The COVID-19 crisis would severely impact the four countries at the social, political, economic and humanitarian levels, as these states were already facing multi-vector exigencies at the time of the pandemic’s outbreak.
Israel’s relations with African countries go back to the late 1950s when it began extending significant support to many African countries undergoing decolonisation. Since then the relations have experienced many fluctuations with a major shift seen in the past few years. There has been an accelerated improvement under the premiership of Benjamin Netanyahu, who proactively pursues an African region centric ‘Return to Africa policy’.
The Indian Air Force’s participation in Israel’s Blue Flag 2017 multilateral exercise adds an important layer to the matrix of cooperation between India and Israel.
Israel’s Labour party has been going through turmoil since losing monopoly over power in 1977 and is unable to regain its erstwhile pre-eminence and even relevance.
Settler entrenchment has reached a point where no peaceful assimilation of the entire West Bank into a compact territory of a future Palestine state and a harmonious division of Jerusalem city linked to this entity may be possible.
Going by Netanyahu’s present term, the return of a stronger Right Wing coalition may lead to increased friction in the region and increased Israeli isolation as well.
Since the revolution that toppled Mubarak, Sinai has become a no man’s land where jihadists from Egypt and Gaza as well as local Bedouins have begun to engage in militant activities.
