|
|
MIDEAST: Israel Turns Dubiously to Africa
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Aug 19, 2009 (IPS) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been busy pursuing one aspect of the
Obama Administration's agenda - carrying to Africa the U.S. message of
accountability. With a rather different agenda, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor
Liberman also has Africa in his sights.
Whereas the U.S. is pressing a moral message hard - more democracy and
less corruption, the Israeli approach is entirely pragmatic.
It's not the first time Israel has been heavily involved in Africa.
Tanzanian freshmen at the University of Dar es Salaam will be excused for
being unaware of the fact that their campus strikingly resembles facilities in
Tel Aviv and Beersheba, two of Israel's leading universities. That's because
the UDSM campus was designed by Israeli architects.
Nearly half a century ago, there was unexpected interaction between sub-
Saharan Africa, just emerging from the dark years of colonial rule, and Israel
- which had come into existence a decade-and-a-half earlier after ridding
itself of a British presence - busily engaged in reaching out to other emerging
nations.
Ever since, it's been a relationship of ups and downs.
The aid to development programmes of Israeli experts, especially in the fields
of irrigation, agriculture, communal rural development and medical training,
won Israel considerable sympathy, and friends, in many of the newly-
independent states. Hundreds of African students and experts underwent
specialised training, tailor-made for their societies, in Israel.
But, as was the case in the Cold War era, the Israeli development projects
were not entirely altruistic.
There was also the political motive of trying to break the ostracism in which
Arab states and their allies in the Third World were encasing the fledgling
new Middle Eastern state. This became especially acute following the 1955
conference of the non-aligned world in Bandung in Indonesia, where non-
co-operation with Israel was adopted as policy.
There was a strategic dimension too. Israel's legendary first prime minister
David Ben-Gurion and his foreign minister Golda Meir foresaw a policy of
encircling the circle of Israel's regional isolation through alliances with non-
Arab states on the periphery of the region - Turkey and Iran and, critically,
Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.
Just back from an extensive tour of South America, Liberman is soon to set
out on a five-nation African tour. The Israeli foreign ministry calls it "an out-
of-the-ordinary visit", the most extensive ever by Israel's top diplomat to the
continent. He will criss-cross Africa to take in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,
Angola and Nigeria.
"Avigdor Liberman would perhaps not be happy to hear that he is following in
Golda Meir's (Socialist) footsteps," says strategic affairs commentator Yossi
Melman. "But the fact is that, like Israel's foreign minister from the 1950s and
'60s, the current foreign minister is very interested in Africa and in restoring
Israel's status there."
Liberman told the Haaretz daily: "To my regret, Israel has for many years
been absent from two continents - South America and Africa - and does not
have a sufficient presence there."
The Israeli foreign minister has a personal strategic purpose, though. He is
under threat of indictment for corruption and money laundering, and is under
constant international scrutiny for his Yisrael Beitenu party's racist ideology
and his own past offensive comments about Arab-Israelis and about Egypt's
President Hosni Mubarak. He is desperate to find ways to break out of his
political isolation.
Unlike Clinton who has just preceded Liberman to several of the same African
states, one country not on his itinerary is South Africa. There are still bitter
memories about the strong ties Israel maintained with apartheid South Africa,
including its reported involvement in helping it develop nuclear capability,
subsequently shelved.
Liberman says his visit will provide a diplomatic boost to states with
economic and security ties with Israel. "I want to tell them that Africa is
important to Israel," he said in his interview. "We must not neglect them,
especially in view of the efforts by countries like Iran to influence them and
establish themselves there."
Security sources point out that Israel has an additional immediate security
interest - keeping tabs on the spread of Al-Qaeda linked groups in various
parts of Africa.
Officials in the Israeli foreign ministry's Mashav Department of International
Cooperation have long advocated the need to build on "Israel's African Golden
Age" (when expertise and civilian know-how were the tools of its diplomatic
trade). But, quietly, they voice regret that, however welcome their minister's
initiative, it has a less savoury dimension.
As former Israeli ambassador to Angola Tamar Golan, who heads the Africa
Project at Ben-Gurion University notes, "the sad truth is that with the
exception of a few civilian enterprises, all Israel's activity in Africa is related
to diamonds and weapons."
Says Melman: "The 'Ugly Israeli' in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly
former intelligence and military officials) who promotes weapons sales on
behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defence
establishment, has given Israel a bad name on the continent. Israelis have
reportedly been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Cote d'Ivoire) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea
and the two Congo republics."
The ministry confirms that Liberman will be accompanied by a large retinue
of businessmen, many of them arms dealers, as well as security advisers and
representatives of state-backed military industries.
Even during the Africa-Israel romance of the '60s, behind the scenes Israel
was known to have sold arms and to have sent military experts to many
countries and also to have been involved in military training programmes (the
most notorious 'beneficiary' having been the Uganda tyrant, Idi Amin).
According to various publications, Israelis were involved in coup d'etats in
Uganda and Zanzibar in the sixties, or at least had prior knowledge of them.
"Regrettably," says Golan, "Israel's current mercantile presence, often through
shadowy mediators rather than official channels, has little prospect of being
altered by Liberman." She adds, "His real test is whether he is genuinely intent
on Israel again making some kind of positive mark in Africa. That will mean
him taking the advice of his ministry experts and allow room for Israel to
undertake aid to development projects that have suitable financial backing."
(END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
