Israeli PM: Africa has no better friend than Israel

Netanyahu is the first ruling Israeli prime minister to visit Kenya and the first to visit sub-Saharan Africa in almost three decades.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Zambian President Edgar Lungu, and Tanzanian Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga attended the summit. “It is deep in my heart”, said Mr. Netanyahu, who has said that his older brother’s death was the catalyst that led him into politics and to eventually seek to become prime minister.

Kenyatta also said his country supports talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Netanyahu will also visit Rwanda and Ethiopia during his tour this week.

But officials in Jerusalem told i24news that the end goal of this process is to eliminate the automatic Arab majority within the African bloc, hence allowing more and more African countries to express their support for Israel not just in theory but in practice.

“There may be other friends”, he said, “but none of them exceed Israel in our proven capacity and desire to put our experience in helping African countries struggling against the same adversary and same enemies that want to destroy us, and want to destroy you”.

On July 4, 1976, a group of Israeli commandos covertly raided Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on a rescue mission of 248 passengers aboard an Air France passenger plane that had been hijacked a week earlier.

“I believe in Africa’s future and partnership with Israel”.

Currently, only 2 percent of Israel’s exports go to Africa, but a growing middle class and process of urbanization in many of these countries have paved the way for economic opportunities there, Groner said.

“It would be foolhardy” for Kenya and Africa not to engage with Israel when its Arab neighbors do, Kenyatta said Tuesday at a joint press appearance with Netanyahu at the presidential palace in Nairobi.

Furthermore, in an interview with the Daily Monitor last week, Uganda’s First Deputy Premier, Gen Moses Ali, who was a finance minister at the time of the raid questioned the logic of Ugandans participating in the commemorations.

Netanyahu is now on a four-nation tour of Africa, where he is seeking to restore and strengthen ties with the continent.

Moreover, when i24news asked the seven leaders about the prospects of seeing African countries changing their voting pattern in worldwide forums individually and as a bloc, Museveni deemed this was an issue still under discussion.

Beyond diplomacy and trade, the trip has deep personal meaning for Netanyahu.

The Palestinian Authority does enjoy this status, meaning that while PA President Mahmoud Abbas is able to address the body, Israeli leaders are not.