THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 2, January 3, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
SOUTH SUDAN -- ISRAEL'S NEW ALLY
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN: THE WORLD'S MOST RECENTLY-ESTABLISHED INDEPENTDENT, SOVEREIGN NATION-STATE -- A BRIEF HISTORY OF
SOUTH SUDAN & ITS PEOPLE -- THE LINK BETWEEN SOUTH SUDAN & THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- THE LINK BETWEEN SOUTH SUDAN & THE U.S.A. -- THE PROBABLE
IMPACT OF A SUCCESSFUL SOUTH SUDAN ON POWER POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EASTERN REGION
FULL STORY:
It's not every day that the leader of a brand-new country makes his maiden foreign voyage to Jerusalem, capital of the most besieged country in the world, but
Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan, accompanied by his Foreign and Defense Ministers, did just that in late December, 2011. Israel's President Shimon Peres
hailed his visit as a "moving and historic moment." The visit spurred talk of South Sudan locating its Embassy in Jerusalem, making it the only government
anywhere in the world to do so.
This unusual development results from an unusual story.
Today's Sudan took shape in the Nineteenth Century, when the Ottoman Empire controlled Sudan's northern regions and tried to conquer the southern ones. The
British, ruling out of Cairo, established the outlines of the modern state in 1898 and, for the next fifty years, ruled separately the Muslim north and
Christian-animist south. In 1948, however, succumbing to northern pressure, the British merged the two administrations in Khartoum under northern control,
making Muslims dominant in Sudan and Arabic its official language.
Accordingly, independence in 1956 brought civil war, as southerners battled to fend off Muslim hegemony. Fortunately for them, Prime Minister David
Ben-Gurion's "periphery strategy" translated into Israeli support for non-Arabs in the Middle East, including the southern Sudanese. The government of Israel
served through the first Sudanese civil war, lasting until 1972, as their primary source of moral backing, diplomatic help, and armaments.
Mr. Kiir acknowledged this contribution in Jerusalem, noting that "Israel has always supported the South Sudanese people. Without you, we would not have
arisen. You struggled alongside us in order to allow the establishment of South Sudan." In reply, Mr. Peres recalled his presence in the early 1960s in Paris,
when then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and he initiated Israel's first-ever link with southern Sudanese leaders.
Sudan's civil war continued intermittently from 1956 until 2005. Over time, Muslim northerners became increasingly vicious toward their southern co-nationals,
culminating in the 1980-1990s with massacres, chattel slavery, and genocide. Given Africa's many tragedies, such problems might not have made an impression
on compassion-weary Westerners, except for an extraordinary effort led by two modern-day American abolitionists.
Starting in the mid-1990s, John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International redeemed tens of thousands of slaves in Sudan while Charles Jacobs of the American
Anti-Slavery Group led a "Sudan Campaign" in the United States that brought together a wide coalition of organizations. As all Americans abhor slavery, the
abolitionists formed a unique alliance of Left and Right, including Barney Frank and Sam Brownback, the Congressional Black Caucus and Pat Robertson, black
pastors and white Evangelicals. In contrast, Louis Farrakhan was exposed and embarrassed by his attempts to deny slavery's existence in Sudan.
The abolitionist effort culminated in 2005, when the George W. Bush administration pressured Khartoum in 2005 to sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
that ended the war and gave southerners a chance to vote for independence. They enthusiastically did so in January, 2011, when 98 percent voted for secession
from Sudan, leading to the formation of the Republic of South Sudan six months later, an event hailed by Mr. Peres as "a milestone in the history of the Middle
East."
Israel's longterm investment has paid off. South Sudan fits into a renewed periphery strategy that includes Cyprus, Kurds, Berbers, and, perhaps one day, a
post-Islamist Iran. South Sudan offers access to natural resources, especially oil. Its role in Nile River water negotiations offers leverage vis-à-vis Egypt. Beyond
practical benefits, the new republic represents an inspiring example of a non-Muslim population resisting Islamic imperialism through its integrity, persistence,
and dedication. In this sense, the birth of South Sudan echoes that of Israel.
If Kiir's Jerusalem visit is truly to mark a milestone, South Sudan must travel the long path from dirt-poor, international protectorate with feeble institutions to
modernity and genuine independence. This path requires the leadership not to exploit the new state's resources nor dream of creating a "New Sudan" by
conquering Khartoum, but to lay the foundations for successful statehood.
A sign at the independence celebrations (edited for meaning, using the Arabic for guidance): "From today, our identity is South [Sudanese] and African, not
Arab and Islamic. We are not the worst of Arabs, but the best of Africans."
For the Israelis and other Westerners, this means both helping with agriculture, health and education and urging Juba to stay focused on defense and
development, while avoiding wars of choice. A successful South Sudan could eventually become a regional power and a stalwart ally not just of Israel, but of
the West.
© Daniel Pipes 2012. All Rights Reserved
Originally Published in The Washington Times, January 3, 2012
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the DanielPipes.org, January 3, 2012
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/10486/south-sudan-israel-allies
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Arabs
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Problem of Syria
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and President of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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