Israel’s attack on Palestine has elicited an angry response in the Pakistani papers. In a furious editorial on December 29, The News remarked: “The mighty can kill and maim at will and the so-called protectors of human rights in Washington sit back and twiddle their thumbs. Is it then any surprise that Muslim radicalism is rising across the Islamic world? It seems apparent that the ruthless attack is intended to bolster support for the government in Israel before the country goes to polls in February. There is speculation that Tel Aviv also hoped to take advantage of the friendly Bush administration, in its last days in the White House.” Daily Times added: “Israel killed 280 people in retaliation against some rocket-fire from Gaza into the Israeli neighbourhood which killed no one. Many of the 300 critically wounded will die in the days to come, stoking the Islamist rage that the US President-elect Barack Obama was supposed to assuage.” Dawn joined the chorus on December 30 saying: “Wars are waged for territorial gains or regime change in another country. However, where Israel is concerned, this does not seem to be the case as its violence is aimed at the killing of civilian populations. The current Israeli operations demonstrate the Jewish state’s unending thirst for Palestinian blood. The Muslim world is powerless, while there is no countervailing power to tear up the carte blanche which America has given to Israel for its massacre of the Palestinian ...”

“There is always a risk of exaggerating the prospects of peace breaking out between India and Pakistan, just as there is that irrepressible tendency to overplay the fear of war lurking round the corner,” the Dawn wrote on December 30. Underscoring the love-hate connect between the neighbours, it concluded “notwithstanding what high strategy might dictate, at least the recent deafening hysteria on both sides of the border is abating.” It celebrated India’s generosity in “repatriating 65 Pakistanis languishing in Indian jails, despite rising tension.”

... contd.