By Dr. Mohamed Osman
Feb 5, 2026 · Member of the Society · Published at The Times of Israel (Blogs)
Dr. Mohamed Osman
Member of the Society · Writer at The Times of Israel
Retired physician and public-health specialist from Somaliland, based in Canada, with career service at Ottawa Public Health and Alberta Health Services — and a long-standing voice for Somaliland's international recognition.
Two young states that built themselves against the odds — the parallels that make this friendship natural.
Dr. Osman sets the two countries side by side and finds the parallels striking: both built functioning, democratic states in unforgiving neighborhoods; both inherited British legal frameworks; both lean on large, devoted diasporas; and both sit astride waterways the world cannot afford to lose. Each spent its formative years fighting for legitimacy the world was slow to grant.
He is equally clear-eyed about the differences. Israel is a fully recognized, high-technology economy with one of the world's most capable militaries; Somaliland remains a largely pastoral economy whose institutions have outrun its paperwork. One is pluralistic and globally connected; the other is homogeneous, Muslim, and organized around clan consensus.
The comparison is really an argument: what the two countries share is what makes the friendship natural, and what separates them is exactly what cooperation can close. Writing weeks after recognition, he outlines the emerging framework — technology for resources, coordination on Red Sea security, and the UAE playing quiet facilitator in the background.
This is the Society's summary — the full article, in the author's own words, is at The Times of Israel.
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