UN-Truth

In my previous post, I wrote that I saw Benazir Bhutto at the luggage carousel in the arrivals area of Geneva’s Cointrin Airport very late on the night of 26 June. She was with a single aide (a subcontinental-type man in a grey suit, about her height).

Just now, in Israel’s YNet news, I saw this item about several Israeli officials expressing shock at Benazir’s assassination: [Collette] Avital said she had noticed a change in Bhutto’s behavior during their last meeting, which took place six months ago in Geneva. ‘She began wearing a scarf on her head; she began leaning towards religious’.” The YNet news article is posted here.

Actually, Benazir has been wearing her signature white scarf, put loosely over her hair and only partly covering it — and not covering her neck either, so not a sign of extreme religious conservatism — consistently since she began to run for political office in the late 1980’s. She wore this scarf whenever she appeared to speak in public — at every UN meeting in New York or Geneva (the Human Rights Commission, mainly, and she always mentioned Jammu and Kashmir). Her white scarf, the ends often tucked into her buttoned jacket, appeared to be a symbol of respect, aimed at disarming criticism from conservative male politicians…

In any case, Collette Avital (a member of the Knesset who was mentioned as a possible candidate to suceed the previous President of Israel Moshe Katsav, who was accused of sexual assault; in the end, however, the more senior politician Shimon Peres was elected to the office).

The same Ynet news story reports that “Colette Avital (Labor) met Bhutto for the first time in the 90s at a dinner held by former US President Jimmy Carter, when the Labor Knesset member served as Israeli consul general in New York. During the party, Avital recalled, Bhutto sat in on an argument she held with Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi over the regional conflict“.

Colette Avital, for what’s it’s worth, was one of the signatories of The Geneva Accord/Initiative.

Bhutto has also met Shimon Peres several times, according to the Jerusalem Post, apparently including at conferences of the Socialist International. The Tribune of India today printed a picture of one of their meetings:

The Jerusalem Post reported that “President Shimon Peres said he was shocked by Bhutto’s death. ‘Benazir Bhutto was a brave woman, who did not hide her opinions, did not know fear and served her people with courage and rare capability’, Peres said in statement. ‘I had the privilege to meet her on several occasions, during which she expressed interest in Israel and said that she hoped to visit upon returning to power. Benazir was a charismatic leader and a fighter for peace in her country and across the world’,” Peres said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the JPost that ” ‘I saw her as someone who could have served as a bridgehead to relations with that part of the Muslim world with whom our ties are naturally limited’ … He said the assassination was a ‘great tragedy’, and that he received the news ‘with deep sadness’. Upon her return to Pakistan two months ago, Bhutto had stopped in London and, through a mutual acquaintance, relayed a message that she would “in the future like to strengthen the ties between Israel and Pakistan,” Olmert said. The JPost story is posted here.

YNet also reports that “Danny Gillerman, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, told Ynet Thursday that in the weeks prior to her assassination, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto expressed fear for her life in emails she had sent him …While Israel and Pakistan have never established diplomatic relations, Bhutto remained in contact with several Israeli figures. Gillerman said Bhutto had recently sent him a copy of her new autobiography ‘Daughter of Destiny‘, including a warm dedication to Israel. According to him, in her last emails she expressed a fear of being killed by extremist elements in Pakistan. ‘She wrote me of how she admired Israel and of her desire to see a normalization in the relations between Israel and Pakistan, including the establishment of diplomatic ties‘, the ambassador told Ynet after the UN Security Council denounced the assassination as a ‘heinous act of terrorism’ and called on all Pakistanis to exercise restraint. Gillerman said he had last met with Bhutto some three months ago, just two weeks before she decided to return to her homeland after eight years in exile. ‘She asked to meet me to discuss her plans, share her thoughts and concerns with me, as well as examine the possibilities of normalizing relations between Israel and Pakistan‘, he said, adding that she had even expressed an interest in meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni”. This YNet news article is posted here.

The JPost said that “Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman recalled a meeting he had with Bhutto just prior to her return to Pakistan. ‘My wife and I had an intimate dinner with her and her husband’, he said. ‘We spent over three hours with them. She was an incredibly impressive person, one of the most impressive in terms of her intellect, charm and charisma that I’ve ever met’. Gillerman said Bhutto was interested in normalizing relations with Israel. ‘She was interested in me relaying that information to Washington and the US, which I did’, he said. ‘We were in touch since that meeting by e-mail several times and she expressed concern about her personal safety’.” This JPost report is published here.

Filed under: Israel, Pakistan