The Palestine and Kashmir conflicts are a very familiar topic at international forums, even including the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s most recent United Nations address. Of course, there is ample historical precedent for both, from colonial legacies to the UN resolutions promising rights to their populations. However, the natures and progressions of the disputes are strikingly different.
It was in this very same year that Israel was created, and India and Pakistan engaged each other in their first major war over Kashmir, shaping decades of tension based on geopolitics of interests, clashes between the military, and simmering grievances.
While wars over Kashmir were generally drawn without a clear winner except in the case of the 1971 war, which was initiated for other reasons, the conflict over Palestine has been a protracted one, with ongoing violence and occupation. The Kashmir dispute was relatively quiescent until the 1989 armed insurrection, which continues to destabilize the region.Difference in International Support
Palestinian movements have traditionally been supplied by the Soviet Union and her socialist friends, whereas Kashmir, on some occasions, has benefited from Western powers, primarily because of Pakistan’s strategic alignment with the West. This extraneous influence molded both conflicts into distinct paths.
The Role of Regional Powers:
Palestine’s struggle is closely interlinked with the Middle East geopolitical aspects. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iran have all played to various degrees in the wider struggle for regional hegemony and with the West. The perpetual targeting of Palestinians, especially under Israel military operations, can be very closely related to US policy and its regional allies. India and Pakistan’s relations over Kashmir remain mainly bilaterally, though Pakistan quite regularly attempts to bring it into an international arena. Interestingly, China, which also has territorial disputes with India, hardly ever brings its disputes into these same international realms, opting instead to have a strategic partnership with India in other areas.
Contemporary Warfare and Espionage
But obviously, one very visible distinction between the two conflicts is the level of surveillance and technology on the side of the military. In the case of Kashmir, the conflict is mostly in the hands of the ground forces of the two conflicting nations. Over Palestinian territories, though, it is mostly an armed surveillance done by Western satellites, particularly Israel in its fight against invaders. This superior technology has allowed killing of precise military targets, such as in the recent mass murder by assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and figures in Hamas.
Escalation in Lebanon:
Indeed, the unending confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has, in fact increased after Nasrallah’s death due to Israeli intelligence conducting detailed operations in the country for years. Regardless of having a large arsenal, most of the Hezbollah’s forces have been relatively inactive; unless international powers intervene, the conflict may be more at its peak.
While Palestine and Kashmir share similar colonial inheritances and historical UN resolutions promising autonomy or rights, their paths diverged in the decades. Palestine is firmly entrenched in Middle East geopolitics, with continuing military campaigns backed by superpowers, while the Kashmir conflict remains relatively regionally contained though with an ever-present shadow of nuclear escalation between India and Pakistan.