It may not be readily apparent, but these two narcissistic siblings have a lot in common. Both are heartless and spiteful; each looks down on those around him and sincerely believes that he is the Lord’s gift to humanity. And both are heartily despised by most.
Both are riding a tiger, fearful of dismounting it, mortally scared of being eaten up by him if either did so.
Netanyahu is certain that if he does not remain Prime Minister, he will lose immunity and be tried and convicted by the courts on charges of corruption. Asim Munir fears that he would be charged with multiple counts of violation of Article Six of the Constitution, plus a litany of other crimes. And be convicted on all charges.
Each is involved in a perpetual battle against the judges of his respective judiciary in an effort to reduce its powers lest an errant judge kicks him off his tiger.
Netanyahu has been trying mightily to force changes in the basic law of Israel, while his twin in Pakistan is making ready to shred its constitution in a manner so merciless, that the same will scarcely be recognisable after he has done with it.
Both are being confronted by very large segments of irate populations of either state and in both cases, police high-handedness is being used to keep the anger of the people in check.
Each is running his state on a fare of changing narratives, and the narratives of both are built on a daily reinforced foundation of lies.
Both have the support of the US to sustain them in office though Netanyahu got into office purely on his own steam, while Asim Munir did so on account of Gen Bajwa’s spinelessness and Nawaz Sharif’s “London Plan”.
The exertions of both have helped push their respective states to pariah status among the comity of nations. Israel is today seen as a raving genocidal state and many are wondering if Adolf Hitler perhaps knew what we do not, while Pakistan is seen as a banana republic fast slipping on its own peel.
Each is sitting at the head of an epoch-defining regime. Barbarities and atrocities have always been known to man, but in the modern world, the perpetrators of such horrors have always sought to hide their sins. Not so, in the case of Netanyahu and his regime. They are the first to have shamelessly advertised and then celebrated the horrors they are visiting on their victims. Asim Munir has yet to reach Netanyahu in terms of barbarity, but in terms of Pakistan’s history, he has broken every record of indecency and ushered in an era of abductions, illegal detentions, torture, illicit house break-ins, and subjection of women to unprecedented indignities. Never has any dictator used Pakistan’s intelligence agencies so brazenly and shamelessly to quell his own people, as has Asim Munir. It is no wonder then, that his name has become a byword for fascism and a metaphor for darkness.
Netanyahu is targeting half the population of Palestine. If he stops this war he stands to lose his office. To keep this war going, he has the need to steadily escalate it. As he is doing this, he is assuring the Zionist half of the population that he is winning the war, while in fact, he is eroding the very foundations of Israel.
Asim Munir is battling the huge majority of the people of Pakistan. Should he not keep them firmly under his thumb, he too will be thrown out. He, too, therefore needs to escalate his efforts to stay in the saddle. He, too, believes he is winning this war. He is not aware that not only is he eroding the foundations of Pakistan, but that he has already succeeded in rendering them hollow to the point where it will be all but impossible to resurrect them to full strength again.
To complete the demolition job he needs time. For this, he needs to be assured of an extension. The compulsion to get this extension is what is driving him. And this drive is ploughing Pakistan under.
Never in history has any bloodthirsty rabid hound committed the sort of well-advertised genocide for such a long unbroken period as Netanyahu. Any guesses why this has failed to draw even a polite squeak from Asim Munir?
In 1400 years of Islamic history, no one except Halaku Khan has shed so much innocent Muslim blood as heartlessly as Netanyahu. And the total effect this has had on Asim Munir has been to render him mute! This song of vile silence could only be sung in case of a unique unspoken alignment between the two of them, both following the same play book, and played by the same conductor.
No matter how Pakistan pulls itself up or what it retrieves from the detritus of its misfortune, it shall NEVER be able to live down this shameful and cowardly silence. The names of Asim Munir and his circus of monkeys, whether in uniform or out, will resound through history as those of arch traitors who sold out their people for a mess of pottage.
Email: saeedakhtarmalik85@gmail.com