The October 7 attack on Israel took place fifty years and one day after the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the year in which a pan-Arab coalition formed between Egypt and Syria coordinated the Saudi, Algerian and Jordanian expeditionary forces, Iraqis, Kuwaitis. , Tunisians and Moroccans. Interestingly, Cuba and North Korea are also on this list of war expeditions.
1973 is precisely, and because of this war, the year in which relations between African states and Israel experience their ‘glacial moment’, with the strengthening of the parallelism in the message and discourse on the colonialism from which Africa had largely in recent years liberated. the 1960s and the colonial moment of the Palestinians. Africa, under the auspices of the Organization for African Unity, rejected Israel and everything that entity represented until the beginning of the thaw in 1978. Why?
Because this is the year in which the Camp David Accords were signed, which regularize diplomatic and commercial relations between Egypt and Israel, as well as the recognition of the former over the right to exist of the latter. This fact cost the life of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, also assassinated on October 6, but in 1981. From 1978 onwards, the African states, seeing that the spokesman of pan-Arabism recognized Israel, relaxed their vigilance and began to to count. the gains that come from such Egyptian recognition, in a context where the Cold War turned the continent into a battlefield and relegated development to the “Palestinian calendars”!
Another important date is 1993 and the Oslo Accords, a period that equates to the end of the Cold War and the end of apartheid in South Africa. It is also from this time that Nelson Mandela’s famous comparison/equivalence between the struggle for the liberation of black people in South Africa, to the struggle of the Palestinians against Israel. The Republic of South Africa remains the African country that continues to fly the flag of Palestine the highest, and is also very attentive to Israeli investments in Africa, as it is one of the largest producers/exporters on the continent.
Three decades later, we are in the 21st century and in 2020 the Trump administration, at the end of its term, “withdraws the Abraham Accords,” an initiative that aims to phase in Arab and African states hostile to Israel to regularize. the ultimate goal is the accession of Saudi Arabia, Israel’s arch-enemy in the region, holder of the holy places of Islam and maximum representative of Sunnism in the ‘everyday world’, which from Mauritania to Indonesia forms the ‘Islamic arc’ that is defined by Samuel Huntington in “The Clash of Civilizations” (1996). This is in fact the main reason for this ‘lightning attack’ by Hamas, which is disrupting the progress of the Abraham Accords and undermining the path for Saudi Arabia to join them. So far they seem to have succeeded!
Africa after October 7
The proof that everything has changed in the past fifty years are the numbers. Currently, 44 of the 54 African countries recognize the State of Israel and 30 countries have embassies and consulates in Tel Aviv. What was this change due to?
The end of the Cold War freed countries from the constraints imposed from outside, creating space to fill the gaps left by the political rupture of 1991, which began in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Israel’s new approach to Africa would never succeed if it were based solely on military cooperation, leaving Africans as “burnt cats afraid of cold water,” in the wake of the end of global bipolarity. What they needed and wanted were development projects that would make an immediate difference to the population. Now Israel carries the glory of transforming deserts into successful agricultural production on its shoulders, which is the best way to win the hearts of African leaders. Together with agriculture come techniques for capturing water, reusing it and even better management during floods, plus adaptation to climate change. This Israeli attack in East Africa is also not innocent, as it goes towards the geography of the sources of the Nile River, the great support of the Republic of Sudan and Egypt, the last and the first ally in Africa respectively. We’ll be there soon!
Kenya was the first African country and the first in the world to condemn the Hamas attack, reject all forms of terrorism and support Israel in this war. Why? Because this ‘agricultural involvement’ of Israel in East Africa has turned Mombasa and other Kenyan ‘beach towns’ into the ‘Israeli Algarve’!
In another approach, Africa needs technology and Israel has it to sell, in addition to personnel for the necessary training periods, moments that serve above all to create complicity between trainers and trainees, normally anchored in difficulties overcome by both, thus increasing the bonds are strengthened and loyalty. Technology also means weapons and intelligence, another strong area that Israel must promote in Africa and which has allowed the country to make progress on the continent.
Returning to Abraham, Morocco and the Republic of Sudan are the African signatories to the agreement. Of the two, only Sudan raises some doubts about the future as it is the back base of the Muslim Brotherhood (IM), which has since been declared illegal in Egypt by General Sissi. On the other hand, the Sudanese National Army has been infiltrated by the IM for decades, which also represents the last Islamic hope for a capable army to raise the flag of Islam in the final battle in an end of the world scenario. Maybe by Christmas everything will become clearer about how close this battle is!
Political scientist/Arabist
www.maghreb-machrek.pt (under repair)
The author writes according to the old spelling.
Source: DN
