Pakistan-Israel Peace Forum

The Forum

Pakistan-Israel Peace Forum [1] is an astroturf lobbying group established by US based pro-Israel lobbyists to mold public opinion in Pakistan towards the recognition of Israel. According to its website, the organization has been created by "three friends, Waleed Ziad (Pakistan), Dror Topf (Israel), and Michael Berenhaus (US), all currently based in Washington, DC". Berenhaus, a staunch Zionist, "assisted" Ziad and Topf "in setting up the group" and he also serves on its advisory committee. [2] In its own words, the group is "dedicated to promoting dialogue and establishing relations between Pakistan and Israel at the political, cultural, social and economic levels". The organization claims to express "no partiality for any political position" in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a rather disingenuous claim since the normalization of relations implies acceptance of the status quo inasmuch as it makes no demands of Israel to end its continued oppression of Palestinians under its illegal occupation -- hence a position that is far from impartial.

Founding Members

Michael Berenhaus

Berenhaus, an American Zionist and a veteran pro-Israel lobbyist, is the founder of Eye On The Post, an organization that purportedly monitors the Washington Post for its "anti-Israel bias". [3] The manifestations of perceived bias include the Washington Post's reference to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied territories" [4] -- the designation given to the territories by the UN and even recognized by Ariel Sharon, Israel's current right-wing Prime Minister. [5] Before setting up this organization he had also organized a boycott of the paper through the BoycottThePost.org website.

Berenhaus's Islamophobia is on full display in a December 29, 2003 Letter to the Editor of The Seattle Times where he blames the decline in the number of Arab Christians in Bethlehem not on the depredations of the occupation, but on "Palestinian Muslim violence and intimidation" (emphasis added). He also reproduces an old Zionist canard, now effectively refuted by Israel's own New Historians, to place the blame for the massive ethnic cleansing of the native population in 1948 on the "Palestinian Arabs" and the "neighboring Arab states".

In another Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post on February 18, 2005 Berenhaus takes strong exceptoin to the paper's use of the word "occupier" in its reference to Israel's control of the West Bank and Gaza.

Eye on the Post's "strategic alliances" include the neo-McCarthyite CAMERA and Honest Reporting.

Waleed Ziad

Ziad, a Pakistani, is a a principal at the Truman National Security Project, a think-tank that "envisions a Democratic Party that is preeminent in national security once again". It's advisory board is composed of individuals from various right-wing think-tanks, from the Hoover Institution to the Council on Foreign Relations. According to its founder Rachel Kleinfeld the organization was set up "very much as a counterpart to the neoconservatives of the 1970s". [6]

Ziad has written for the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and The News (Pakistan). Following are some interesting passages from one of these articles:

Yes, the Muslim world had an unfortunate introduction to post-Enlightenment ideals, which came in the context of invasion, colonialism and exploitation. But the Arab philosophical and political movement that came out of that experience was not inherently anti-Western. In fact, in traditional Islamic thought the concept of violent resistance against an unjust ruler was virtually unheard of; for classical jurists, tyranny was preferable to the anarchy that accompanies revolt...

At the same time, our corporations should guide local entrepreneurs to promote a free market, the backbone of democracy. If anything is going to come of the neoconservative hope of making Iraq into a beacon of our values, it will be along these lines. [7] (emphasis added)

In another article, Ziad offers advice on opening a new front in the War on Terror: "Permanently dislodging these extremists calls for educational, economic and cultural development" through funding "functional education" and "real economic opportunities" with "Western money" so that the US is seen not as an occupier but a "purveyor of prosperity". [8]

Ziad's father is a World Bank official and claims to have led the "first World Bank mission into Russia with a group of Texas oil men" according to Topf. [9]

Dror Topf

According to the Washington Jewish Week, Topf is a 29 year old Israeli working for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. The few articles that the group has placed in various publications offer little information on Topf's background.

Friends in High Places

For a "grass roots" movement, the initiative seems to have sparked little public interest but it has certainly garnered the support of some key individuals in high places.

Shahid Javed Burki

Shahid Javed Burki, a member of the group's advisory board, is the former Vice President of the World Bank and former Finance Minister of Pakistan. In an op-ed in Pakistan's major daily, Dawn Burki avers that "Pakistan should develop relations with Israel and the Jewish community in the United States and Europe" not for any "grandiose objectives", but for the "many rewards" it would bring. [10]

Irfan Hussain

Hussain is a columnist for Dawn and and member of the group's Advisory Board. The group's website describes him as a "a leading Pakistani journalist and commentator". In an article replete with specious arguments, Hussain advocates that Pakistan recognize Israel for its own "national interest". [11]

Jaffer Bilgrami

Jaffer Bilgrami is a media advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and works for the Associated Press, Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan.