US Jewish Leader In Pakistan To Support Dictatorship

U.S. Jewish Leader Rosen Visits Pakistan To Support Musharraf

By Marc Perelman,
Jewish Daily Forward
Last update - 21:02 26/11/2007
Haaretz

With the blessing of Washington, Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress's Council for World Jewry, traveled halfway across the globe for a face-to-face meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who he had hailed two years ago as a courageous leader and driving force in Jewish-Muslim dialogue.

In recent weeks Musharraf has been roundly criticized for declaring emergency rule and cracking down on his opposition, in particular the judiciary. The de facto declaration of martial law has been widely viewed as an effort to preempt a ruling from the Supreme Court that would have invalidated Musharraf's reelection as president last month.

"The real choice we face is not between Musharraf and a return to an effective democratic system, but between Musharraf and the possible collapse of Pakistan," Rosen wrote in a letter to the editor appearing in this week's edition of the Jewish Daily Forward.

Rosen made the trip to Islamabad after consulting with the State Department and key members of Congress.

In addition to Musharraf, he met with General Ashfaq Kiyani, the deputy chief of staff who is expected to take over for Musharraf as head of the army, as well as ministers and intelligence officials. In his letter to the Forward, he said he also met with opposition leaders.

Rosen declined further comment.

The Council of World Jewry has made efforts to reach out to Jewish groups in France and Russia, but to date its signature achievement has been Musharraf's appearance at an AJCongress dinner in 2005, the first address made by a Pakistani leader before a Jewish group. At the dinner, Musharraf vowed to improve Muslim-Jewish ties, including relations between Israel and Pakistan, and said he was committed to combating extremist groups.

Rosen did stress in his letter to the editor of the Forward that democracy should be the 'ultimate goal' and that Musharraf understands this. But he noted that Pakistan first had to focus on dealing with the multiple threats it is facing.

"The most compelling idea that should inform our policy toward Pakistan is the urgent need to keep that country's nuclear arsenal out of the hands of the Islamist extremists," Rosen writes.

"That requires some stability, which rests, inter alia, on cooperation between a strong military and a strong executive branch.