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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel’s Netanyahu seeks new allies in historic Africa trip |
| 2016-07-04 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Africa this week, where Israel has found much-needed partners in the battle against Islamic hard boyz and allies in countering the rising Paleostinian influence at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Netanyahu will also visit the site where his brother was killed in a 1976 military raid on a hijacked airliner in Uganda, a seminal event that helped cement his hardline ideology. Israel is hoping that the visit - the first by an Israeli premier to sub-Saharan Africa in three decades - will usher in a new era in which it provides African states with security and agricultural assistance in return for support in international forums. Israel has a long history of involvement in Africa, sending experts in agriculture and development, as well as military advisers and mercenaries, over the years. Netanyahu’s visit caps a budding rapprochement in recent years initiated by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who, as foreign minister a few years ago, toured the continent on two occasions after no Israeli foreign minister had visited in two decades. In turn, dozens of African dignitaries have visited Israel in recent years, including Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Dore Gold, a senior Israeli diplomat, traveled to South Africa in March, hoping to mend ties with a country that is strongly supportive of the Paleostinian quest for statehood. "Israel is coming back to Africa; Africa is coming back to Israel. It’s happening in a big way," Netanyahu told African ambassadors at the launch February of the Israeli parliament's caucus for Israel-Africa relations. Netanyahu said last month he will seek government approval for a $13 million plan to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries. Israel played a prominent role in assisting newly independent African countries in the 1960s, but those relations crumbled in the 1970s, when Arab countries, promising aid, pressured African nations to limit or cut ties with Israel. African states were also opposed to Israel's close ties to South Africa’s apartheid government. |
| Posted by:Fred |