Israel cannot secure the Red Sea without an African strategy - opinion

Israel has learned, at terrible cost, that dangers dismissed as distant do not remain distant. The same complacency that helped leave the country unprepared before October 7 now shapes its view of the Red Sea. Israel watches Yemen, intercepts Houthi missiles, and deploys naval power, yet it still lacks an African strategy for the waterway connecting Eilat to the world.

I write this as an Ethiopian-born Israeli-American who knows these societies. Africa is not a map I discovered in a security briefing. Ethiopia is where I was born. Israel is the homeland for which Ethiopian Jews prayed for centuries. America taught me how institutions, alliances, and public accountability can turn power into lasting influence. From that perspective, Israel’s approach is dangerously incomplete.

The problem is larger than the Houthis. Iranian-backed forces threaten ships near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Somali piracy is again rising in the Gulf of Aden. Eritrea remains a closed, militarized dictatorship, often called the North Korea of Africa, along a coastline. Meanwhile, Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most-populous nation and the headquarters of the African Union, depends on Djibouti for access to maritime trade.

This is not a collection of unrelated emergencies. It is one regional failure. The warning signs are no longer theoretical. Maritime authorities recorded two dozen attempted or completed incidents of piracy and armed robbery across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden region in only three months this year.

Renewed Houthi advances along Yemen’s coast have increased anxiety around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while conflict has displaced families toward Djibouti. Every government concerned with free navigation should understand what is at stake.

The Red Sea carries trade between Asia, Africa, and Europe. When terrorists fire missiles, pirates seize crews, or governments weaponize ports, the cost reaches American consumers, European industries, African families, and Israeli businesses.

Warships can escort vessels and aircraft can destroy launchers. But missiles cannot build legitimate institutions, create employment, or settle disputes among nations and communities.

The deeper analysis must confront an uncomfortable Ethiopian history. The leadership of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front emerged as allied guerrilla movements and later controlled Addis Ababa and Asmara.

I regard their leadership as a revolutionary political cartel that is secretive, ethnically divisive, and self-serving. My parents and I are living witnesses to the human consequences of that war. Their policies did not create democratic peace. They left authoritarianism, disputed borders, economic dependency, and unfinished tribal war and the Amhara ethnic cleansing.

Ethiopia’s Red Sea relationship is not a recent invention. The ancient Kingdom of Aksum reached the coast through Adulis, a port linking Africa to international trade. And Eritrea’s 1993 independence referendum cannot erase the reality. But neither should the international community pretend that one ballot settled every question fairly for every affected population.

The process did not adequately resolve the security of Afar communities whose historic homeland crosses Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, and Ethiopia’s maritime future or long-term rights. Many Ethiopians believe the TPLF leadership accepted the loss of Assab and direct Red Sea access without securing a durable national arrangement.

Afar and other dissenting voices have long argued that decisions imposed by armed movements did not represent the full complexity of local loyalties. These grievances should be investigated and heard, not converted into propaganda for another war.

Ethiopia's need for dependable, diversified, and affordable sea access is real. But that need does not justify invading Eritrea or erasing internationally recognized borders. A nation of more than 130 million people should not be economically trapped; neither should smaller states live under threat. The answer is negotiated port access and enforceable regional guarantees.

Coordinating with African nations over the Red Sea

Israel should propose a Red Sea partnership led jointly with African states. Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, and willing regional partners should coordinate maritime intelligence, anti-piracy operations, port security, and emergency response. The African Union, United States, European Union, and responsible Arab governments should support it. Somaliland’s practical role in regional security should be discussed without casually dismissing Somalia’s sovereignty.

This partnership should establish a permanent regional secretariat, joint maritime exercises, a piracy prosecution framework, and an infrastructure fund connecting inland economies to multiple ports. It should guarantee commercial access without transferring sovereignty and require transparent contracts so ports do not become trophies for foreign powers.

Local Afar and coastal representatives must hold seats at the table. Peace negotiated only by presidents, generals, and financiers will remain fragile.

The partnership must also address conditions on land. Piracy and extremism flourish where young people see no work, governments offer no justice, and outside powers arrive only with weapons. Investment in ports, railways, education, water, agriculture, and coastal employment is security policy, not charity.

Israel also has a strategic resource it continues to overlook: Ethiopian Israelis. We understand African political culture, Jewish history, and Israel’s security concerns. Qualified Ethiopian Israelis should serve in diplomacy, national security, intelligence, and African missions. We should not be displayed as evidence of diversity while decisions are made elsewhere.

Our community also answers a lie spreading internationally: that Zionism is a white colonial project. Ethiopian Jews carried Jerusalem in our prayers across generations. We are a social capital and a living evidence that the Jewish people are not one color and that the bond between Africa and Zion is ancient. Yet our value is greater than public relations. We can help Israel build relationships based on dignity rather than emergency transactions.

Leadership renewal begins by abandoning the arrogance that military superiority alone creates security. Israel must listen before the crisis becomes a catastrophe, engage Africa as a partner, and include people who know the region from within.

The Red Sea can become a corridor of shared prosperity or a battlefield controlled by terrorists, pirates, and dictators. Israel may win engagements without an African strategy. It will still lose the larger struggle for secure trade, regional legitimacy, and lasting peace.

The writer is a former New York City Supreme Court detective, an investigator and educator in conflict resolution and restorative peace, and a moral diplomacy expert. His upcoming book, Moral Diplomacy for a Broken World, is inspired by the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.