Pakistan leader urges U.S. Jews to help make peace

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
told U.S. Jewish leaders on Saturday that granting the
Palestinians statehood would help stop Islamic terrorism and
lead to full diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Israel.

Speaking to the American Jewish Congress at a
groundbreaking dinner that opened with the sharing of bread and
Koranic prayers, Musharraf said his Muslim country had “no
direct conflict or dispute with Israel” but that Pakistanis had
deep sympathy for Palestinian aspirations for a separate state.

“Israel must come to terms with geopolitical realities and
allow justice to prevail for the Palestinians,” he said,
describing a Palestinian settlement as the key to security for
Israel and an end to Middle East terrorism.

“As the peace process progresses toward the establishment
of an independent Palestinian state, we will take further steps
toward normalization and cooperation, looking to full
diplomatic relations,” Musharraf said to lengthy applause.

His outreach to the influential Jewish group followed his
handshake with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday at the
United Nations and groundbreaking talks on September 1 between
the Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers in Istanbul.

In conciliatory comments that Pakistani analysts called
strikingly candid in the Muslim world, Musharraf recalled the
tragedy of the Holocaust and acknowledged compassion shown by
Jewish groups in helping stop ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and in
combating anti-Islamic prejudice after the September 11, 2001,
attacks.

Pakistan has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in the
Muslim world. But Musharraf said the strife since the creation
of Israel in 1948 was an “aberration in the long history of
Muslim-Jewish cooperation and coexistence.”

Islam, Judaism and Christianity shared prophets and
spiritual practices, but were now needlessly “pitted against
each other” — a situation it would take courage to reverse, he
said. His remarks received several standing ovations from the
audience of about 350 people.

Musharraf said suggestions that Islam rejected tolerance
and promoted terrorism amounted to a “hate campaign” against
the faith. But he acknowledged that most people involved in
terrorism, and most who suffered from it, were Muslims.

“Obviously there is a deep disturbance and malaise within
Islamic societies, which has become especially acute in recent
years,” he said. Troubles in Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan
and Iraq caused “anger, desperation and humiliation,” he added.

The blunt-speaking army general said many Islamic societies
had failed to embrace modernity and good governance.

“Many of us have remained trapped in a time warp, still
struggling to reconstruct our political, social and economic
systems to respond the challenges of our times,” he said.