When Israel made the historic decision late last year to recognize Somaliland, it did something few nations are willing to do: it acted on principle and strategic interest rather than diplomatic convention.
After more than three decades in which Somaliland has maintained its own institutions, elections, security forces, and governing structures – including multiple competitive presidential elections with peaceful transfers of power – Israel became the first country to acknowledge Somaliland’s claim to sovereign statehood.
That decision mattered.
But recognition alone is not enough.
Now comes the harder part: turning a symbolic breakthrough into diplomatic momentum.
Israel needs to take the next step forward
If Israel truly believes Somaliland deserves a seat among the family of nations, then it cannot stop at the bilateral opening of embassies and exchange of ambassadors. Jerusalem should actively use its diplomatic influence – particularly in the United States, as well as with Ethiopia – to persuade others to follow suit.
Because if Israel does not help to translate recognition into broader diplomatic engagement, it risks allowing a historic initiative to remain isolated rather than transformative.
This is not merely about Somaliland. It is about whether Israel can demonstrate that it possesses the capacity to assist its friends and shape outcomes.
The timing could hardly be more important.
In recent days, reports that Somaliland intends to establish its embassy in Jerusalem – a step few Muslim-majority governments would ever dream of contemplating – triggered harsh criticism across parts of the Arab and Islamic world.
And therein lies a remarkable irony.
For decades, many in the Arab and Muslim world have portrayed themselves as natural partners for Muslim societies seeking development and international standing.
Yet when Somaliland, a predominantly Muslim territory that has functioned independently since the collapse of Somalia in 1991, sought recognition and friendship, none stepped forward.
Not one Arab state nor any Muslim-majority country.
Instead, it was Israel – the world’s only Jewish state – that extended recognition.
That fact alone ought to give pause.
Here is a Muslim society that built democratic institutions, preserved internal stability and sought constructive relations with the West and with Israel, yet found itself embraced not by its supposed natural allies but by the Jewish state.
And Somaliland’s embrace of Israel has not been ambiguous or half-hearted. Despite the predictable backlash from across parts of the Arab world, its leadership chose to deepen and publicize its ties with Jerusalem rather than retreat from them.
That should matter to Israel.
But there is another reason why Israel cannot afford to treat Somaliland as merely a diplomatic curiosity. Somaliland occupies one of the most strategically valuable locations on earth.
It sits astride one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. Positioned along the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, it overlooks a corridor through which a substantial portion of global trade and energy shipments passes.
Somaliland’s port of Berbera, already upgraded with foreign investment, offers Israel and its allies a reliable logistical foothold in the Red Sea, reducing dependence on fragile regional arrangements and providing strategic depth in a critical maritime corridor.
In an era when the Houthis have repeatedly threatened international shipping, when Iran seeks to project influence across the Red Sea basin, and when great-power competition in the Horn of Africa is intensifying, reliable partnerships carry enormous value.
For years, Washington has depended heavily on regional arrangements that leave it vulnerable to shifting political winds elsewhere in the Middle East. Somaliland offers something increasingly rare: a stable, pro-Western, strategically situated partner in a turbulent neighborhood.
Israel recognized this reality. Others should, too.
There is also a deeper historical irony here. In June 1960, Somaliland briefly enjoyed internationally recognized independence before voluntarily entering into union with Somalia. Israel was the first state to recognize Somaliland during that short period.
In that sense, Jerusalem’s decision last year was not the creation of something new so much as the restoration of a relationship interrupted for more than six decades.
In the spirit of the Abraham Accords, Israel has once again shown that shared values and strategic interests can bridge historic divides, something the Arab world, despite decades of rhetoric, has conspicuously failed to do for a fellow Muslim society.
That means placing Somaliland higher on the diplomatic agenda in Washington.
Successive American administrations have spoken often about democracy, stability, and strategic partnerships. Somaliland presents an unusual combination of all three: relative internal stability in a volatile region, functioning institutions, and a location of enormous strategic significance.
Likewise with Ethiopia. Ethiopia, which signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland in 2024 regarding sea access via the port of Berbera, has demonstrated that regional assumptions are not immutable. A coordinated Israeli effort to encourage Ethiopia to revisit the strategic logic behind closer engagement with Somaliland could alter regional calculations.
Addis Ababa has unique historical, geographic, and economic equities in the Horn of Africahttps://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-889691, and a shift in Ethiopian policy would send a signal across the continent that Somaliland’s status deserves serious reconsideration.
And Israel, despite its size, has shown repeatedly that it can punch above its weight diplomatically when it chooses to make an issue a priority.
American Jews, too, should not remain on the sidelines. The organized Jewish community has long understood that diplomacy does not happen only in foreign ministries. Through relationships in Washington, think tanks, advocacy organizations, and civil society, American Jews have repeatedly helped shape conversations about American foreign policy. Somaliland’s case deserves to become part of that conversation.
Israel’s recognition of Somaliland was bold. But bold beginnings demand meaningful follow-through. The real test now is whether Jerusalem will treat it as a one-off headline or as the beginning of a new alliance of stability in a region too often defined by failure and hostility.
Otherwise, Israel’s recognition risks becoming a diplomatic footnote rather than the opening chapter of a strategic realignment.
Somaliland took a political risk in standing openly with Israel. The Jewish state should now demonstrate that such courage will be rewarded, and that friendship with Jerusalem is not merely symbolic, but consequential.■
The writer served as the deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.