page_title: Israel–Pakistan relations
section_title: Pakistani attitudes towards Israel
hierarchical_section_title: Israel–Pakistan relations / Political tension / Pakistani attitudes towards Israel
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail of a Pakistani passport. "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel."
context_page_description: Israel-Pakistan relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the State of Israel—which, despite the lack of official diplomatic relations have been defined by multiple instances of close covert coordination and cooperation during events such as the Soviet–Afghan War and Black September conflict. Both nations were established based on similar ideological declarations. Diplomatic ties continue to remain unestablished due to Pakistan's refusal to officially recognize Israel until a viable two-state solution is reached in regards to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nevertheless, Pakistan and Israel regularly use their embassies and consulates-general in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey to mediate and exchange information with each other. A Dawn publishing in 2010 revealed that Pakistan's ISI, following up on reports received in Washington, had used its embassy in Ankara to pass on newly-discovered information to Israel's Mossad about potential upcoming terrorist attacks in Mumbai, where a Jewish cultural centre was listed as a major target. This information first surfaced in a WikiLeaks publishing one year after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
context_section_description: During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel's diplomatic mission in Washington received information that Pakistan was trying to provide military assistance to the Palestinians alongside rumours that a Pakistani military battalion would be sent to Palestine to fight the Israelis. Pakistan had supposedly bought 250,000 rifles in Czechoslovakia that were apparently meant for the Arabs. A later discovery revealed that Pakistan had bought three military-grade aircraft in Italy for the Egyptians.
  The Pakistan Air Force sent a limited few of its fighter pilots to engage the Israelis in the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, greatly bolstering the Palestinians who virtually had no foundation to fight the superior Israeli forces and consequently suffered repeated defeats. A Pakistani fighter pilot, Saiful Azam, had shot down at least four Israeli fighter planes during the Six-Day War. After the Yom Kippur War, Pakistan and the PLO signed an agreement for training PLO officers in Pakistani military institutions. During the 1982 Israel-Lebanon War, non-regular Pakistani volunteers served in the PLO and 50 were taken prisoner during the Siege of Beirut.
  The relationship between Pakistan and Israel continued to be ridden with hostilities following these direct engagements, and when Mossad failed to stop Pakistan's nuclear weapons program from making major developments, a plan to bomb Pakistani nuclear facilities in a similar fashion to Operation Opera was authorized by Israel. The Israelis made contact with India in an effort to gain support and secure a launching point for Israel's aircraft, but did not get the response that was expected. India refused to allow Israeli aircraft to station on its soil whereas Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had discovered the plan and prepared retaliatory measures to bomb strategic sites in Israel. India did not offer its support which thwarted any plans of the destruction of Pakistan's nuclear program, which Israel had hoped to carry out in a joint Indian-Israeli operation to avoid taking full blame.  
  According to Time Magazine, French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy said that Daniel Pearl, an American-Israeli journalist, was assassinated by elements with backing from Pakistan's ISI over his alleged role in attempting to gather information linking a continued relationship between the ISI and the Taliban. According to other reports from BBC and Time, Pakistani militants murdered him because of their belief that Pearl was an Israeli Mossad agent who had infiltrated Pakistan under the cover of being an American journalist.
  Pakistan's religiously-oriented political parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami and militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba fiercely oppose any relationship with Israel, and have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel due to its standing as an alleged sworn enemy of Pakistan. Currently, as Pakistan refuses to recognize Israel until a peaceful solution is reached with Palestine, all Pakistani citizens are unable to travel to Israel. Pakistani passports bear an inscription outlining the invalidity of the passport in regards to Israel.
caption: Inscription on a Pakistani passport forbidding travel to Israel.
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