The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, but secret contacts established more than a year ago by former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf means the lines of communication are open for Pakistan to seek the help it needs from Tel Aviv. Diplomatic sources explain there is no reason for Pakistani anti-terror chiefs to travel all the way to Israel for briefings. Meetings can take place in European capitals — if they have not done so already — or ideas exchanged through third parties.
Until recently suicide bombing was viewed across the globe as a 'lost case' with no effective defence against an individual who wakes up in the morning and decides to commit suicide by blowing himself up against his designated target. The sense of despair extended to the Israelis who for a while shared in the international frustration from failing to tackle the problem.
The Israelis in particular have been at the receiving end of suicide bombings following the start of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000. So ferocious were the bombings that in one month alone more than 100 Israelis were killed. Between 2001 and 2006 Israel was hit by more than 130 suicide attacks that left hundreds of Israelis dead. Typically, such attacks, sometimes twice in a single day, were launched against civilian buses, restaurants and gathering places for religious and social celebrations like bar mitvahs that attract crowds of participants.
For all its mighty army and superior technology, it was a measure of Israel's desperation that at one point its political leaders even considered endorsing a proposal from Jewish extremists that the remains of any suicide bomber should be gathered up and wrapped in pig skin for burial. Since the pig is considered an unclean animal and an abomination in Islam, this proposal was seen as an appropriate posthumous punishment for bombers and a deterrent to their supporters who believed their 'sacrifice' would guarantee them access to the pleasures and rewards of Heaven.
Soon after this the Israeli military establishment came up with the idea of blowing up the homes of bombers and deporting their families to Lebanon. This was a tactic that proved ineffectual, but it preceded what amounted to a state of war between Israel and the suicide bombing phenomenon.
There were many dimensions to this war, including the creation of a vast network of informers in Palestinian communities who were paid handsome rewards, including cash incentives of US $10,000 upwards, for information leading to the arrests of would-be bombers. Other rewards included free lifetime education for children and in some cases a pension for life and passports for resettlement abroad.
These incentives were especially alluring in areas where Palestinian communities were under siege and unemployment high, sometimes as high as 70 per cent. Israeli 'rewards' even extended to Palestinian school children who were given free mobile telephones to contact the Israeli authorities with relevant information. 'If you give a 14 or 15 year old boy a free mobile telephone, he will be very happy to show his appreciation by calling you when he sees or hears something suspicious,' one Israeli security official was quoted as saying at the time.
The threat of home demolitions was also seen as an effective deterrent. Israeli policy was to either destroy or seal homes belonging to the families of the bombers. The message that came out for the bombers was simple and straightforward. You may go to Paradise after, but the family members you leave behind will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.
Worries about home demolitions became so acute that families of would-be bombers started to telephone the Israeli authorities, warning that their sons might be involved in suicide planning. The parents' argument was that it was better for their sons to be arrested than blown up and, further, informing on their own children was preferable to losing their family homes.
The pattern of cash incentives and other rewards, as well as home demolitions, was supplemented by a policy of daily military raids targeting what was called the bombers' network. Israeli planners reasoned that suicide bombers did not act alone but needed a whole infrastructure of supporters. They accordingly targeted all those deemed to support, pay and in any way encourage the bombers; in other words, all those who provided the moral, material and religious justification for suicide attacks, including friends and relatives and mosque authorities.
The message that went out was that in the event of an attack the bomber's immediate family, as well as friends, relatives and those living in close physical proximity would face retaliation from the Israeli authorities. What this amounted to was collective punishment, so much so that in some cases the Israelis are on record as punishing an entire village for the behaviour of a single person.
Such harsh measures provoked yet more anti-Israeli feelings among some Palestinians, but in some cases that was matched by equally strong feelings against bombers and their supporters who deprived their fellow Palestinians of work, shelter and the opportunity to travel abroad.
One final Israeli tactic was the building of the security barrier that now separates mainland Israel from the Palestinian communities of the West Bank. This network of trenches and an eight metre high concrete wall has significantly reduced acts of terrorism, including suicide attacks. Building such a wall may not be feasible along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where the distances involved are much greater, but it has certainly worked for Israel by reducing the number of suicide attacks to less than a handful in the last few years.
So what Israel has demonstrated is that it is possible to pursue a relentless, round the clock battle, albeit at a financial and political cost, that makes those behind the suicide bombers pay a heavy price.
The Americans are among those who have carefully monitored Israel's progress in tackling suicide bombers; and the Americans are the first to acknowledge the debt they owe Israel in tackling the suicide bombers unleashed against them in Iraq. Just like the Israelis, the Americans too have taken the war into the enemy camp by endorsing targeted assassinations, pre-emptive strikes in military jargon, of key individuals opposed to their presence in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Pakistan and other countries of South Asia have yet to accept that such extreme measures are the only way of tackling determined terrorists. But the Israeli experience shows there is no room for half measures and the full range of protective methods need to be implemented to block future suicide attacks.
Just one simple and final example from Israel suffices. Every Israeli passenger bus has for years had to carry a security guard on board. And this one simple precaution, according to local experts, has thwarted attacks that could have ended up costing thousands of lives.
Will President Zardari sanction this as a similar first step of many more to come, including the visible tightening of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan? Pakistanis and other members of the international community are waiting to see how far he is prepared to go to win back the security his country has lost.
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