Medals for Massacres: Pakistan’s Generals and Their Zionist Fantasies
When Fatima Bhutto opened her recent Zeteo essay with the line that as a Pakistani she is “used to politics as a theater of the absurd,” she was not indulging in hyperbole. She was simply stating the only law that never fails in our political life: if there is a move to be made that defies logic, tramples public sentiment, and spits in the face of history, the Pakistani ruling class will make it with gusto. Awarding the Nishan-e-Imtiaz — one of the country’s highest honors — to outgoing U.S. CENTCOM chief General Michael Kurilla is only the latest exhibit in this grotesque circus.
Kurilla, as Bhutto reminds us, is not just any American general. He is “Israel’s favorite U.S. general,” the man whom Israeli press openly credited with strengthening the U.S.-Israeli war machine during the flattening of Gaza. He was lauded by Islamabad for “visionary leadership” and “exemplary service.” The citation, however, politely omitted his “exemplary service” in facilitating what Bhutto rightly calls the “holocaust of Gaza.” That Pakistan’s president draped a medal around his neck while Gazan children were being dug out of rubble says everything one needs to know about the abyss between Pakistan’s people and its ruling establishment.
This is not simply a story of one medal. It is a story about the mutation of Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic elite into what can only be described as a khaki aristocracy, a kleptocracy in uniform that has long traded national dignity for foreign approval. Today, that approval increasingly comes with a Zionist accent. The brass in Rawalpindi has discovered a new fantasy: a place at the table of Western power by flirting with Israel, while lecturing Pakistanis at home to keep their heads down and “be realistic.”
The People and the Palace
Let us be absolutely clear: there is no confusion among ordinary Pakistanis about where they stand on Palestine. From Karachi to Peshawar, from the drawing rooms of Lahore to the crowded markets of Quetta, Palestine is not a distant cause. It is family. It is kinship. It is visceral. It is the one issue that unites the Islamist, the socialist, the conservative trader, and the disillusioned youth. 99.9 percent of Pakistanis reject Zionism with an instinct that is both political and moral.
The 0.1 percent, however — those latte-sipping, Westoxicated liberals who think Instagramming hummus in Tel Aviv is the height of sophistication — see Israel as the last gleaming outpost of “civilization” in a dark and barbaric East. They will defend bombing campaigns in Gaza as “unfortunate but necessary,” just as they defend drone strikes in Waziristan as “tragic but complicated.” These are the same types who clap when a Pakistani general is honored for his service to empire. They are useful to the brass, because they provide an English-speaking fig leaf for treachery.
Why Kurilla? Why Now?
So why Kurilla, and why now? The answer is painfully obvious. Pakistan’s generals are not simply content with American approval; they crave it. They live for it. The khaki imagination has always sought validation in the mirror of Washington. To them, Pakistan is not a sovereign republic but a garrison for hire, a rent-a-state with a nuclear deterrent as a bargaining chip.
Kurilla’s medal, then, is less about him than about the desperate pantomime of Pakistan’s elite: “Look, we too are responsible allies in the defense of Western civilization! We too understand the need to protect Israel!” In presenting him with the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Pakistan was not honoring a man; it was auditioning for a role. A role as the Muslim power that has finally, after decades of pretending otherwise, learned to accept Zionism as destiny.
This charade might have passed quietly if Gaza had not been reduced to rubble in real time before our eyes. Bhutto drives home the grotesque absurdity: Gaza is now the most bombed place in recent history, its destruction surpassing even Hiroshima and Dresden. To honor the man who greased the machinery of that destruction is not just tone-deaf. It is obscene.
The Zionist Daydream of the Brass
It is tempting to dismiss this as short-term opportunism. But there is a deeper shift underway. For years, the Pakistani military has flirted with the idea that aligning with Israel could bring strategic dividends. It is the daydream of men in pressed uniforms who imagine themselves sharing cigars with Pentagon brass while reminiscing about shared battles against “terrorism.”
This Zionist daydream has two delusions at its core. First, that Israel, a settler colony armed to the teeth and protected by Washington, could somehow be Pakistan’s bridge to Western acceptance. Second, that the people of Pakistan will eventually “get over” their love for Palestine, just as they have been forced to swallow IMF austerity, drone strikes, and puppet governments.
Both are fantasies. Israel does not want Pakistan as an equal; it wants Pakistan as a client state that neutralizes Muslim solidarity. And the people of Pakistan will not “get over” Palestine, because Palestine is stitched into the very fabric of their moral universe.
A History of Selling Out
This betrayal, of course, is not new. Pakistan’s establishment has a long history of trading principles for dollars. From joining the Cold War pacts of SEATO and CENTO, to providing bases for America’s Afghan jihad, to quietly cooperating with drone strikes, the khaki sultans have never missed an opportunity to rent out the country’s sovereignty.
What is new is the brazenness. To award a medal to Israel’s favorite general at the very moment Gaza’s ruins are still smoldering is not just betrayal; it is mockery. It is as if the generals are telling the people: “We know where you stand. And we do not care.”
The Tyranny of the Medal
Medals in Pakistan have long been political theater. They are less about merit and more about signaling allegiance. By giving Kurilla a medal, Pakistan was not recognizing a contribution; it was advertising obedience. It was the choreography of a vassal state desperate to prove loyalty.
And yet, in a darkly comic twist, the medal also reveals insecurity. If Pakistan’s generals truly believed in their “strategic autonomy,” they would not need to pin a piece of tin on a foreign general’s chest. They would simply act with dignity. Instead, they act like supplicants at a medieval court, bearing tribute to a foreign knight.
The Real Cost
The real tragedy, however, is not symbolic. It is material. Every embrace of Zionism by the Pakistani elite comes at the cost of Gaza’s blood, but also at the cost of Pakistan’s own people. The billions in aid that flow as reward for such obedience never reach the poor. They are siphoned off into offshore accounts, real estate empires, and shopping trips in London. The “peace dividends” of aligning with Israel are never felt in the slums of Karachi or the villages of Sindh. They are only felt in the villas of generals.
The Power of the Street
Yet the ruling elite forgets one thing: Pakistan is not Bahrain. It is not a tiny petrostate where the palace can dictate loyalty. It is a country of 240 million, with a history of street power that has toppled dictators and shaken governments. The people of Pakistan will not quietly watch as their rulers turn the country into a Zionist subcontractor. Already, solidarity with Palestine continues to animate protests, student movements, and religious gatherings. This reservoir of sentiment is not going away. It is a tidal wave waiting for its moment.
Humor in the Abyss
There is, admittedly, a dark humor in all this. One can imagine the scene in Islamabad: a line of generals, starched uniforms gleaming, whispering to each other about how “forward-looking” they are while decorating a man who just supervised the carpet-bombing of Gaza. One almost expects them to propose a cricket match between the IDF and the Pakistan Army, with the winner receiving another Nishan-e-Imtiaz. Such is the absurdity of our times.
Conclusion: The Choice Ahead
Fatima Bhutto’s essay captured the macabre theater of this medal ceremony, but the implications go far beyond one event. Pakistan’s elite has made its choice: to chase Western approval even at the price of embracing Zionism. But the people, overwhelmingly, have made their choice too: to stand with Palestine, no matter the cost.
The contradiction is unsustainable. Either Pakistan will continue down the path of elite betrayal, trading Gaza for Washington’s crumbs, or it will rediscover its dignity by aligning state policy with the moral clarity of its people.
For now, the generals may hand out medals to their foreign patrons. But they should remember: medals do not silence memories, nor do they erase history. Gaza’s ruins will not forgive, and neither will Pakistan’s streets.
Because in Pakistan, the audience is restless. And in the theater of the absurd, the curtain eventually falls — often suddenly, often violently, and always with consequences for those who thought the play would last forever.