Sabtain Ahmed Dar |
The arrival of a mysterious plane that reportedly took off from Tel Aviv and landed in Islamabad on 24th October has sparked a new debate and raised confusion among Pakistanis regarding the agenda of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Pakistan’s Information minister Fawad Chaudry (FD) swiftly reacted to the tweet of Former Interior Minister of Pakistan Ahsan Iqbal who demanded an explanation from the government about ‘an Israeli plane landing in Islamabad’. FD denounced the statements of Ahsan Iqbal and said; “there are no secret talks with Israel, We will not negotiate secretly with either Modi or Israel”.
According to the investigations by Daily Pakistan, the said plane is not Israeli as quoted by Avi Scharf in his tweet (the editor of Israeli newspaper Haaretz) and is owned by a private entity, contrary to what’s being reported on the mainstream media. Moreover, the plane manufactured by Canadian Bombardier Inc arrived in Israel from the United States a few days ago and then it headed towards Islamabad – probably to carry a member of US diplomatic staff or military officer to Pakistan. The plane which is said to have landed in Islamabad a few days ago is registered in self-governing British Crown dependency, Isle of Man through shell companies with no clear-cut ownership credentials. Later Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also confirmed that there was no Israeli plane in Islamabad international airport.
The Timing
It is now plain and clear that Haaretz editor Avi Scharf deliberately spread fake news and confused or to some extent angered the 200 million Pakistanis for hours. Why would an editor of Israeli newspaper spread baseless disinformation against Pakistan? Why this timing? What can be the rationale analysis in order to understand this complex scenario? It can be asserted that this was a deliberate attempt to defame Imran Khan and raise confusions among the Pakistanis and rest of the Muslim world through propaganda.
Fawad Chaudhary denounced the statements of Ahsan Iqbal and said; “there are no secret talks with Israel, We will not negotiate secretly with either Modi or Israel”.
It is a time when Pakistan successfully evaded IMF bailout at least for a few months and on track for a healthy economy after the recent Saudi package. It is a time when Khan’s administration is successfully implementing on his agenda domestically of bringing justice and eliminating corruption from the society. A time when civil-military leadership is in complete harmony with each other to jointly coordinate in the eradication of state-sponsored terrorism against Pakistan. A time when Saudis are most likely to build an oil refinery in the near future at Gwadar.
This is very important strategically in the context of US grand strategy in South Asia to counter China and Iran. If Pakistan becomes successful in integrating the economies of Iran and Saudi Arabia through CPEC then it would result in a peace in between Iran and Saudi Arabia where Pakistan can play the leading role of conflict management in between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Thus, simultaneously end the chapter of ‘Pakistan being caught between Saudi Arabia and Iran’.
Read more: Pakistan must not recognize Israel: Amr Moussa
24th October, 1973: No one paid attention! Israel sent a ‘symbolic message’ to Pakistan
The significance of ‘Signs, Symbols & Numerology’ in international relations is known only among the elite Jewish-kabbalistic circles. But this subject should be taught to the general public too because without understanding the Kabbalah one cannot understand the ‘Israeli’ or ‘Zionist politics’. The date on which mysterious Israeli plane landed in Islamabad ‘24th October’ is really interesting. In the night between 24th to 25th October, 1973 Yom Kippur War ended in which Israel successfully defended itself, a war in which Pakistan was also part of the Arab coalition. Pakistan sided with Arabs and is the only Muslim country that shot down Israeli jets in the Golan Heights.
After exactly 45 years (45 an important number in Jewish tradition) with the mysterious Israeli plane landing in Pakistan on 24th October, 2018, Israel is indeed sending a symbolic message to Pakistan in the context of Yom Kippur War. The basic rule of Kabbalistic numerology is to derive the soul number (single) by summing all the numbers. Thus, the soul number of 45 (4+5) is 9. If we add 123456789 in ascending or 987654321 in descending order it results in 45 and the soul number of 45 is 9.
It is now plain and clear that Haaretz editor Avi Scharf deliberately spread fake news and confused or to some extent angered the 200 million Pakistanis for hours.
In Jewish traditional numerology 9 symbolizes divine completeness or convey the meaning of finality. Christ died at the 9th hour of the day, to make the way of salvation open to everyone. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the only one of God’s annual Feast days of worship that requires believers to fast for one day. This special day, considered by many Jews to be the holiest of the year, begins at sunset on the 9th day of the seventh Hebrew month (Leviticus 23:32).
Lastly, for more proofs that it was indeed a well-planned and well-coordinated act against Pakistan, take the date 24th October, 2018 as a prime example and convert into numbers then we get 24-10-2018. If we find the ‘soul number’ of this date by applying the same rule of numerology (2+4+1+0+2+0+1+8=18) and again the soul number of 18 is (1+8) 9. There are no accidents in life. According to the author, one of the prime reasons behind the downfall of Muslim world is that they failed to see the ‘Signs of the times’ in plain sight.
Read more: Is it time for Israel-Pakistan potential talks? – Jan Achakzai
The ‘Hidden’ Political Agenda behind the Propaganda
As far as this fake news from the editor of Haaretz is concerned, its objective was to target the pro-Pakistan Khan’s administration and implicitly led the public to believe that Imran Khan is holding secret talks with Israel. A subject where not a single Pakistani will tolerate any pro-Israel development in Pakistan’s Foreign Policy and can easily result into a mass movement by the public against Imran Khan Because when it comes to religious ideologies, political biases or political alliances have no value and are considered merely temporary. Former President of Pakistan Gen.
Pervez Musharraf tried it in 2006 but was told by high ups in Pakistan’s establishment that ‘Mr. President you will not last a week if you recognized the state of Israel (explained in detail in the last paragraph). The way people on the mainstream and on alt-media became part of this propaganda unconsciously describes the lethal characteristic of this game which according to the author is more dangerous than the atomic bombs. Bombs only destroy but propaganda can literally kill the soul and the human intellect and can turn the public into a living-dead society.
The most important question is why would Israel want to target Khan’s administration? It is perhaps for the first time that Pakistan’s civil government is in complete harmony with the military administration. Quoting part of Khan’s speech on Defense Day 6th September, 2018 at GHQ Rawalpindi, he says ‘There is no rift in between civil and military leadership and I don’t think the ‘civil-military debate’ in Pakistan should exist’. This statement was praised by Pakistanis on the mainstream and alt-media.
In Jewish traditional numerology 9 symbolizes divine completeness or convey the meaning of finality. Christ died at the 9th hour of the day, to make the way of salvation open to everyone.
But strategically in the context of the war on terrorism it was not a great sign for the enemies of Pakistan who wants to destabilize Pakistan and Israel is one of them. As David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister famously said; “It is essential that we…strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans”. In the memory of David Ben Gurion Israel threatened to destroy the Kahuta Research Labs during the Zia-ul-Haq regime in June, 1981.
As the Chaos theory of war propagates that in the post-911 world order wars have become more sophisticated and conventional methods of war have completely become irrelevant or taken as a last resort. The current propaganda is part of the larger game being played against Pakistan by Israel and its Lobby sitting in the United States. On several occasions, ISI and MI officials told about the involvement of MOSSAD in Pakistan in spreading terrorism. One of them is on the occasion when ISI and MI officials told the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2012 that Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Israel’s Mossad are active in Pakistan and mutually coordinating with each other.
Read more: Should Pakistan ‘establish contacts’ with Israel just like KSA?
The ‘Law of Propaganda’ and how it works?
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. However, Joseph took this idea originally from the chief propagandist Edward Bernays who wrote the book “Propaganda”. According to the author’s definition; “Propaganda, comprise of three words ‘pro’ ‘pagan’ ‘da’. ‘Pro’ means and comes from the word professional ‘Pagan’ means a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions i.e. Abrahamic religion. ‘Da’ is a Latin word which means ‘the one who gives’. The whole idea of propaganda is to spread evil”.
However, in modern military science, propaganda in the context of war falls in the modern theory of Hybrid warfare in broader terms. Later Propaganda fell into the category of psychological warfare or PSYOPS. Psychological Operations or PSYOP are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of organizations, groups, and individuals. The word itself means ‘the spread of falsehood or misinformation against a target individual, institution or a state’.
As the Chaos theory of war propagates that in the post-911 world order wars have become more sophisticated and conventional methods of war have completely become irrelevant or taken as a last resort.
What it actually does in its implication is the brainwashing of the minds of people. In Psychological warfare people are at the center of this game because ‘the actions of the public will be determined by what they are thinking’. And if the target nation is lead to believe through mass propaganda that their leaders are the real culprits… then mass movements can be created out of it in order to either change the regime or forced radical reforms depending upon the end game of the propagandists. In a nutshell, it is part of a complete system of war known as ‘Hybrid warfare’ where diplomatic intelligence, newspapers, media, finance and military of a country contributes in order to target a specific individual, institution or a state. Thus, in the context of this theory MOSSAD can use any news outlet to spread propaganda and target Pakistan.
Read more: Israeli PM says he does not consider Pakistan an enemy
The Strategic Implications of Pakistan–Israel Relations
Most of our contemporary analysts are raising questions such as ‘should Pakistan develop diplomatic relations with Israel’? The prime logic most of the analysts give is that Pakistan’s brotherly Muslim countries have also diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, so we should follow suit. However, it can be stressed that if Pakistan develops relations with the state of Israel it would be a scholarly blunder on the part of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Why because in the midst of the war on terrorism Pakistan will lose Iran geo-strategically.
It’s that simple if one comprehensively studies the pro-Israel US grand strategy of Hybrid warfare in South Asia. It is the geography and the geopolitical environment which determines the strategy not the examples of brotherly Muslim countries whose assets worth billions of dollars are frozen in the pro-Israel United States. This eventually leads their country’s foreign policy being influenced by the United States.
What it actually does in its implication is the brainwashing of the minds of people. In Psychological warfare people are at the center of this game because ‘the actions of the public will be determined by what they are thinking’.
Pakistan needs a tightly knit multi-layered strategy with Iran to counter terrorism not only because of the Baluchistan crisis (mutually shared by Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan) but also for peace in South Asia which can be achieved through economically integrating both Iran and Afghanistan in CPEC. If Pakistan initiated talks with Israel, Iran being the archrival of Israel in International affairs will closely watch Pakistan’s steps towards the state of Israel and may do things out of desperation that would not be acceptable to the military establishment in Pakistan. And Pakistan will become a laughing stock for RAW, CIA and MOSSAD nexus against Pakistan.
Read more: Why Americans don’t really know Pakistan’s Imran Khan?
Strong Pakistan-Iran relations Spawn Fortunes such as
1- At the individual level it builds confidence among the Shia community in Pakistan and raises the level of trust in the governance. Simultaneously the development of the positive image of Pakistan develops in the Iranians as well.
2- At the Geo-strategic level in the context of the war on terrorism, it diminishes or destroys the strategy of terrorists to trap South Asia into a Shia-Sunni conflict.
3- At the Geo-economic level, the strong integration of Pakistan and Iranian economies also balances the rising US-India nexus in South Asia.
All three points mentioned above can be achieved peacefully at the international level while maintaining ties with both the United States and India through ‘diplomatic intelligence’. The modern ‘game theory’ of war and economics teaches us to not to become emotional at any level of the game as when one door closes another door opens.
Concluding Thoughts
As Sun Tzu says; “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought”. Because the target was aware and had the knowledge of the coming attack. But if a society is less informed and less educated then they will always fall prey to their enemies. Pakistan is in the midst of Hybrid war which it is countering by intelligently joining the ‘Sino-Russian Axis’ not only for economic cooperation but also to counterterrorism in South Asia. Israel is the most strategically of the United States mainly because of the ‘Israeli Lobby’ operating in the United States through its banks and institutions.
And without understanding the role of ‘Israeli Lobby’ in the formation of US foreign policy in the Middle-east and South Asia no single development can be understood in the context of 5th generation or Hybrid warfare. With the emerging US-led ‘India-Israeli axis’ or ‘I to I axis’ on a larger scale, Pakistan must refrain from developing diplomatic ties with Israel, and refrain from starting a new chapter in the book of ‘War on Terrorism’ in the midst of economic crisis.
Lastly, the best way to deal with mass propaganda in the age of realpolitik is;
1- To control the sources of information and wage counterpropaganda
2- As most of the sources of information are controlled by the West the only plausible measurement on the part of Pakistan’s government will be ‘to let the public know the truth and educate the masses to meet the contemporary challenges’.
Sabtain Ahmed Dar is pursuing his M.Phil. in International Relations from the Department of Political Science, Punjab University, Pakistan. He specializes in Pakistan affairs and geopolitics, specifically the US strategy in the Middle East and South Asia. He has written a thesis titled: “The Clash of Islam and Zionism: The Final Clash before the End of History”. He can be reached at daar.sibtain@gmail.com. The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.