Israel's Strategy in Africa, 1961–67

Abstract

Previous research on Israel's relations with the African states has focused almost entirely on descriptions of Israeli assistance programs of the 1960s and early 1970s and the break in diplomatic relations by twenty-two African governments after the outbreak of the 1973 Middle East war. 1 These accounts are not based on archival sources and deal little with the strategy Israel pursued in Africa in the 1960s. Recently declassified documents in the Israeli State Archive, as well as the archives of Britain and the United States, make possible an elucidation of Israel's strategy in Africa from 1961 to 1967, identification of the policies that Israel adopted to achieve its goals, and an evaluation of the measure of their success. This work argues that early achievements in Africa (the late 1950s and early 1960s) notwithstanding, Israel had by 1967 largely failed to attain its strategic objectives on the continent. Five themes in Israeli foreign policy provide the setting for this article. These are, briefly defined, Israel's diplomatic isolation during the early period of statehood and the geo-strategic dimension of the attempt to relieve that isolation; Arab-Israeli competition outside the Middle East; arms sales and the pursuit of influence; attempts to ally with Western objectives; and the quest for funding. The near-complete collapse of Israel's position in Africa came only with the "wholesale" severing of relations by the "black" African states in the wake of the 1973 war, and that rupture lies outside the scope of this research. Moreover, although the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967 had already brought the black African states to view Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula as an encroachment on African territory, that clash induced only Guinea to cut ties with Israel. Yet the documentary record demonstrates that the Israelis were, even during the "halcyon days" of their early success in Africa, highly aware that the Arab states, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China offered the Africans aid, diplomatic alternatives, and, for some of the African states, ideological and religious identification with which Israel could not compete. Israel knew that powers hostile to its presence in Africa would eventually bring to bear on the continent the greater resources at their disposal. Thus, as W. Scott Thompson writes, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser vied with African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana for sway in African organizations and told them how he thought the continent should be liberated. 2 Arab political influence, especially that of Egypt, manifested itself in increasingly effective fashion at the various Pan-African and non-aligned conferences. In April 1960, the Arab members of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organization (AAPSO) prevailed on the participants at

Foreign aid and bilateral relations: The Israel−East Africa case

“…While most scholars have written about Israeli relations with African countries across the continent (Boafo-Arthur & Gyimah-Boadi, 2006;Chazan, 2006;Gruzd et al, 2018;Levey, 2001Levey, , 2004, few studies have focused on Israel−East Africa relations. Michael (2017) as well as Butime (2014) and Carol (2012) analyzed Israel's historic foreign policy toward East African countries since their independence and highlighted the importance of the region for Israel.…”

“…The relations with the Christians in South Sudan have been positive since the late 1960s when Israel provided assistance to the southern rebels as part of their struggle for independence vis‐à‐vis northern Sudan (Gidron, 2018; Levey, 2004; Rolandsen, 2011). The choice of Israel as the first state visit of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir is a testament to the warm ties between the two.…”

“…Ben‐Gurion, for example, saw Ethiopia as part of the “periphery of the Middle East” and saw the potential for a pro‐Israel base on the shores of the Red Sea in a way that considered it as critical among African countries. In fact, Israel invested more in Ethiopia than in any other country around the world (Butime, 2014; Levey, 2004; Salman, 2021). However, the current study does not include other East African countries such as Somalia and Djibouti due to the lack of diplomatic relations with those countries, or Eritrea which has a developing relationship with Israel.…”