In a historic public dialogue, Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, details his nation’s efforts to promote regional stability and interfaith cooperation.
H.E. Jusuf Kalla, Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia (2014-2019) (2004-2009) and current Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross, has been courageous and outspoken in his appeal for Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, to engage in dialogue with Israel.
Why is Israel returning to Africa? For Netanyahu, one reason dominates all others. “The automatic majority against Israel at the UN is composed—first and foremost—of African countries,” he told a gathering of Israel’s ambassadors to Africa in February of last year. “Whether in the end or at the outset, our goal is to change their voting patterns.”
Benjamin Netanyahu's historic visit to Africa this week is the first by an Israeli prime minister in close to 50 years. While the occasion is to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe raid in which he lost a brother and Israel's military prowess dazzled the world, Israel has considerably more to celebrate in Africa today. Little of this is publicly known, as it is a fraught story of people-to-people affinities ill-served by frequent government-to-government misalliance.
In the early and mid-1980s, I saw up close some of the remarkable Israeli efforts, supported by the United States government and a few American Jewish groups, on behalf of Ethiopian Jews.