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Source: https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-883160
Israel's Recognition of Somaliland
(Jerusalem Report) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan Conricus - As an assessment officer at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York, I was tasked with providing military assessments of the situation in the Horn of Africa between the years 2014-2017. As I documented and analyzed the atrocities of the local brand of jihadi terror, Al-Shabaab, in Somalia, it quickly became apparent that Somalia was a classic failed state due to a dysfunctional local government, corruption, and foreign meddling. Neighboring Somaliland was a stark contrast. No terror organizations or extremist Islam were tolerated; free and steady elections were held; the government actually worked to improve the infrastructure and conditions on the ground for its citizens; and most people had basic rights and liberties. Yet the international community refused to award Somaliland freedom and independence, and forced it to remain tethered to the failing Somalia. Thus, Israeli recognition was both sensible and long overdue. Absent from Arab, Muslim, and African condemnations of Israel's move was Ethiopia, a powerful African nation and the seat of the African Union. It is also a landlocked neighbor of Somaliland that would very likely benefit from access to the Indian Ocean via Somaliland's Berbera port. The writer, a former IDF international spokesman, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.