's private business assets are worth around £10bn and it owns a handsome share of the country's business and land.

 

Kwame Kilpatrick was mayor of Detroit from 2000-2008. In 2013 he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for extorting bribes from contractors who wanted Detroit city contracts. He steered $127 million in contracts to his friend and business partner, Bobby Ferguson. The city of Detroit is the first in the nation to file bankruptcy. U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds granted the 28-year term sought by prosecutors, who claimed Kilpatrick's racketeering, bribery and extortion worsened the city's financial crisis as part of a conspiracy that spent millions of taxpayer dollars. The sentence was intended to send a message that corruption would not be tolerated and "that way of business is over," Edmunds said.

 

The brothers Sharif and cronies’ corruption is as massive as Kilpatrick’s if not more. And for all intents and purposes Pakistan is bankrupt.

 

In a previous Sharif term, Salman Shahbaz imported a Siberian leopard and nurtured it in an air-conditioned cage. All while the students of Punjab studied in candlelight and numerous others died of gastroenteritis and dehydration, unable to even get potable water or basic medical care in hospitals.

 

True the Sharifs are businessmen. But doing business with taxpayer money is a bit egregious. Zardari at least kept the 10% commission premise to himself; the Sharifs have spread the goodness to members of the PML-N. And, keeping up with inflation, the commission on mega-government projects has risen to 30%. My fellow columnist Dr. Mansoor Hussain speaks of the Sharif “lifafa largesse”; envelopes stuffed with large bills are spread around to buy support and silence.

 

Pakistanis are treated, or tortured depending on your inclination, by the information or allegations in Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri’s speeches. PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan states that their words have irretrievably entered the hearts and minds of Pakistanis.  He acknowledges electoral rigging as well as the charges of massive corruption. If only he would drop the Pakistani staple of covering over illegality for some devious future personal purpose, Pakistan would be delivered of this climate of deceit, collusion and subterfuge.

 

Religion and state should be separated. But Nawaz Sharif is of the inshallah, mashaallah and subhanallah genre, so I must appeal to his religiosity. You have the nerve to go to the flood stricken areas and promise government help. What of their money that you and your cronies stole to finance your luxurious lifestyles and more-expensive-than-Rolex watches?

 

Infrastructure to combat flooding takes years to build. But tax-payer money was used to finance your mini-city Raiwind residence and satisfy your gluttony for numerous varieties of nihari and mithai. Perhaps a serious study of the early period of Islam and the scrupulous integrity of the four khalifas and their selfless service to their people would be instructive.

 

The PTI and PAT sit-ins have cramped your lifestyle and your 30-strong delegations’ world trips to garner more lucrative contracts. You and your coterie pay miniscule if any tax and pillage our treasury to go for Umra, again with plane-loads of friends and family.

 

The foundation of democracy is integrity and transparency. Khalifa Umar ibn Al-Khattab had to justify his use of two sheets when questioned by a woman. He also said “do your own accounting before it is done for you”. If there is a question of electoral rigging, if there is evidence of corruption that has broken Pakistan, take the moral high road, resign and submit to impartial investigation. According to the Islam that you love to tout, we must be forgiven by those we have wronged before we can be forgiven by God. Help yourself and your extended family; submit yourselves to investigation. It will be infinitely easier to remediate in this world. And way too late and unimaginable in the next.

 

A sudden definite change in Pakistan

Long marches and sit-ins are the last thing an already chaotic and impoverished Pakistan needs. So I was indignant when the marches of Tahirul-Qadri and Imran Khan began. More than two weeks in, their demands remain unmet, but they have been dramatic catalysts in changing the mindset, opinions and expectations of Pakistanis.

 

We learned the importance of the FIR, First Information Report and how it is a charge with serious consequences. Two and a half months after the Model Town tragedy and much crying hoarse by Dr. Tahirul Qadri the FIR was finally lodged, naming the brothers Sharif in the murder, mayhem and terrorism of that sad day.

 

A person is only as good as his advisers are. Nawaz Sharif wouldn’t score well on an IQ test; but his political demise will be from the counter-intuitive advice he gets from his cabinet. Petrified of Dr. Tahirul Qadri’s arrival and agenda, they legitimized a man who was viewed pretty much as a crazy cleric. And they introduced the syndrome of “containeritis” in Punjab to prevent PAT and PTI fans from reaching Islamabad.  

 

The remarkable discipline of PAT workers and their heart-warming simplicity and dedication make it difficult to believe that they are Pakistani. The widespread support of Imran Khan was seen in the PTI protests and sit-ins across the nation.

 

And undoubtedly Dr. Tahirul Qadri is an orator. With complete control over history, theology, politics and the Constitution, he is adept in building an argument and bringing it to a skillful climax.

 

Anxious to see a resolution to the political crisis, millions of Pakistanis at home and abroad have been captive audiences to Dr. Tahirul Qadri’s and Imran Khan’s speeches. Pakistanis had become accustomed to the corruption of its recent democratically elected rulers. But learning of the alleged magnitude of the Sharif clan corruption makes one angry. Former president Zardari was infamous for being Mr. 10%; the corruption within just one year of the Nawaz government has raised the commission in mega government projects, allegedly, to 30%.

 

The rebellion of the Islamabad police was also stunning. First SSP Mohammad Ali Nekokara refused to use force on PAT and PTI workers. So they called in SSP Ilyas who also declined. Finally Asmatullah Junejo agreed to clean out the Red Zone. Over 780 police officers refused to use force on the protestors and over 2000 police officers went to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science and Polyclinic hospital urging doctors to grant them medical leave.

 

Who would want to tear-gas unarmed civilians and shoot at them with supposed rubber bullets, killing two and injuring 500? The horrific police brutality on personnel of seven television channels was nauseating. Minister Saad Rafeeq said police brutality was unjustifiable and he didn’t know why it was happening. How about it happened because the order went out by the government and was caught on wireless? More jaw-dropping was Nawaz Sharif reminding Chaudhry Nisar during a parliament session to specifically mention Geo in the government’s apology. Nisar had the good sense not to. Geo personnel were the only ones that were not attacked. Nawaz Sharif exposed his Geo affiliation and his IQ, or the lack of it, further.

 

Yazidi tactics were seen as well. The supply of water and food to the protestors was stopped, cars bringing them in were damaged and the food and water were consumed by the police!

 

Nawaz Sharif asking Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif to mediate the crisis and then lying about it, story-book style, on the Parliament floor is egregious. ISPR issued a statement that Nawaz Sharif had asked for the mediation.

 

The word democracy is bandied about by the government to hold onto power. The charge of murder and terrorism in the Model Town tragedy and violating the sanctity of the Parliament by blatantly lying are more than sufficient to be cause for an automatic resignation under the most basic premise of democracy.

 

That the Parliament passes resolution after resolution supporting Nawaz Sharif means nothing when one member can vie with another in the magnitude of their respective looting of taxpayer money and self-enrichment, and providing cover to each other. The Urdu aphorism really sticks: iss hammam mein sab nangey hain-in this public bath they are all naked.  

 

The day the crisis reached a head and the protestors moved toward the Prime Minister’s House almost everyone was convinced of an army intervention.  And this is the most important change in Pakistan’s politics. What was reflexive previously did not happen, and is unlikely to in the future.

 

Imran Khan is correct in demanding institutional rather than cult-oriented perversions of democracy. He gives the example of Switzerland where the prime minister’s name is not well known; Swiss institutions and processes run the country democratically.

 

Demanding the resignation of Nawaz Sharif does not destroy democracy; it strengthens it. For the longest time Pakistan has been hostage to personalities rather than creating processes and building institutions. Pakistan’s kursi is magical; it can turn a Sufi into Satan.

 

The brothers Sharif and sycophantic parliamentarians painted PTI and PAT as terrorists violating the sanctity of the parliament. Video evidence, beamed across the world, of Chaudhry Nisar and PML-N workers scaling the walls of the Supreme Court exposes their hypocrisy and is irretrievably incriminating.

 

Quite the parliamentary metamorphosis was members vehemently condemning Nawaz Sharif. The 2013 elections were rigged and the government is involved in massive corruption was the chorus by PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan and MQM’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. Had the dharna and their demands not happened, Parliament would not have recorded this.

 

The brothers Sharif are desperate now. The old British maxim of divide and rule is being employed. PTI members are being enticed to jump ship and Imran Khan’s situation is also getting difficult. Dr. Tahirul Qadri has asked for school and entertainment supplies for the children in the sit-in, suggesting a long haul, but his negotiations with the government are said to be promising.

 

Whether PTI’s and PAT’s demands are met or not Pakistanis must applaud Dr. Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan for suddenly transforming Pakistan’s socio-politics. We have been empowered in demanding pristine elections, removal of corrupt legislators, absolute personal integrity in the government and the smooth carriage of justice. And the brothers Sharif should go. Better to leave with grace than unceremoniously. Your political careers are over.

One call for opiate help is what addicts need

Chasing an opiate high, hundreds of Americans die of overdoses every day. The despair I feel that we are not doing enough — urgently — to treat the opiate epidemic has become overwhelming.
The first dose of an opiate in a genetically predisposed individual can cause euphoria. Addicts generally progress from Vicodin to Percocet to heroin. The first snorting or injection of heroin can leave an indelible feeling of intense exhilaration.
As heroin use continues, the brain develops tolerance and more is needed to produce the same rush. Often, the patient miscalculates and the result is death.
Almost every day, I walk into an examination room and find a patient either sobbing or stunned at the overdose death of a family member or friend. It has never been this bad in the 20 years that I have practiced addiction medicine.
Our attention is riveted when a celebrity becomes an overdose victim, and we focus for a bit on the ravages of addiction. But the thousands of nameless, faceless victims whose obituaries euphemistically say that they “died suddenly” become mere statistics that are growing at an alarming rate.
Research shows that heroin overdose deaths decline among patients in methadone maintenance. The same effect is available through the use of Suboxone, which is a combination of an opiate (buprenorphine) and an opiate-antagonist (naloxone).
Suboxone doesn’t just take away the craving for opiates; it also prevents the rush from opiate use. A patient who injects heroin while on Suboxone is less likely to die.
Attorney General Eric Holder’s approach to the opiate epidemic — education, enforcement, and treatment — is good. But while we see efforts in the first two areas, the most urgent response to the epidemic is getting the least attention.
Social bias blames the addict for poor choices. Instead, we need to understand that addiction is a chronic disease, like diabetes and hypertension. It has the same treatability, response, and relapse rates.
It’s a familiar maxim of addiction that a patient must hit bottom before he or she achieves sobriety. In my experience, the downhill slide of opiate addiction has many ledges from which a patient cries out for help. The abyss below is either an overdose death or a catapult to recovery.
It is estimated that only one out of six addicts nationwide gets treatment. Imagine what a patient who is ready for sobriety must go through, anywhere in the country:
A patient who is in a drug-induced fugue state or in withdrawal — with the attendant anxiety, sleeplessness, sweating, diarrhea, and vomiting — fumbles through the Internet and starts to call Suboxone providers. Many providers do not have openings, do not accept the patient’s insurance, or offer an appointment many weeks away. The patient hangs up and reaches for his or her drug of choice.
We urgently need a government hot line that would provide opiate help with one call. It would operate 24/​7. Trained staff would determine which treatment program is right for each patient.
One treatment option would be detoxification, followed by abstinence, counseling, and 12-step programs. Another is Naltrexone, which is not an opiate but prevents craving for opiates; it is available in pill form for daily use or via a monthly injection. A third option is Suboxone. A fourth is methadone maintenance.
A minority of patients will require residential treatment. The goal should be to reintegrate most patients into the routine of life as soon as possible.
Office-based opioid treatment provides myriad life-changing stories. The knowledgeable prescription of Suboxone is one of the most gratifying experiences in medicine.
All patients who need opiate treatment, regardless of insurance coverage, should be eligible for the appropriate program. Ohio can be a pioneer in developing a program of one call for opiate help, with workable templates and their mandatory enforcement in all towns, cities, and suburbs.
As we controlled AIDS and eradicated smallpox, we can control the opiate epidemic and limit the havoc it wreaks every day. Education highlights the dangers of addiction; charging drug dealers with murder in overdose deaths can also be a deterrent.
But more than anything else, heroin and painkiller addicts need treatment — urgently and free of roadblocks. The desire for treatment among opiate addicts lasts only as long as the phone call they make for help. We must make that call count.

State-enabled terrorism

Pots have a habit of calling kettles black. The Punjab police killing of unarmed PAT workers in Model Town is just as egregious and criminal as American police killing a minimum of two unarmed black men every week. America has no room to anoint itself as the champion of human rights when a significant portion of its population suffers under the “driving while black” and “flying while Muslim” syndromes.  

For more than a decade, Pakistanis have taken to murdering physicians or citizens if they are Ahmadi, Shia or Christian. Entire families have been gunned down or victims have been killed in front of their children. The murderers invariably ride away on their motorbikes, and no one has been apprehended or charged with these murders. This is classic enabling behavior. The state is to have tenderness and affection for each citizen; what of the one that does absolutely nothing about these episodes? It might as well have been holding the gun.  

The PML (N) government has been on the path of self-aggrandizement and minimal achievement in this round of governance and now it is badly besieged. The previous PPP government similarly did nothing; in fact one of its own members Governor Salman Taseer was gunned down by a fanatical bodyguard. And the shameful elation of members of the lawyer community, the pro bono defense of the killer and showering him with rose petals is evidence of a society gone mad.  

And even more unspeakably heartbreaking is the murder of Ahmadi children a few weeks ago with no condemnation or action by the government.  

Pakistan is young yet at 65 and democracy in Pakistan younger still. America is 238 years old and has been blessed with democracy for its entire life. Democracy is a noisy, evolutionary process. The slave trade, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment by the US Public Health Service on African-American men, and the continued harassment and murder of blacks in the United States are a smear on its democracy and its vaunted claims of pluralism, diversity and tolerance.  

It is well established statistically that a young black male is a lot more likely to be pulled over by police than any other race. It’s a shame that black families in the United States train their children on how to behave if they are stopped by police: keep hands on the steering wheel, move only when instructed and address the police officer with “sir”. These families know that the deeply entrenched racial hatred in America boils over within its police force, and instead of dealing with their sons the way the sons of white families are treated, they are liable to be recipients of that terrible knock on their door that bears the news of death.  

According to the FBI’s most recent accounts of “justifiable homicide,” in the seven years between 2005 and 2012, a white officer used deadly force against a black person almost two times every week. Of those black persons killed, nearly one in every five was under 21 years of age. These are probably severe underestimates as they are based on self-report by police departments and only 750 of the 17,000 law enforcement agencies participated. In 2007, a joint effort by ColorLines and the Chicago Reporter examined police shootings in the 10 largest cities in the U.S., and in every city, African Americans comprised a disproportionately large percentage of those killed. Nationally, African Americans are arrested three times more frequently than their white counterparts, although African Americans make up only 12 percent of the population.

19-year old African-American Renisha McBride was killed by Theodore Wafer, a white middle aged man, for simply knocking on his door at 4:30 a.m. He thought a home invasion was about to occur and instead of calling the police he chose to shoot her in the face. Wafer was found guilty of second-degree murder but Renisha is gone, as is the fate of so many Trayvon Martins and Renishas all over the country on an ongoing basis.  

Whether a police officer pulls the trigger or the state simply looks away when citizens murder on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion, comes essentially to the same thing. Citizens are targeted in Pakistan because of their belief system and Americans are killed in their own country because they are not white.  

The other commonality in the murder of innocents in the two countries is the easy availability of guns. The NRA, National Rifle Association, is the most powerful lobby in the US. The right to be armed is enshrined in the US constitution. Despite wholescale massacres like the Connecticut school shootings Americans want to hold onto their assault rifles for dear life. Presidential candidates and even elected presidents try to stay away from the gun control issue for fear of their popularity plummeting.  

The influx of weapons into Pakistan after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, particularly the Kalashnikov, seems to have permanently changed society. Citizens have no protection from the police and there is an absence of due process. Armed bodyguards are as common as cars. No law exists though, that affirms a citizen’s right to carry a weapon. Yet why would governments in recent memory care about the death wreaked by guns in Pakistan when political and governmental leaders travel with bullet-proof vests, bullet proof cars and armed cars front, back and sideways.  

APPNA, Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, in its annual convention last week did an awesome job of focusing attention on the killing of minorities in Pakistan. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was the keynote speaker addressing a crowd of 3000. Just the day before, Ferguson Missouri had been placed under curfew to control protestors after the police shooting of unarmed 18-year old Michael Brown. Addressing the issue of sectarian killing in Pakistan, Sen. Kaine advised Pakistani-American physicians to take American pluralism, diversity and tolerance to Pakistan to help deal with the sectarian violence there. Really Senator? Care to look at your trigger-happy police force and the fires of racism in your own backyard? But individual and governmental American hubris only makes those blinders bigger.  

Discussions of the killing of Michael Brown reveal how deeply embedded racial hatred is in American society. “He was 6 foot 4 inches”, “he had just robbed a store” are some inane statements. The fact that he was unarmed and had his hands raised saying “my hands are up” make no difference. Religious and sectarian hatred has putrefied Pakistan. People are friendly until they find out that the other person is Ahmadi, Shia or Christian; and then just because of that they deserve to die.  

In both the US and Pakistan, generations have been bathed in racial or religious hatred. It seems the only controllable thing in this equation is the availability of guns. And funnily, if the government puts its mind to it, de-weaponization is possible in Pakistan. Not so in the US, courtesy the NRA. And with the fact that American police guns down black youth on a regular basis, the prognosis in the US is a lot grimmer than it is in Pakistan. And makes the Missouri protestors’ placard “stop killing us” even more poignant.

Israel's international trial

Pictures of dead children don’t lie. News and photos of the massive destruction and massacre in Gaza are reaching all corners of the world and the tide of public opinion is changing.  

Jewish fortunes have changed dramatically over the last 100 years. Jews were marginalized before the Second World War, and flouting the letter and spirit of the United Nations resolution and with the collusion of Britain, Israel was created in 1948 on Palestinian land, converting Palestinians suddenly to refugees in their own homes.  

Peter Beinert in his book "The Crisis of Zionism" details how Jews control the British Labor and Conservative Parties, the Times of London and have headed Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Their hold on American government, treasury and media is much greater than their influence in Britain.  

AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee has a complete hold on US Congress. It funds Democrats and Republicans, the winner dare not whisper a word against Israel and the loser doesn’t want to taint future chances or challenge the status quo. Australian writer Evan Jones says it well: “Israel owns the U.S., lock stock and barrel. On 17 July, all 100 Senators voted for a resolution supporting Israel ‘as it defends itself against unprovoked (sic) rocket attacks’. Beyond abject servility, it is a treasonous and criminal act. Beyond the armaments flowing from the U.S. for the continuation of the slaughter, mendicant Israel continues to enjoy billions of dollars each year courtesy of the hapless U.S. taxpayer. Vocal Congressional critics of Israel (Cynthia McKinney, Paul Findley, etc.) lose office with the Lobby funding their opponents.” 

In the current Palestinian genocide when US citizens write to their legislators for mercy and balm, they get a parroted boiler-plate letter: “I support the right of Israel to self-defense from Hamas rocket attacks”. Amazingly the tenor of the letters does not change, whether it is Sen. Sherrod Brown and Congressman Bob Latta in my district or any others in the US. Sen. Sherrod Brown writes: “While most of these rockets either landed in unpopulated areas or were intercepted by the “Iron Dome” defensive system, civilian casualties did occur.” He completely leaves out the fact the “civilian casualties” were all of two in number and the civilian Palestinian deaths in the Israeli offensive are over 1800!

From the inception of Israel, the systematic extermination of the Palestinians is important to understand and is well detailed by Evan Jones in his article The Pariah State: ‘The conquest [of Deir Yassin by Irgun and Stern Gang forces, supported by Haganah operatives, in April 1948] was carried out with great cruelty. Whole families – women, old people, children – were killed … Some of the prisoners moved to places of detention, including women and children, were murdered viciously by their captors.’

David Hirst in The Gun and Olive Branch, 1977 wrote ‘“We take the land first and the law comes after” [claimed Yehoshafat Palmon, Arab affairs adviser to the Mayor of Jerusalem to the author]. ‘The law comes after …’. In fact, for most Arabs it did not come at all.’
Horror of horrors the method of the Holocaust is discussed and accepted as a modus operandi among Zionists. Renowned Israeli academic Yeshaayahu Leibowitz said in 1982 “we are Judeo-Nazis, and why not? Even today I am willing to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them … Hang me if you want as a war criminal … What you lot don’t understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it”. Israel Shahak echoes Liebowitz: ‘If we must rule over another people, then it is impossible to avoid the existence of Nazi methods.’
The airwaves and print media in the West are discussing Israel’s shelling of UN shelters and schools in Palestine as war crimes and the Goldstone report is being brought up as well. In the 2008 Israeli invasion of Gaza South African judge Goldstone’s report found “that the following grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” The report was so incriminating that the Israeli machine went on overdrive and pressured Goldstone to retract it.
In the current massacre we have another South African, UNHCR’s Navi Pillay who repeatedly speaks of attacks on civilians by Hamas and Israel as war crimes and that Israel is more gravely implicated due to its gargantuan military machine.
Soon after its creation, Israel formed the Hasbara, a propaganda machine that would put Goebbels, Hitler’s information minister, to shame. The 2002 Hasbara Handbook conflates the criticism of Israel with the de-legitimization of ‘Jews everywhere’ and of Judaism. It denies the Occupation; rather Gaza and the West Bank are ‘disputed territories’. The Golan Heights and East Jerusalem have already been silently appropriated. The Handbook provides two Communication Styles – point scoring and genuine debate.
For 30 years or so the Hasbara method has reaped Israel major rewards and combined with the buying out of the US Congress by AIPAC, genocide has become self-defense, and economic blockade and starvation have been clothed as survival necessities for Israel.
This streak of brainwashing minds may be coming to a stop. The older generation of American Jews latched onto and propagated the victimhood myth to permeate and control the halls of power. But young American Jews are not buying this victimhood premise. The world is not beholden to the mainstream press and even Americans are not getting all their news from Jewish controlled media. This is illustrated by a young Jewish-American girl holding the placard “Not in my name, another Jew saying, end the occupation, end the bombing of Gaza” during a protest in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Cities in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia have erupted in protest. “End Israeli War Crimes” says a large placard in Edinburgh Scotland. “Stop the massacre in Gaza” says a placard in a Vienna protest. “We don’t buy it. The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel” says one in New York. The protest in Chicago is so large that though filmed aerially, it cannot encompass its beginning or end. Washington D.C. saw 60,000 protestors converge from all over the nation last week. “Stop the genocide” and “Free Gaza” were seen in many of the protests. Auckland, New Zealand wrote “Israel=Terrorist”. The Washington DC protest had placards of the Israeli flag with the Star of David replaced by the swastika. “End Israeli Apartheid” screamed Seattle Washington. Frankfurt Germany was funny: “Free Palestine and f… Israel”
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi resigned from David Cameron’s cabinet in protest of Britain’s Gaza policy and stands as a beacon for justice and courage. Her brave action serves to shake consciences of legislators worldwide. South American countries are paring down relations with Israel.
Israel is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court which is tasked with the prosecution of war crimes. The UN Security Council would have to ask the ICC to investigate Israel for war crimes and that is not happening, courtesy the solid support of the US, Britain and France.
But Israel is being tried in the international court of public opinion by billions of people who are now screaming in protest but will soon vote with their feet and boycott all things Israeli. And Israel’s reign of terror on the world will come to a screeching halt.

A criminal silence

Written July 18, 2014

All men are not created equal. One Israeli life is equivalent to 200 Palestinian lives. And, once again, the world has better things to do than stop Israel’s genocide.

It was not the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers that started it. Two Palestinian boys, acting on their own, kidnapped the three teenagers hoping to use them as hostages to get Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel. One of the Israeli boys was able to call the police with his cell phone; the Palestinian boys panicked and killed them. Legal machinery and due process did not come into action — raw revenge did. Orthodox Jews, typically non-violent, burned Mohammad Abu Khdeir alive. His cousin, Palestinian-American Tariq Khdeir, was held down by an Israeli border police officer while another kicked and punched him in the face. Tariq miraculously survived. The US murmured a protest to Netanyahu and was told that the police officers had been suspended for 15 days, and might face criminal charges. Had it been an Israeli-American teenager bludgeoned by Palestinians, the story would never die.

The current rain of death on the Palestinians is about the usual thing: land. The very creation of Israel is based on the dispossession of Palestinians and their continued siege since 1948. Israel has long planned and carried out attacks on Gaza and the West Bank so that it can conquer more land, build more illegal settlements and reduce Gaza to an enclave surrounded by Israel so that the question of nationhood does not arise. This Israeli offensive began on July 8, 2014, a week into Ramadan. As many as 213 Palestinians, all civilians, have been killed, Israel’s air force has destroyed a mosque and leveled a rehabilitation center for the disabled. The water supply to Gaza has been affected to the point that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reports that 70 percent of its water is not potable. Four children, playing on the beach in Gaza, were murdered by Israeli fire.

That the children of Holocaust victims could wreak the same havoc on people whose land and homes they stole, and worsen their persecution with each offensive, is very challenging to the mind. Misfortune humbles most people; perhaps with some, victims become monstrous perpetrators. Those who cannot stop this atrocity just look the other way. The US, the country that has armed Israel into becoming the most sophisticated army in the world, can barely protest. The Israeli lobby has bought over essentially all of Congress and a word against Israel can guarantee loss of funding and votes in the next election.

For those, Muslims included, who think that Israel is retaliating against Hamas rocket attacks, I will quote Jewish-US philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army...and calls it a war. It is not a war, it is murder.”

Also, Israel has the Iron Dome, a mobile missile-defense system that intercepts short-range rockets. The one billion dollar program, subsidized by the US, has served Israel well; Hamas rockets are either destroyed 90 percent of the time or land in fields.

Europe and Canada are the US’s little sidekicks so no expectations there. Pakistan protested but its redundancy on the world stage is a topic for another lament. The impotence of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is even more pathetic than Pakistan’s. Iran is itself ostracized in the world community. Turkey is conspicuously mum. Saudi Arabia is too busy quelling revolt within the kingdom against its oppressive rule, as well as funding and grooming the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in its agenda of killing non-Wahabi Muslims, especially Shias. Egypt, not an honest broker due to its anti-Hamas agenda, tries for a ceasefire and talks only to Israel. Hamas finds out through the media and justifiably refuses. How can there be a ceasefire without terms and direct discussion? Hamas, unaware that a ceasefire was in effect, continued rocket-fire and now Israel’s fans are screaming: “See? They do not want a ceasefire” and so Israel resumes its attacks. Brilliant PR move! Hamas’ terms of a ceasefire are reasonable: that Israel lifts the blockade of the Gaza Strip, ends aggression in the occupied territories and releases Palestinian prisoners.

The United Nations is made up of the leadership of these same sorry nations and the mumblings of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are as worthless as they are incoherent.

In my despair I do see some hope. The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a US organization that works to achieve a lasting peace, which recognizes the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination. It works through grassroots organizing, education, advocacy and media, and has 100,000 online activists. The JVP supports nonviolent efforts in the US and in Israel-Palestine to end Israel’s occupation, expand human and civil rights and implement a US policy based on international law and democracy.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is big news in 2014. In 2005, Palestinian civil society issued a call for a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights. A truly global movement against Israeli apartheid is rapidly emerging in response to this call. The BDS movement covers all Israeli products but it reserves a special focus for companies that are actually involved in — and make hefty profits from — occupation policies. On your shopping trips you might want to avoid Hewlett-Packard, Sodastream, Victoria’s Secret, Jaffa oranges and Eden Springs Water to name a few. Netanyahu and his ministers consider BDS “the greatest threat to Israel” and Netanyahu mentioning it 18 times in his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in March this year paradoxically focuses attention on Israel’s state-sponsored terrorism and spurs the BDS movement. 

And my perpetual, inveterate hope is in God who says, “They plan and God plans and God is the best of Planners” (8:30). The anguish of mothers who have lost their children, the cries of suddenly orphaned children and the hunger, fear and desperation of 1.5 million Palestinians is heard by the heavens in the guarantee: “And when My servants ask you concerning Me, tell them I am very near; I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls on Me” (2:186).

In blessing us with free will, God watches our actions. All-forgiving, He gives us chance after chance to shape up but when we wreak havoc and spread devastation on earth, God hits His tipping point. And then we really need to watch out.

Detoxifying mindsets

The military operation in Waziristan was a long-time coming. Great gains against entrenched terrorists have been made with air, and now, ground offensives. Fortunately Zarb-e-Azb has support all across the country.  

The Pakistan Protection Ordinance 2014 was just passed by the National Assembly giving dramatic and sweeping powers to the government in its fight against terror. Searches can occur without a warrant, militants can be shot on sight with orders from a Grade 15 police officer or higher, suspects can be kept in custody for 60 days after a judicial remand, and convicted terrorists could face 20 years imprisonment.  

Opposition groups, mainly the JUI and the PTI, and human rights activists have expressed immediate protests, fearing that the Pakistan Protection Ordinance would provide legal cover for the government’s repressive agenda. Especially after the police brutality in the Model Town tragedy, as well as the missing persons’ saga, these concerns are understandable.  

But to think that a military offensive in North Waziristan by itself would be enough to rid us of the daily ravages of terrorism is myopic at best. There are some built-in protections in the Pakistan Protection Ordinance to curb its abuse.  

Pakistan is at a point where there needs to be a multi-dimensional approach to free it of the chokehold of terrorism. In peaceful times we would have the luxury of safe-guarding human rights; at a time of war with an enemy that has invaded the hearts and minds of significant segments of the population, preserving the integrity of Pakistan, as well as countless lives and major national assets, far outweighs the possible violation of human rights.   

Zarb-e-Azb is an immediate surgical event; the Pakistan Protection Ordinance will serve to combat terrorism in the short to medium-term. They need to be bolstered by a well-organized and properly implemented effort to detoxify mindsets, for it is terrorism-condoning mentalities and America-Israel-India hating conspiracy theories that have created and sustained monsters in our middle.  

The Pakistani mind has undergone a gradual and sustained poisoning. The 1979 Russian invasion of Afghanistan created a refugee crisis in Pakistan, an already economically weak and overpopulated country. Prior to 1938 Saudi Arabia was only known for its vast deserts, and as home for Islam’s two holiest sites. As its oil industry progressed through the 1970s so did its hegemonic aspirations. Billions of dollars were, and continue to be, spent in its world-wide export of its literalistic Wahabi-Salafi ideology. A significant part of this move has been the literature that sports the stamp of the Saudi Religious Ministry.  

I grew up in a soft, attractive, tolerant and inclusive environment in Lahore and Karachi. We went to a milad every day in Rabiul Awwal, visiting shrines of famous Sufi saints helped me to reflect on how they formed and solidified their relationships with God. And the beautiful shalwar kameez worked for us in comfort, cover and style. The long arm of literalism ruined all that. Honoring Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has to be guarded for it is considered bidat or innovation by some, paying respects to Sufi saints is classified as blasphemy and modesty is only defined by jilbabs (head to toe gowns), hijabs, niqabs and gloves. Never mind the prominent premise in Islam that all actions are judged by their intentions, and all intentions are known only to God.  

The Wahabi-Salafi mindset is devoid of the joy of faith. And it rationalizes corporal and capital punishment for offenses contrary to the five schools of Islamic jurisprudence.  

Poverty stricken, uneducated, disenchanted and hopeless segments of Pakistan’s population were swooped up as victims to an ideology that promised the nebulous but delivered death.  

Perhaps we need the creation of the Pakistan Protection Ministry, focused solely on the eradication of terrorism in Pakistan. Curricula in public and private schools as well as madrassahs need evaluation and necessary amendments. Perspectives on history is one thing but rewriting it altogether and inoculating young minds with extremism is quite another.  

Friday khutbas in mosques across the country need to be monitored as well. Notifications to all mosques of fatwas against suicide bombing issued by Al-Azhar University of Egypt as well as prominent Pakistani clerics need to be sent by the government to each mosque, and imams persuaded to regularly mention the sanctity of life as revealed in the Quran and practiced by  Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).   

The media has an important role to play especially in this age of technology and social media. Television programs with Islamic scholars like Javed Ahmad Ghamdi and Shujauddin Sheikh are not only packed with knowledge and infused with perspective; they are veritably nourishment for the soul.  

There can be no vacillation with regard to our commitment to banish terror from the boundaries of Pakistan. Each one of us needs to grasp this and promote it in every way on a daily basis.  

We are a nation made of the steely determination of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the vision of Allama Iqbal, the brilliance of Dr. Abdus-Salam, the martyrdom of Aziz Bhatti and the courage of Malala Yousufzai, among numerous other inspirations. Together we can make Pakistan an icon of peace and progress; unity, faith and discipline can make it happen. I know so.