menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

The Zionism of the brass: Why Pakistan’s army won’t defend Gaza

59 1
14.07.2025

They strut about with medals on their chests and missiles in the background, claiming to be defenders of the Muslim world, protectors of the faith, and guardians of the nation. They command one of the largest armies on Earth, sit atop a nuclear arsenal, and rule a state ostensibly founded as a sanctuary for the oppressed. But when Gaza is turned into a graveyard—when Palestinian mothers cradle bloodied shrouds where their children once slept—the Pakistani military does nothing. Not even a murmur beyond the usual sermon of “deep concern.” Why?

The answer is not complex. It is corrupt. What stops the sixth-largest military in the world, armed with nuclear weapons and ruling over 240 million people, from lifting even a symbolic finger to defend Palestinians? In a word: Zionism—not the ideology of the masses, but the foreign-aligned, spine-deficient Zionism that festers in the minds of Pakistan’s military and political elites. These are not defenders of the ‘ummah;’ they are custodians of American interests, obedient caretakers of empire, garlanded in hypocrisy.

Behind the shrill slogans of “strategic restraint” and “regional stability” lies a quiet complicity. The Pakistani military establishment—particularly its top brass—has long been entangled in the machinery of American imperialism. For decades, Pakistani officers have been packed off to U.S. military academies not merely to learn warcraft, but to be domesticated into the value system of empire: loyalty to Washington, deference to Tel Aviv, and disdain for any real resistance to Western hegemony. They return with shiny diplomas, inflated egos, and carefully cultivated blindness to the screams coming from Gaza.

And the people of Pakistan, God bless their eternal patience, are expected to pretend this is all an internal affair. They are told to believe that the process of appointing an Army Chief is a matter of local politics, seniority, or maybe even divine intervention. The truth is far more colonial: the Chief is chosen not in Islamabad but in Washington. The Pakistani generals who market themselves as protectors of sovereignty are, in practice, franchise managers for empire. Their real bosses speak English with an accent and think of Palestine as a dispensable nuisance.

Consider the current........

© Middle East Monitor