Alliance and Alienation: Ethiopia and Israel in the Days of Haile Selassie
By Haggai Erlich
The relations between Ethiopia and Israel, until their dramatic severance in the aftermath of the October 1973 War in the Middle East, revolved around issues of regional strategy as well as of ancient religious concepts of identity. For Haile Selassie's Ethiopia, Israel was centrally important. In the eyes of her Christian leaders, Ethiopia was under Arab and Islamic siege, and for them, Israel was a strategic partner and a historic sister. Their national ethos connected them directly to Jerusalem and to the Hebrew Bible, to the house of David and Solomon and to an Israeli identity.
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