Israel Strengthens Ties With Ethiopia
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the Ethiopian government’s Institute of Foreign Affairs think tank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate on issues of national security, agrotech, and food and water security. The MoU resulted from a JCPA-led summit held over the past week called “Trusted Regional Partnerships at a Time of Shifting Alliances.” The JCPA aimed to “discuss the prospects for enlarging and enhancing the Abraham Accords and the potential areas for Gulf-Africa-Israel partnerships in the fields of counterterrorism and national security, food and water security and environmental concerns.”
JCPA president Dan Diker analyzed the source of the agreement between Israel and Ethiopia: “A lot of African and Middle Eastern states are identifying with Israel because we are not encroaching on them, unlike the other powers that have been approaching them like Russia or Iran or China.”
“Israel generally drives initiatives that are good for its security or technology,” Diker said. “By contrast, this summit is building a regional strategy that is based on partnership, and in that scene, the Abraham Accords have allowed us to set up relationships that are not transactional but rather cooperative,” he added.
The Abraham Accords are the gift that keeps on giving for Israel. The agreements have given Israel not only peace with many neighboring countries but cooperation that directly benefits the people. Among Gulf-area countries, Ethiopia is a natural partner for Israel due to its Jewish population and the many Jewish Ethiopians who have made aliyah to Israel in recent years. This MoU is aimed to strengthen Israel and Ethiopia’s relationship on many levels, and we hope it will do just that.
