Page 169 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come
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HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)
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one in the Dahlak islands, the other in the Mahel Agar mountains near
the Sudanese border. Israel's close relations with Ethiopia began in the
1950s. The Israeli-Ethiopian alliance began in 1952 with civilian trade
relations, and developed into a dialogue at the highest levels when an
Israeli representative began meeting Emperor Haile Selassie and his
most senior officials in 1956. Israel began to provide military aid, intelli-
gence and training to the Selassie regime and its army, in order to put
down radical movements in the region and Muslims who rise up and
attack Christian Ethiopians. Professor Hallahmi describes the ideologi-
cal basis of the Ethiopian-Israeli alliance in these terms:
The ideological basis for this alliance was the perception of the Israelis
"as a brave people surrounded by hostile Muslim forces that seek to
seize their historic homeland, a situation the Ethiopian Christians con-
sider analogous to their own history in the midst of a threatening
Muslim sea." 39
According to Hallahmi's book, the 3,100-man counter-insurgency
team, known as the "Emergency Police," set up by Selassie to put
down uprisings in Eritrea was specially trained by Israeli experts.
The state of Israel has one thing in common with past
Ethiopian and Eritrean regimes: Its anti-Islamic line.