Is Pakistan the only Muslim country with the capability to confront Israel?

While Arab states in the Middle East hardly appeared willing or capable to confront Israel in the wake of the latter’s air strike on Doha, Pakistan seems to be the only country in the Muslim World which have the courage to politically and vehemently oppose the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and other areas of Middle Eastern region.

Regional observers are firm in their belief that the summit meeting of Arab and Muslim countries in Doha early this week failed to come up with hard options to punish the Israeli state in the wake of the latter’s audacious attack on Doha.

Pakistan seems to be the only Muslim country which is willing and capable of confronting the Zionist state and its atrocities in Gaza and its attack on Doha. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has emphasized the creation of an Arab-Islamic task force to adopt effective measures to ward off Israel’s expansionist designs.Speaking at the Emergency Arab-Islamic Summit in Doha, he said Israel must be held accountable for its war crimes against humanity. The Prime Minister reiterated OIC’s call to suspend Israel’s membership from the United Nations. He said the member states should actively consider other appropriate measures against Israel.

Arab states lack the military muscles to confront Israel at the military level. Most of the oil rich Gulf States earn billions of dollars annually from the oil exports to the Industrial west. Similarly these states import military equipment worth billions of dollars from the United States, France and Britain to equip their military.

However over the years they have failed to build professional militaries in their countries primarily because the royal families in these states fear military coups. During the Cold War years militaries in the developing countries were seen as a modernizing force, whose professional officers’ cadre could overthrow conservative regimes in their countries.

Not a single state in the Gulf Sheikdoms have been able to build a professional military in their country primarily because of this reason,–a factor which makes them vulnerable to attacks from powerful regional military power like Israel.

Since the 1970s these Gulf states have relied on Pakistan for procurement of military manpower for the internal and external security threats. As a result many of the Pakistani former military officers are serving in the militaries of these Gulf States.

Pakistan on the other hand has a very long history of developing and harnessing powerful military force in its society. Its confrontation with India and around five wars between the two South Asian rivals led to building of a powerful military in Pakistan. The Pakistani military is considered the most powerful and well equipped among the Muslim countries.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in a recent interview given in the context of the Israeli attack on Doha also boasted about the presence of strong and powerful military in Pakistani society.

The Pakistan military, however, has never been deployed outside Pakistan’s boundaries since the 1990 Gulf war when a small segment of land forces were deployed in Saudi Arabia.

At the political level Pakistan has been opposing Israel for what it has been doing in Gaza and later its attack on Doha.

Pakistan’s political leadership has been trying to convince the Muslim leadership to take concrete steps to stop Israeli expansionist designs.

Pakistan is at a distance of 3000 kilometers from Israel and therefore any land confrontation between the two countries seems impossible.

Pakistan and Israel both are nuclear powers and have capabilities of long range delivery systems at their disposal.

However Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar made it clear in a recent interview that Pakistan sees its nuclear capability simply as a deterrent force and not for fighting. However in response to a question about its military capability, Dar made clear that Pakistan would fulfil its responsibilities as a member of Muslim Ummah in the context of recent tensions with Israel.

At present only two countries in the Muslim world have professional military forces which could match Israel in the context of capabilities and organizational structure. That is Egypt and Pakistan. Till only 20 years back Iraq also had a strong military force which was destroyed by Americans in the Second Gulf War. Iranian military power was substantially downgraded by American and Israeli attacks on Iran during the recent Iran-Israel war.

Persian Gulf Sheikdoms are in possession of a large number of state of the art military equipment and weapon systems imported from western countries. But they lack modern and professional military organization capable of fighting a prolonged war with Israel.

On the other hand political tensions between Israel and Pakistan are on the rise in recent days after Pakistani and Israeli Ambassadors verbally clashed in the United Nations Security Council session last week. The Israeli Ambassador criticized Pakistan for harboring international terrorists like Osama bin Laden in its territory. He made it a point to claim that Israeli air strikes on Doha are similar to the American raid on Abbottabad to take out Osama Bin Laden. The Pakistan Ambassador snubbed him.

The Israeli Prime Minister also used the same analogy of the American raid to take out Osama Bin Laden as a justification for its air strike against Qatari capital Doha.