Lieutenant General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commander of Uganda’s 45,000-strong army and son of President Yoweri Museveni, recently did what no European foreign minister dares: he picked a side and meant it. “We want the war in the Middle East to end now. The world is tired of it”, he tweeted. Then the punch: “But any talk of destroying or defeating Israel will bring us into the war. On the side of Israel!”

This is combat-hardened realism from a nation whose troops have actually fought and whose leaders remember who stood with them when no one else would—not empty noise from a paper tiger.

Flash back to the 1960s. Israel’s ‘Doctrine of the Periphery’ was in full swing: forge alliances with non-Arab states on the Arab world’s fringes to break the encirclement. 

Uganda was prime real estate. Israeli advisors and Mossad operatives trained Idi Amin’s army, equipped his forces, and even helped consolidate his 1971 coup. Post-Six-Day War, Jerusalem sold Kampala $7 million in weapons and poured development aid into roads, farms, and infrastructure. Amin himself got personal military training from the Israelis. It was classic........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)