By Junaid S. Ahmad
There are moments in geopolitics when the farce is so elaborate, the hypocrisy so bald, that it deserves a standing ovation. The current theater surrounding India, the United States, Pakistan, and the peculiar role of Israel is one of those moments. On one side, India insists on charting its own course—buying cheap Russian oil, refusing to enlist in Washington’s new Cold War against China, and sitting at the same table with Xi and Putin. On the other side, the United States, red-faced with frustration, dangles an unusual set of privileges before Pakistan’s military junta, as if polishing a rusted sword could somehow intimidate New Delhi into line. And then there is Israel, suddenly apologizing to Pakistan of all countries—an act so rare it borders on the surreal. This is not diplomacy. This is performance art, and the script was written in Washington.
India’s Stubborn Independence
For decades, India’s strategic doctrine has been defined by one principle: autonomy. From Nehru’s non-alignment to Modi’s multi-alignment, New Delhi has consistently avoided becoming anybody’s junior partner. That doctrine has never been tested more sharply than today. The United States demands loyalty in its confrontation with Beijing, but India is not buying the ticket to someone else’s show. Instead, it continues to engage in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, balancing relations with Moscow and Beijing while exploiting cheap Russian crude to keep its economy humming.
This is not recklessness. It is cold calculation. India recognizes that its geography, markets, and population make it indispensable to everyone, and thus beholden to no one. It can afford to sit at all tables and pay no entry fee.
But such independence drives Washington mad. To American strategists accustomed to vassals disguised as allies, India’s refusal to kneel is intolerable. Worse, India’s choices undermine the fantasy of a united “democratic front” against authoritarian powers. What good is a “coalition of democracies” when the world’s largest democracy is fraternizing with the supposed enemies of freedom?
Pakistan’s Temporary Renaissance
Enter Pakistan, America’s old on-again, off-again partner. For years, Pakistan has been treated like a malfunctioning spare tire: occasionally useful, mostly a burden, always shoved back into the trunk once the road is clear. Today, however, Washington has dusted it off once more.
Suddenly, the generals in Rawalpindi, those same uniformed merchants of national humiliation, are being handed an undeserved spotlight. The reason has nothing to do with Pakistan’s value—its economy is in tatters, its political system a charade, its nuclear arsenal a dangerous ornament. The reason is India. To discipline New Delhi, Washington must pretend Pakistan matters again.
This charade extends even to Israel, which almost never apologizes for anything to anyone. Yet somehow, the Pakistani ambassador receives an apology from Tel Aviv’s envoy. Not because Israel woke up one morning with a conscience, but because Washington needed the optics. An apology to Pakistan is a gift-wrapped insult to India, a reminder that even the unthinkable can be arranged if New Delhi strays too far from the American script.
The Generals of Islamabad: From Zionist Daydreams to Irrelevance
The irony here is delicious. Pakistan’s generals have long been experts at selling illusions—imagining themselves as guardians of Islam while quietly daydreaming of recognition from Tel Aviv. Their obsession with pleasing foreign masters has always outweighed any genuine concern for their own citizens or for the causes they pretend to champion. Gaza burns, but Rawalpindi yawns. The Pakistani people suffer, but the generals obsess over photo opportunities with American envoys and whispered compliments from Zionist lobbies.
That Washington would elevate such men as a tool against India tells you everything you need to know about American consistency. Yesterday’s nuisance is today’s partner; yesterday’s liability is today’s asset. Nothing in Pakistan has changed—except the usefulness of its generals as a lever against India. The dictatorship remains the same mix of corruption, cowardice, and incompetence it has always been. But now, courtesy of American tantrums over Indian independence, it gets to strut on the stage again.
Israel’s Rare Apology: A Theatrical Gesture
Israel apologizing to Pakistan is not diplomacy—it is stand-up comedy with serious undertones. This is a state that has committed acts far worse than apologies could mend, yet it never utters the words. But when the United States insists, exceptions can be made. If the Mafia Don in Washington wants to send India a message, then even Tel Aviv must play its part.
The symbolism is sharp: if Israel, the world’s most unapologetic state, can stoop to flatter Pakistan, then India should beware. Washington has options. It can rehabilitate your regional rival, put lipstick on Rawalpindi’s generals, and even choreograph Israeli contrition if necessary. All of it is theater, and all of it is meant to tell India: “We can hurt you if you refuse to obey.”
India’s Choices and the Price of Defiance
What, then, is India to make of this spectacle? On the surface, it is insulting. Beneath the surface, it is a reminder of America’s transactional character. Washington does not deal in friendship; it deals in utility. If India walks too far into the embrace of BRICS, Russia, and China, Pakistan’s generals will suddenly become freedom fighters in Washington’s eyes. If India drifts back toward Washington, those same generals will return overnight to the category of “regional nuisance.”
It is less about Pakistan and more about control. The United States cannot tolerate a partner it cannot control. India’s energy independence, its refusal to abandon Moscow, and its insistence on speaking with Beijing all strike at the heart of Washington’s worldview: allies must obey.
The Scandal of Strategic Amnesia
The most astonishing part of this charade is the expectation that the world has forgotten history. Washington pretends that Islamabad is a reliable partner, as if the imperial accusations of decades of Pakistani duplicity, support for militants, and betrayal never happened. Israel apologizes to Pakistan, as if the decades of hostility and disdain were a mere misunderstanding. The Pakistani generals beam, as if their nation’s irrelevance had been magically reversed.
But history does not vanish so easily. Pakistan’s army remains the same clique of opportunists it always was—more comfortable betraying its own people than defending them, more interested in Zionist fantasies than Islamic solidarity, more skilled at selling nuclear nightmares than building national prosperity. No apology from Israel and no privilege from Washington can hide this reality.
The Punchline of Hypocrisy
What we are witnessing is not grand strategy but a temper tantrum dressed in diplomatic clothing. The United States is furious that India dares to behave like an independent power. To punish this defiance, it props up Pakistan, polishes its generals, and orchestrates apologies that no one believes. This is not a plan for the future; it is an improvisation born of frustration.
India knows it. Pakistan’s generals know it. Even Israel knows it. The only people pretending otherwise are the ones in Washington who mistake theater for reality.
The Final Word
The moral of this farce is clear: India’s independence terrifies Washington more than Pakistan’s instability. And so, the absurd becomes possible—Israel apologizing to Pakistan, America flattering the Pakistani generals, and the entire machinery of Western diplomacy mobilized to discipline a country that refuses to be disciplined.
But India will not forget who it is. It has survived empires, invasions, and Cold Wars before. It will survive this theater too. The real tragedy is Pakistan, whose rulers bask in undeserved attention while their people sink deeper into misery. And the real joke is Washington, mistaking cheap theatrics for strategy.
When the curtain falls, Pakistan will once again be dismissed as irrelevant, Israel will return to its unapologetic ways, and Washington will come crawling back to India. Until then, let the actors strut and fret upon the stage. It is, after all, nothing but a play—a tale of hypocrisy, full of noise and fury, signifying nothing.
17 September 2025
Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Law, Religion, and Global Politics and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID), Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a member of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST – https://just-international.org/), Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN – https://nakbaliberation.com/), and Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE – https://www.theshapeproject.com/).