This is how politics play out

Israel is the first country to recognise an independent Somaliland, but is it being played in its desire to expel Gazans?

- Gwynne Dyer

Israel last week was the first country in the world to establish diplomatic relations with Somaliland. Not Somalia, a wreck of a country on the East African coast that has been mired in civil war for the past 35 years, but Somaliland, a different country just north of there that has been peaceful, relatively prosperous and even democratic for all those years.

This is causing a diplomatic outcry because many countries suspect that the deal has a secret clause. They think Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi may have promised to let Israel offload Gaza's two million Palestinians to his country in return for recognising Somaliland as an independent state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motivation is clear. He wants to expel the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip if possible, but cannot defy US President Donald Trump's order to accept a ceasefire.