power, he followed in the steps of the emperor he had deposed and turned to Israel, seeking both military support and assistance with convincing Washington to continue its support to Ethiopia despite the brutality of its new Marxist-inspired regime. The Derg saw as its ultimate objective the establishment of a united centralised nation state in Ethiopia and continued to fight secessionists in the northern part of the country. Like Israel, it had an interest in preventing an independent Eritrea.
In return for access to Ethiopian ports in the Red Sea, Israel trained the Ethiopian military and supplied it with ammunition and spare parts.43 The Derg also allowed several members of the Beta Israel community – the Jews of Ethiopia – to leave the country for Israel.44 Before Mengistu managed to secure Soviet support, Israel tried to advocate on his behalf in the US and to mobilise President Jimmy Carter’s support for a strong Israeli–Ethiopian cooperation, but Carter was unconvinced and reportedly perplexed by the importance the Israelis attached to the issue.45 The covert Israeli–Ethiopian relationship temporarily fell apart in early 1978, when Moshe Dayan, then Israel’s foreign minister, accidentally (or not) exposed it in an interview. The Derg responded in anger but admitted that the relationship existed because Israel was the only country that agreed to sell arms to Ethiopia.46 According to Mossad veteran Yossi Alpher, Siad Barre, the president of Somalia, discreetly approached Israel, presumably hoping to attract Israeli and American support after the Soviets switched sides and abandoned him for Mengistu, but he was rebuffed.47
Meanwhile, just across the border from Ethiopia and Somalia, cooperation between Israeli and Kenyan security and intelligence agencies was also maintained despite the lack of formal bilateral ties. This relationship was particularly close, allowing Israel to carry out in 1976 the famous ‘Operation Entebbe’. In July that year Israel sent its commando units to Uganda to raid Entebbe airport and release Israeli hostages that were held there after their plane was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Kenya quietly provided support and allowed Israeli planes to refuel in Nairobi on their way back to Israel. In fact, earlier that same year, Israeli intelligence secretly cooperated with Kenya to thwart another attack by the PFLP – an attempt to shoot down an Israeli aircraft departing from Nairobi. Jomo Kenyatta was promised absolute confidentiality with regard to his country’s cooperation with Israel on the matter.48
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