Ties with Israel can help Pakistan vis-a-vis India: Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan should be open to the idea of establishing relations with Israel in order to counter the "pro-India" stand usually adopted by it on key issues like Kashmir, former President Pervez Musharraf has said.

Musharraf said the Jewish state is a fait accompli and relations with it can help Islamabad come closer to the strong Jewish lobby in the US and in its conflict against India.

"Pakistan has to keep demanding the resolution of the Palestinian dispute... (but) Pakistan also needs to keep readjusting its diplomatic stand toward Israel based on the mere fact that it exists and is not going away," said Musharraf, who plans to return to Pakistan from self-exile later this month.

It would be in Pakistan's interest to get closer to Israel to counter the "pro-India" stand usually adopted by Israel, Musharraf told the Haaretz newspaper.

"The issue of India is another sensitivity in Pakistan ?" Israel has always been pro-India against Pakistan," he said in his first-ever interview with an Israeli newspaper.

He acknowledged that Israel had not had the opportunity to forge relations with Pakistan.

"That's right. But that does not mean you should be actively anti-Pakistan, supporting India on important issues such as the Kashmir dispute, advising them, and cooperating on intelligence, which is a very big deal.

"Pakistan adjusting its stance toward Israel has the advantage of possibly breaking those anti-Pakistan activities," he said.

Musharraf said Israel was "a fait accompli" and many in the Muslim world have understood this.

Musharraf said that "many Muslim countries have relations with Israel, whether above board or covertly... So this is the change in reality I am talking about".

Musharraf said he had tested waters on the issue of establishing relations with Israel when he was in power in Pakistan.

He said he had made statements about establishing ties with Israel and spoken to the American Jewish Congress, and the "responses were positive".

"We have been anti-Israel in Pakistan because of Palestine, because the Pakistani people are on the side of the Palestinians and are concerned for their plight," he said.

Defying popular sentiment in Pakistan, he shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the UN, spoke to the American Jewish Congress as the Head of the State and sent his foreign minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri to meet the then Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom in Istanbul in 2005.

"... I believe in realism and in assessing ground realities. I think it's necessary to understand the changing environment, analyse it - and respond. A lot has happened since '48, and one has to adjust. Policies are made, yes, but when the environment changes, policies should change. Policies should not remain constant," he said justifying his gestures towards the Jewish state.

Musharraf further acknowledged there was a risk in this initiative.

"Pakistan, like Israel, is an ideological state... Which goes toward explaining why Pakistani Muslims are much more sensitive about Islam than most other Muslim countries... So we are wholly sensitive to the Palestinian plight and any new initiative regarding Israel has to be proposed very delicately".

There is a "dislike of Israel" in Pakistan but no anti-Semitism as there are not many Jews living in the country, he said.