Ethiopia and Israel agreed to strengthen their historical relationship

Ethiopian News, Tigrai Online, January 25, 2015

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and Israel. The leaders of the two countries were in Davos, Switzerland to take part on the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed how to take the historical, social, and religious ties between the two people to greater heights. The relationship between the Israeli and Ethiopian people goes back for thousands of years. There are thousands of Ethiopian Jews resettled in Israel. Israeli businesses have been investing in Ethiopia since 1994 in many sectors of the economy.

Ethiopia buys sophisticated military weapons from Israel including unmanned drones and spare parts for fighter jets.

The political move by Ethiopia and Israel seems directly tied to the recent Arab expansion led by Saudi Arabia to the Horn of Africa. The Saudis have been trying to spread their Wahabi version of Islam to the Horn of Africa mainly to Ethiopia for years, but their efforts failed.

The new leadership in the Saudi Kingdom is using its financial power and fear mongering against Iran to assemble an Islamic collelation. Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti are now part of this grouping. As a part of the agreement Saudi Arabia and its allys are using the port of Asseb as a military base for their war ships and to launch fighter jets to Yemen, but many Ethiopians and international analysts are sounding the alarm saying the real reason behind the Arab countries moving to Assab port is to get closer to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

In light of these geo-political developments it makes perfect sense for Ethiopia and Israel to have a united front and come up with a counter measure to stop the Arab Islamic expansion to the Horn of Africa in particular and to Africa in general.