RE-ESTABLISHING A NECESSARY ALLIANCE WITH ISRAEL

A  Great advantage to Sierra Leone

Author: Bryan Randall – Chairman (Africa Israel Lobby)

For any nation to be taken seriously in this tupsy turvy world of politics, that nation must speak with a clear and fearless voice in the midst of the chaos and threats opposing its existence. The world is unfair and will never give us a chance to live and enjoy our liberties without a fight. We have seen resilient nations rising above hate, terror and attempted extinction to dominate the world stage. This is to tell us that even though we may not want war or pray for conflict it will surely come. It will come at the hour when we have to decide as a nation between giving up our independence or fighting for our freedom. When we decide to grow our food, export more and import less. It is when we start scrambling to dominate the international markets and advance in science and technology that our voice will be heard as a nation. When we can feed and clothe a good percentage of the world’s population and contribute immensely to international projects our voice will become stronger as a nation. At this stage our size will not matter; and size never matters in battles like these. Also at this stage, as we battle to dominate the world politic we start struggling to maintain international justice because we cannot afford to let our interests be buried into respect for fairness and justice at the expense of our control over world affairs. The United States finds itself in that difficult situation now. A case in point is the slain Saudi Journalist Karshogie versus the extreme caution by the White House over the matter. Let’s see how this unfortunate drama unfolds. The question for us all is ‘How far can a nation go to protect its ally, and to what extent can they ignore injustice, abuse and unfairness? 

If nations can go that far as we see in this present world what is wrong for any nation to swallow its pride, raise its head and define its own path in its own interest. I see nothing wrong with that. It is in this vein that I appeal to the government of Sierra Leone to take the bold step, a soldier’s step towards defining our own future maybe for the first time in a long while. Let Sierra Leone re-establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. We know what the Israelis can do and what they have to offer.

We are a very desperate nation that must strive to succeed by all means necessary. Any nation that may be of help to us must be approached and the help they offer must be considered strongly. As we battle extreme poverty, chronic persistent hunger, corruption, undue external influence, delayed aid support to our various projects it should be clear to the government of Sierra Leone that all cards must be on the table to make alliances with true friends and former foes to ensure that we come out of the bottom of the human development index and strive towards prosperity. 

To achieve this we need to make the worthy sacrifice and break tradition. Over forty years without Israel we are still at the bottom, we are still vulnerable as a nation; yet on paper we are supposed to be one of the richest nations on earth. I question the way we have been doing business as a nation all this while. Our diplomacy has not been robust, we have not been speaking from a position of strength of great potential and I am not sure we have been involved in defining the nature of relationships we have managed over the past forty years with other nations. Some of our foreign partners have raped this nation’s immense resources, they have milked us and we have been given a few biscuits and we are so very thankful. We have revered and respected some of these nations so much that their nationals have virtually swallowed our economy.

It is time for us to be bold and make new friends, revive old friendships and make the most of them. It is time for Sierra Leone to take a wise decision and we want no nation to frown or criticize us because our survival is of paramount interest and such decision lies only in our hands. The Bio Administration has the golden opportunity to redefine Sierra Leone’s Foreign Policy. I appeal to President Julius Maada Bio to show us the soldier in him and lead this nation back to the paths of prosperity and international admiration. Let us reconcile with the State of Israel. Let us learn from each other, let us build industries, let us have genuine investors, let us learn their science and technology, their agricultural techniques and energy generation. Let them train our soldiers and our paramedics; let us learn their resilience and survival tactics. Let us embrace a worthy friend with whom we share common pains of slavery, occupation and colonialism. Let us learn how they overcame all the odds to stand out so strong in the world today. 

Let us embrace Israel, it is time.