About Netanyahu's "shadow man" in Africa - and how he brought about normalization with Sudan - voila! news

It was the bread.

It's always the bread.

Even in dictatorships, hunger brings the masses to the streets.

The Sudanese dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, realized this on December 19, 2018. A day earlier, his government decided to raise the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound (equivalent to seven Israeli shekels, BR) to three pounds. This was the third time since the beginning of the year that the price of bread went up - and it did not pass quietly. The protest began in the city of Gadrif in the east of the country. Hundreds of residents who went out to demonstrate clashed with the police forces. Six demonstrators were shot dead, and the authorities declared a state of emergency in the city. But the protest did not stop there. It quickly spread west, to the capital Khartoum, and other cities throughout Sudan. Within a short time, the protests changed form. From an economic protest over the cost of living, the protesters moved to calling for the removal of Bashir, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years. Bashir responded with force. A few weeks after the riots broke out, he declared a state of emergency throughout the country , dissolved the civilian government and transferred the powers to the army and the intelligence apparatus subordinate to him.

The phone line was down.

This is a familiar phenomenon in talks with Africa - especially if one speaker sits in the prime minister's office in Jerusalem and the other in the presidential palace in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

The two speakers in the conversation that took place in early January 2019 were not sure if Ben Shicham was hearing them accurately.

One spoke Arabic in a Sudanese dialect and the other in a Palestinian-Gaza dialect.

On the one hand, the Sudanese dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and on the other hand, Prime Minister Netanyahu's emissary to the Arab world and Africa, the man known as "Maoz".

The conversation, which seemed only imaginary not long before, was not long.

A few words of courtesy, a brief introduction and a summary of the contact channel.

"I want relations with Israel," Bashir told Maoz in a conversation.

"I ask that from today you talk to Salah Ghosh."

If Bashir was the dictator, Gush was the executioner.

He was the national security adviser and head of the all-powerful intelligence in Sudan.

Ghosh was the one who organized the militias that carried out some of the massacres in Darfur, and was even the contact person for Osama bin Laden in the Sudanese government in the 1990s.

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• The Palestinians condemn the normalization with Sudan: "another stab in the back"

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The Sudanese dictator told him: "I want relations with Israel."

Ronan Levy "Maoz" (photo: official website, Rami Zarnagar)

A few months earlier, Mouz devoted most of his time to other clients - members of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza.

He was born and raised in the south of the country and lives there to this day.

When he joined the General Security Service about 20 years ago as a coordinator, his first job was to recruit and operate agents in the Bedouin diaspora in the Negev.

He advanced quickly and became known for his excellent ability to read people and situations and know which buttons to push to get people to cooperate with him.

When Meir Ben Shabat assumed the position of head of the southern region of the Shin Bet, he recruited him as the head of his operational staff. A few years later, Ben Shabat promoted him to head of the Gaza Brigade. Ma'oz became Dr. Hamas of the Israeli intelligence community, and a little after the age of 40 he was already Responsible for all intelligence gathering and operations in the Gaza Strip.

He was on the fast track to the top of the organization.

Nothing prepared him for the twist in the plot that was about to change the course of his life.

At the end of 2017, after the government approved his appointment as head of the National Security Staff in the Prime Minister's Office, Meir Ben Shabat called Maoz.

"Come to MLA.

There are interesting things here and it is possible to have an impact," he told him. Maoz politely refused. He had not yet exhausted his new role and leaving for the unknown in the gray MAL seemed to him like a choice between madness and irresponsibility.

Ben Shabbat did not give up.

Every few weeks he would call, and after five months of intense courtship he broke.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, personally asked the head of the Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, to lend Maoz to the MAL, and two weeks later the man submitted a travel form at the Prime Minister's Office.

Ben Shabbat informed him that he wanted to establish the Middle East Division at the National Security Headquarters, placing special emphasis on the ties with Egyptian intelligence on the Gaza issue, and to serve as Netanyahu's emissary to the Arab countries.

A source at MAL told me that Maoz was not enthusiastic. "To mess with the Arab world one more time?

Give me something in Europe or America," he told Laban Shabbat.

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After years of hostility to Israel - the turn came

It is difficult to exaggerate how dramatic Al-Bashir's appeal to Israel in January 2019 was.

Sudan is not defined in Israeli law as an enemy state, but the two countries have been enmity for many years and they do not maintain diplomatic relations between them.

For many years, Sudan hosted Hamas commanders in its territory, and had a military and political alliance with Iran and Hezbollah.

The Iranians used it as a base to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip, and even built a huge factory near the capital Khartoum to produce long-range rockets for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Between 2008 and 2014, a series of airstrikes were carried out in the territory of Sudan on weapons convoys that made their way to the Gaza Strip, on an Iranian weapons ship docked in Port Sudan, and on the rocket factory near the capital Khartoum.

The Sudanese government attributed all the attacks to Israel, but in Jerusalem they never took responsibility for them.

The hostility towards Israel began decades before.

During the War of Independence in 1948, Sudan sent reinforcements to the Egyptian army.

Also in 1967, during the Six Day War, the Sudanese sent troops to assist the Egyptian army in its war against Israel.

Immediately after the war, the Arab League conference convened in Sudan and made the infamous historic decision known as the "Three Levies of Khartoum" - Arab countries will not agree to peace with Israel, will not negotiate with it, and will not recognize it.

Since those years, the law in Sudan has stated that Israel is the only country in the world that Sudanese citizens are not allowed to enter.

Sudanese who entered Israel could be tried upon their return and receive a long prison sentence.

For decades, Sudan has confiscated Israeli goods and prohibited any contact with Israeli officials.

At the end of 2014 there was a turning point in relation to Israel.

The combination between the Israeli bombings (according to foreign publications, BR) and heavy political pressure and economic aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, caused the Sudanese to begin to cool their relations with Iran. In the first stage, they expelled the Iranian cultural attaché at the embassy in Khartoum who was suspected of being an intelligence officer, and closed several Iranian cultural centers that operated in the country and were suspected of spreading Shiism. A few months later, Sudan joined the coalition established by Saudi Arabia to fight the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and even sent military forces to join the fighting. In January 2016, after the attack on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran, the Sudanese completely severed diplomatic relations with Iran The move is complete.

The former dictator of Sudan, Omar Bashir (Photo: Reuters)

Simultaneously with the disengagement from Iran, a stormy public debate began in Sudan regarding the normalization of relations with Israel.

The main goal was to warm relations with the United States and bring about the removal of the economic sanctions imposed on the country.

Supporters of normalization believed that the road to Washington passes through Jerusalem.

In Israel they were not indifferent to the voices.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office appealed to the American government and some of the European Union countries and encouraged them to improve their relations with Sudan.

Senior Israeli officials told me at the time that they emphasized to the Americans and Europeans that the positive steps on the part of Sudan should not be ignored and that they should be rewarded accordingly - for example, by writing off part of Sudan's enormous external debt, which was close to 50 billion dollars.

After several articles I published at the time on the subject of relations between Israel and Sudan, several Sudanese journalists contacted me.

We followed each other on Twitter and started corresponding in private messages through the app.

This was also a sign of the change that took place in the country.

The ties with the Sudanese journalists tightened and turned into a close professional relationship.

In August 2017, one of my Sudanese colleagues sent me a link to a video on the YouTube channel of the public television network Sudania 24. "You have to see it," he wrote.

I went to the link and discovered that it was an interview with the Minister of Foreign Investment Affairs in the Sudanese government, Mubarak Fadel al-Mahdi, during which he expressed support for ties with Israel.

"There is no problem with normalization with Israel... The Palestinians have normalized relations with Israel... Even the Hamas movement is talking with Israel," said al-Mahdi, who was the head of the Nation party at the time.

For many minutes he harshly criticized the Palestinians and praised democracy in Israel.

It was an earthquake.

Al-Mahdi was criticized a lot,

but also received considerable support.

Although President Bashir expressed opposition to these things, the taboo was broken.

Normalization with Israel was no longer a dirty word in Sudanese politics.

To understand the background to the relations agreement with Sudan, you also need to know Israel's relationship with another country in Africa - Chad.

Three weeks after Mouz arrived at the Prime Minister's office, Netanyahu's first task landed on his desk - to open a direct flight route between Israel and Latin America over Africa.

Such a route will make it possible to shorten the flight time by at least three hours.

There is only one small problem: for this to happen, it is necessary to obtain permission to pass through the airspace of Chad, Sudan and Libya;

Three Arab and Muslim countries do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, and two of them actually behave as enemy countries.

As a first step, Chad was identified as the destination with the best chances of success, mainly because the giant country in central Africa, with a Muslim majority, previously had diplomatic relations with Israel.

In the 1960s, the president of Chad, François Tumbleby, even visited Jerusalem, but in 1972, under heavy pressure from Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Chad severed relations.

"

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No longer an enemy state: unlike the Emirates and Bahrain, Sudan and Israel had an open account

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Netanyahu and Ben Shabbat in their meeting with the President of Chad Debi (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Amos Ben Gershom/L.A.M.)

Netanyahu and Debi make statements during the visit of the President of Chad to Israel (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Amos Ben Gershom for the Independent)

Chad - the French colony that became a dictatorship

Three times in recent years, Israel has tried to renew relations with Chad.

In 2005 it was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that tried and failed.

A few years later, the Mossad tried - and failed as well.

In 2016, the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dori Gould, flew to Chad and met President Idriss Deby at his kit residence, in an isolated oasis in the Sahara. Contrary to expectations, Gould's visit did not then lead to the renewal of relations with Chad. Each side imposed the The responsibility for the failure rests with the other, and the result was a two-year break in contacts between the countries. Maoz began looking for channels of communication with the leadership in Chad. He received inquiries from former diplomats, businessmen, and even rabbis who offered to mediate between the parties.

The main challenge was to decide who was serious and who was a charlatan.

Finally, in June 2018, one of the mediators connected him with Chad's National Security Adviser, General Jidi Saleh.

From here it was a short way to the really important contact - Colonel Abdel-Karim Dabi, the son of the president of Chad and his government secretary.

The young Debi, then only 27 years old, studied for four years at the United States Military Academy and had a good command of English.

At the first meeting with him, which took place secretly in one of the European capitals, Maoz was surprised to discover that he also knew quite a few words in Hebrew that he had learned from Jewish friends in the United States.

The next step was direct telephone contact between Maoz and President Idris Debi.

After that, Debi's son arrived in Israel carrying a letter from the president stating his desire to renew relations.

"I wanted to make sure that we were not humiliated, and I also needed the letter to convince the Israeli Foreign Ministry of the seriousness of the move," National Security Advisor Meir Ben Shabat told me.

In the next step, after the visit and receiving the letter,

There was a phone call between Netanyahu and the president of Chad.

Maoz told me that Netanyahu and Debi talked about the possibility of renewing relations and visiting Israel.

At one point they even switched to speaking in French.

Until 1960, Chad was a French colony.

After gaining independence, the country became a corrupt African dictatorship.

President Déby has ruled Chad since 1990, when he overthrew Hussein Chabri in a military coup.

A year later he was appointed president, but only in 1996 were elections held in which he won.

Debi was elected for two terms, and in 2006 he changed the constitution so that he could run in the elections for a third time as well.

In the elections that took place that year, serious claims were already made regarding the falsification of the results.

At this point the country began to deteriorate into a single government.

In 2018, Debi passed another change in the constitution.

He abolished the position of prime minister, made the regime presidential, which gave him almost unlimited powers, and determined that he could serve at least until 2033. The Freedom House organization defines Chad as a country that is not free.

Opposition members, human rights activists and critical journalists are harassed by the government, some of them have been arrested or disappeared.

President Debi ran the country like a Byzantine court and appointed members of his tribe and members of his nuclear family to positions in the government.

including his dozen children.

His fourth wife, Hinda Dabi, was his personal secretary and the most powerful woman in Chad.

Her brother was the head of the president's office, and three other brothers were ministers in the government.

Netanyahu and Debbie (Photo: Government Press Office, Amos Ben Gershom)

On November 11, 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Paris.

The official reason was the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I with the participation of dozens of leaders from around the world.

But the less official reason was a secret meeting between Netanyahu and the son of the president of Chad designed to wrap up the visit of his father, Idris Debi, to Israel.

However, the evening before the secret meeting, drama unfolded in the Gaza Strip, when a special IDF force was exposed by Hamas personnel in Khan Yunis. In the battle that ensued, the commander of the force was killed and the other fighters were rescued in a heroic operation. Hamas responded by firing rockets, Netanyahu cut his visit short and returned to Israel - and the secret meeting was canceled .

The preoccupation with the relationship with Chad led to prestige battles.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mossad did not like the occupation of Maoz and the National Security Headquarters on the issue.

The head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, and the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, Yuval Rotem, told Meir Ben-Shabat, head of the MLA, and Netanyahu that President Debi was not serious and was wasting time.

"We were already in this film. He has already escaped us several times," said Rotem at the time, according to a source who participated in one of the discussions.

In September 2018, in an attempt to mobilize the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the move, Ben Shabat organized a meeting between the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuval Rotem, and the Foreign Minister of Chad on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

But even after that meeting, Rotem remained skeptical.

He opposed the visit of the President of Chad to Israel and argued that there is no point in inviting him before he declares in writing the resumption of relations - and not just a general desire.

"You will fail the prime minister," he told Laban Shabbat.

But the national security adviser relied on his personal impression from his talks with the Chadians and Maoz's gut feeling.

Finally, Netanyahu adopted the position of his advisors over that of the Foreign Ministry.

Two weeks after the canceled secret meeting in Paris, the president of Chad landed in Israel.

"We want to enter a new era of cooperation and renewal of diplomatic relations," Debi said at the press conference with Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

A little less than two months later, in January 2019, I boarded an El Al plane early in the morning on the way to N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, for the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to the country.

The head of the Mossad and the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who still thought and perhaps hoped that the visit would end in failure, did not join the trip.

for the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to the country.

The head of the Mossad and the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who still thought and perhaps hoped that the visit would end in failure, did not join the trip.

for the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to the country.

The head of the Mossad and the director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who still thought and perhaps hoped that the visit would end in failure, did not join the trip.

First visit of an Israeli prime minister to the country.

Netanyahu and Debi at their meeting in Chad (Photo: Walla! system, Photo: Tal Shalu)

As the plane began to lower for landing, I realized why Chad was given the unflattering nickname "The Dead Heart of Africa".

The Sahara desert covers most of the country's territory, there is no outlet to the sea, and Lake Chad, which is considered the main source of water, has shrunk by 90% of its size since the late 1960s due to climate change, population growth and the mismanagement of its resources.

The harsh climate, the sandstorms, the lack of water and the swarms of locusts make it difficult to develop agriculture and cause food insecurity and abject poverty.

More than 80% of the country's residents are below the international poverty line.

Najmana, the capital, which is considered the most developed region in the country, looks like a very neglected version of Gaza.

At the small international airport, you can count the flights that land on the fingers of one hand.

The only destinations outside of Africa are Paris and Istanbul.

With the exception of the road leading from the airport to the presidential palace and two or three other major roads, most of the traffic in the city is on dirt roads.

As soon as I got off the plane I was hit by the heavy heat and desert dryness.

Not far from me I noticed two Hercules planes of the Israeli Air Force.

They brought with them armored vehicles and no less than 150 security guards, some of them from a special unit of the Shin Bet whose men were armed from head to toe. They were joined by hundreds more soldiers of Chad's special forces who accompanied the convoy of the Israeli Prime Minister. From the airport to the presidential palace, desolation and poverty were evident at every corner. When the gates of the presidential complex were opened, we discovered a surreal spectacle - behind the high walls was a blooming and well-kept garden, water fountains and an impressive structure with a marble floor and crystal chandeliers. This sharp contrast between the streets of the capital and the presidential palace represented everything That we should have known about Chad.

When Netanyahu landed in Najamana, the agreement on the renewal of relations between the two countries had not yet been finalized.

Less than three months later, elections were to be held in Israel.

A former senior official at the National Security Headquarters told me that during the meeting at the presidential palace, Debi promised Netanyahu that he would renew relations with Israel and advance them regardless of the results of the elections in Israel or the identity of the prime minister.

Outside the room where Netanyahu and Debi sat, the Prime Minister's advisers continued to negotiate with the Chadian president's son and his foreign minister on the text of the agreement.

The hours passed, and Netanyahu began to show signs of nervousness, especially in light of the Shin Bet's desire to fly from Nadjamena back to Israel before dark.

But even when an agreement was reached, the signing was delayed.

When the parties wanted to print the final draft and submit it to Netanyahu and Debi for approval, they discovered that there was no working printer in the presidential complex.

For more than an hour the signing was delayed until a printer was brought to the place from one of the nearby government offices.

Finally, Netanyahu and Debi signed the agreement.

"We are breaking ground in the Muslim world," Netanyahu said at the press conference after the signing, and hurried to the airport back to Israel.

Maoz told me that Netanyahu's words were accurate.

According to him, the renewal of relations with Chad was a breakthrough that resonated in Africa and the entire Arab world.

"To a large extent, that's where it all started," he said.

Ben Shabbat agreed.

"Idris Debi was the first," he told me.

"He came alone, without the Americans encouraging him. He did all this when it was not clear if he could convince his public of the viability of the move. In retrospect, Chad was the first country of the Abraham Accords."

No less than 150 security guards.

Outside Netanyahu's meeting with President Idriss Deby in Chad (Photo: Walla! System, Photo: Tal Shalu)

The end of Idris Debi - days after he won the elections

On video: the president of Chad votes in the elections, a few days before he was killed by rebels (Photo: Reuters)

When President Debi visited Israel in November 2018, Netanyahu told him about his desire to allow a direct flight path between Israel and Latin America through the airspace of Chad and Sudan.

Dabi offered to advance the matter with Sudan and assigned the task to his national security adviser, General Jidi Saleh.

This is how the phone call at the beginning of January 2019 between Maoz and the dictator al-Bashir was born - and this is how the relationship between Netanyahu's advisers and the Sudanese intelligence chief, Salah Ghosh, was born.

The prime minister, who wanted to take advantage of the flight to Chad to test how serious the Sudanese were, asked his people to try and get permission from the government in Khartoum to cross Sudanese airspace on the way back to Israel from Chad.

Maoz called the Gush and asked for permission to move.

"Go through," Gush replied to him without thinking twice.

The surprised Maoz wondered if it would be possible to get official permission from the aviation authorities.

"No need. Fly high and fast," Gush told him.

"No missiles?"

Maoz asked.

"There is nothing. Don't worry," said the Sudanese intelligence chief.

When an El Al plane approached Sudanese airspace, the pilots called the control tower in Khartoum.

They identified themselves and asked for permission to pass.

No one answered on the other end.

The plane continued to Israel without interruption.

Omar al-Bashir, the dictator who ruled Sudan since a military coup in 1989, was one of the most notorious people in the world.

In 2009, an international arrest warrant was issued against him, after he was accused by the International Court of Justice in The Hague of being responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region of Western Sudan, where Sudanese forces murdered hundreds of thousands of people.

The judges determined that al-Bashir, the first incumbent leader against whom such an order was issued, "is suspected of being responsible for a deliberate order to attack large parts of the civilian population in Darfur, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly displacing a large number of civilians and looting their property."

The phone call between al-Bashir and Maoz in early January 2019 and the talks with his intelligence chief did not produce significant progress.

A former senior official at the National Security Headquarters said that beyond the distaste for Bashir, it was clear that his rule was unstable, and that his ouster might only be a matter of time.

Within a few weeks this assessment turned out to be correct.

At the beginning of April, the mass demonstrations against Bashir resumed.

They reached their climax when the demonstrators filled the square in front of the army headquarters and called on the generals to remove the dictator.

In a few days, the army went from protecting the government to protecting the protesters.

On April 11, 2019, the coup took place.

Bashir was deposed - and the army commanders, led by General Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan, took power into their own hands.

The demonstrators, most of them young, who did not seek to replace one military regime with another, did not leave the streets and demanded the establishment of a civilian transitional government to manage the affairs of the country.

For several months, negotiations were conducted between the generals and representatives of the "Forces of Freedom and Change".

The result was an agreement to divide political power in the country between the army and a civilian government that would include representatives of the protesters, for a transition period of 39 months, during which the process of transition from dictatorship to democracy would take place.

The dictator was deposed - and judged.

Al-Bashir (Photo: Reuters)

Into this political drama came an Israeli-British lawyer from Jerusalem named Nick Kaufman and a Sudanese diplomat named Najwa Gadahaldam.

They had met by chance a year earlier in the business lounge at the Addis Ababa airport.

Kaufman, who worked for 16 years as a prosecutor in the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office, left to pursue a field that really interested him - international criminal law.

He entered the unique field of defending war crimes defendants at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Israeli sophistication and audacity - together with his British passport - made him a sought-after lawyer for quite a few people who have become wanted for war crimes, starting with the Gaddafi family in Libya, for Aleksandar Cvetkovic, who was suspected of involvement in the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and including the Congolese Vice President, Jean-Pierre Bamba .

Najwa Gadahaldem, a mechanical engineer born in Sudan and specializing in renewable energy, has become one of the most influential and powerful diplomats in Africa.

While working at the United Nations Industrial Development Agency in Vienna, she met the President of Uganda, Yowari Museveni. The two clicked immediately. The Ugandan president asked for her advice regarding the strained relationship with Sudan. She offered her help in conveying a conciliatory message to Bashir. Her mediation efforts between the two bore Perry. She has since become a close adviser to both Museveni and Bashir. She was involved in achieving the peace agreement in South Sudan, forging a deal to release Sudanese soldiers kidnapped by rebel organizations, and at one point Museveni even considered appointing her as his foreign minister, even though she was not a Ugandan citizen at all .

When Gadahaldem walked panting into the business lounge at Addis Ababa airport, Kaufman offered her help with her luggage and made room for her.

A lively conversation soon developed between the two.

She told about her connections in Sudan and Uganda - and he told about his clients in Africa whom he represents in The Hague.

They parted not before exchanging business cards.

Once every few weeks they would talk.

Kaufman repeatedly asked that you help him get to Sudan and meet Bashir to offer to represent him in The Hague, but the protests that broke out in Sudan made this impossible.

Bashir's ouster a few months later further strengthened Gadahaldam's position, and she became a close adviser to Sudan's interim ruler, General Burhan.

Netanyahu welcomes the normalization agreement with Sudan

On video: Netanyahu welcomes the normalization agreement with Sudan (Photo: Leam)

"If you go to Khartoum, it is at your own risk. We will not come to save you"

In 2019, when the government in Sudan changed, Kaufman offered to come to Khartoum and meet Burhan to talk to him about The Hague.

"Najva replied in the affirmative and offered me an idea - to bring Burhan a letter from Prime Minister Netanyahu," Kaufman told me.

He estimated that the timing, two months before the elections in Israel, would mean that Netanyahu would agree to any request from the Sudanese, if only to present a political achievement to the voters.

Kaufman knew exactly who to turn to.

A few months earlier he was invited to a meeting in the Prime Minister's office with Maoz - Netanyahu's emissary to the Arab world and Africa.

Maoz wanted to use Kaufman's connections in the Black Continent, and especially in Libya.

"He gave me a shopping list of countries that interested him," Kaufman told me.

In December 2019, he met with Maoz again and told him about Najwa Gadahaldam and her unique connection to the interim ruler of Sudan.

Maoz was enthusiastic, and a few days later Kaufman arranged a conversation with the Sudanese mediator.

Maoz told me that from the first moment there was chemistry between him and Gadahaldam.

She suggested that he bring her a letter from Netanyahu to Burhan.

Maoz agreed and offered to meet in Uganda.

"No, I need you to come to Sudan," she replied.

Maoz tried to explain that for security reasons he could not come to Sudan, but she insisted.

Kaufman proposed a solution.

He said that in any case he wanted to fly to Khartoum to discuss with the heads of the interim government of Sudan about the issue of al-Bashir and the Hague Tribunal.

On the way he can also deliver the letter from Netanyahu.

Maoz liked the idea, but added a cautionary note.

"He told me - if you travel to Khartoum, it is at your expense and responsibility. You are not traveling as an official representative of the State of Israel, and if something happens to you - we will not come to save you," Kaufman recalled.

On January 1, 2020, Kaufman boarded a flight to Addis Ababa and from there to Khartoum when he received an official letter from Netanyahu to Burhan, in which he offered to meet and discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Sudan.

Gadahaldam was waiting for him at the airport together with the Sudanese intelligence officers.

They took him to the "Corinthia" hotel, the construction of which was financed a few years earlier by the ruler of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, as a tribute to the dictator al-Bashir.

Since then, Gaddafi has been deposed and executed - and al-Bashir has been deposed and taken into custody.

It was Sudan's independence day, and the Sudanese intelligence officers who accompanied Kaufman took him on a tour of the city and a view of the Nile.

When they returned to the car, they discovered that it had been broken into and that some of the belongings of the Sudanese security guards had been stolen.

Fortunately, Kaufman did not leave the letter from Netanyahu in the car.

A few hours later he and Najwa Gadahaldam met with the interim ruler Burhan.

Kaufman sent him a short letter in Arabic from Netanyahu, and as agreed he received a reply letter expressing a willingness to meet.

When he returned to Israel, he delivered the letter to Ma'oz.

The contacts gained momentum.

Levy with the President of Sudan Al-Burhan (photo: official website, no)

From here the contacts to coordinate a meeting gained momentum.

On January 6, Maoz arrived in Entebbe, Uganda, for a secret meeting with Gadahaldam and one of Burhan's top aides.

Maoz presented at the meeting what Sudan can gain from relations with Israel, and emphasized the common interests between the countries.

The meeting was very successful.

During the discussions, Burhan's advisor called Khartoum and connected Maoz with the temporary ruler of Sudan.

The first phone call was good as well.

It was agreed to proceed to a summit of leaders in Uganda under the patronage of President Museveni.

For the Ugandan president who brokered the move, it was a highly significant diplomatic achievement.

When Moz arrived at the airport in Entebbe to fly to Israel, there were four boxes of pineapple waiting for him there - a gift from Muswini.

Burhan's main motivation for this surprising move was the severe economic crisis in which Sudan found itself, after years of American sanctions imposed on the regime of the dictator al-Bashir.

The goal that Burhan set for himself was the removal of Sudan from the US State Department's blacklist of countries that support terrorism.

One of the ways to do this was to warm relations with Israel.

Netanyahu agreed to help.

A week before the meeting in Uganda, Netanyahu visited Washington for a ceremony to present the Trump plan.

He met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and encouraged him to remove Sudan from the terror list.

"The Sudanese are moving in a new and positive direction," Netanyahu told Pompeo.

"Burhan wants to get his country out of isolation."

Following what he heard from Netanyahu, Pompeo called Burhan the day before the meeting in Uganda and invited him to Washington.

For Sudan's interim ruler, it was proof that the historic move he intends to make the next day is indeed the right move.

The date of the meeting in Entebbe was set for February 3, 2020. The idea was that Netanyahu would come openly to visit Uganda and Burhan would come secretly, and after the meeting took place it would be decided whether an announcement would be made or if the meeting would remain secret.

Those who did not like the move were the Mossad personnel, who were in contact with elements of the Sudanese intelligence during the years of Al-Bashir's rule.

When the Mossad officials were informed about the contacts for a meeting between Netanyahu and Burhan, the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, sent Netanyahu a letter of complaint against Maoz in which he claimed that the move would harm relations with Sudan.

Cohen even gave instructions to his people not to cooperate with the move and not to attend the discussions held on the subject at the National Security Headquarters.

However, when Netanyahu flew to Uganda - Cohen was already on the plane.

For five days Maoz and some of the staff of the national security staff stayed in Uganda together with Njuwa Gadahaldam and Burhan's people to prepare the meeting.

A few days before Netanyahu's departure to Uganda, leaks began about the Sudanese angle of the visit, but the military censorship imposed a heavy blackout and prevented publications on the subject in the media.

A few hours after Netanyahu landed in Entebbe, the veil of secrecy began to fade.

It started with a tweet by a Sudanese journalist that Burhan was also on his way to Uganda, and continued with an announcement before the evening news broadcasts, about the historic meeting between the Prime Minister of Israel and the interim ruler of Sudan.

"It was agreed to begin cooperation that will lead to the normalization of relations between the two countries," the statement said.

The atmosphere was tense - "Maoz" softened it.

Levy, Netanyahu, Ben Shabat and Yossi Cohen at a meeting with the leaders of Sudan in Uganda (photo: official website, no)

אלא שבשעות שלפני ההודעה החגיגית הדברים לא הלכו כל כך חלק. בשלב מסוים הפגישה בין נתניהו לבורהאן כמעט התפוצצה. השליט הזמני של סודאן אמר כי הוא רוצה להתקדם לכינון יחסים. "אין לי שום דבר נגד ישראל", הוא אמר לנתניהו. "תן לי להכשיר את הלבבות של העם. הסודנים לא שונאים את ישראל, ואני מאמין שאפשר יהיה להעביר את זה". עם זאת, הוא דרש שישראל תפעיל את השפעתה בבית הלבן כדי שממשל טראמפ יסיר את סודאן מרשימת המדינות שנותנות חסות לטרור ושהקהילה הבינלאומית תעניק לסודאן סיוע כלכלי. תוך כדי הפגישה רטן ראש המוסד, יוסי כהן, ואמר לנתניהו שהוא לא חושב שבורהאן רציני. "אנחנו לא יכולים להבטיח לך כלום בעניין האמריקני", אמר כהן לשליט הזמני של סודאן. בכיר לשעבר במטה לביטחון לאומי סיפר כי כהן המשיך לדבר אל בורהאן בצורה תוקפנית, עד שגאדאהלדם נאלצה להתערב ולדרוש מראש המוסד שיוריד את הטונים. האווירה הייתה מתוחה והיא רמזה למעוז שצריך לעשות משהו כדי שהפגישה לא תתפוצץ. מעוז ביקש את רשות הדיבור וניסה לרכך את בורהאן הכעוס. "אל תדאג - אנחנו נעשה מאמצים לעזור מול ארצות הברית", אמר לו. המשבר נבלם והאווירה השתפרה.

הפגישה בין בורהאן לנתניהו באוגנדה התקבלה בסודאן בתדהמה. ראש הממשלה האזרחית, עבדאללה חמדוק, מיהר לפרסם הודעה לתקשורת כי לא עודכן מראש על קיום הפגישה, וכי מדיניות החוץ היא בסמכות הממשלה האזרחית ולא בסמכות בורהאן. דובר הממשלה האזרחית הלך רחוק עוד יותר ואמר כי חמדוק מתכוון לבקש הבהרות מבורהאן לגבי הפסגה עם נתניהו. השליט הזמני של סודאן לא נבהל מהביקורת. הוא הודיע כי קיים את הפגישה כיוון שהדבר משרת את האינטרסים הסודניים. "בורהאן הוא אדם אמיץ בצורה בלתי-רגילה, שבאמת אכפת לו מהעם שלו", אמר לי בכיר ישראלי לשעבר שפגש את בורהאן כמה פעמים. לדבריו, בורהאן היה מוכן להתקדם לנורמליזציה, אך ההתנגדות של חמדוק והביקורת הפנימית מנעו זאת. לצד הביקורת הרבה נגד הפסגה עם נתניהו, המהלך חיזק את הכוחות בתוך סודאן שתמכו בנורמליזציה עם ישראל. אבל כבר אז, בפברואר 2020, הבינו נתניהו ויועציו כי כדי להגיע לפריצת דרך אמיתית יהיה צורך בעסקה משולשת שבה תיקח חלק גם ארצות הברית ושתכלול את הוצאתה של סודאן מרשימת הטרור. מכאן והלאה הפכה ישראל למתווכת בין ממשל טראמפ לבין הממשלה בחרטום.

הפגישה עם נתניהו התקבלה בסודאן בתדהמה. הנשיא אל-בורהאן וראש הממשלה לשעבר חמדוק(צילום: רויטרס)

באותו ערב של הפגישה בין בורהאן לנתניהו התראיינתי בתוכנית "היום שהיה" בערוץ 13. המגיש טל ברמן שאל אותי מה המשמעות של הפגישה באוגנדה, והשבתי כי מדובר בהישגו המדיני הגדול ביותר של נתניהו בעשור שהוא בשלטון. בפעם הראשונה כראש ממשלה הצליח נתניהו לקיים פגישה פומבית עם מנהיג של מדינה ערבית שעמה לא היו לישראל יחסים דיפלומטיים מעולם ושנחשבה למדינה עוינת ביותר. זו הייתה עבורו ההוכחה הראשונה להצלחת גישתו לקידום יחסים עם העולם הערבי לפני קידום שלום עם הפלסטינים. יועצי נתניהו מיהרו לקפוץ על הריאיון כמוצאי שלל רב, וכך מצאתי את עצמי למחרת מככב בקמפיין הבחירות של הליכוד ברשתות החברתיות. נתניהו לא נפגש איתי אפילו פעם אחת מאז 2010, ולפתע תומכיו ברשתות החברתיות העניקו לי חיבוק חם. אבל זה לא נמשך הרבה זמן. כעבור כמה ימים, כשמתחתי ביקורת על נתניהו, הביביסטים חזרו לתקוף אותי. או כמו שאחד מהם כתב לי אז בטוויטר: "למה לא אמרת אף מילה טובה על ההישג המדיני של נתניהו עם סודאן?" עבור יותר ויותר ישראלים, כך למדתי, העובדות הן המלצה בלבד.

הבחירות בישראל ומגפת הקורונה גרמו לכך שהשיחות בין ישראל לסודאן הורידו הילוך. מעוז המשיך בשיחות טלפון שבועיות עם בורהאן ועם יועציו ובהדרגתיות בנה עמם יחסי אמון קרובים. זה הוביל את הסודאנים לאשר, במרץ 2020, למטוסים של אל על, שפינו ישראלים מדרום אפריקה ומאמריקה הלטינית בשל מגפת הקורונה, לעבור במרחב האווירי שלהם. באפריל ביקר שר החוץ האמריקני, מייק פומפאו, בישראל. בכירים ישראלים סיפרו כי נתניהו שב ואמר לפומפאו באותו ביקור כי סודאן זו הזדמנות, ועודד אותו להיכנס לסוגיה בצורה פעילה יותר ולדבר ישירות לא רק עם ראש הממשלה חמדוק, אלא גם מול יו"ר מועצת הריבונות הזמנית, בורהאן. כמה ימים אחרי ביקורו בירושלים שוחח פומפאו עם בורהאן, שדיבר עם שר החוץ האמריקני על הנושא שהיה חשוב לו יותר מכול - הוצאת סודאן מהרשימה השחורה של ארצות הברית.

ההתקדמות מול הסודנים הייתה איטית אך עקבית. אלא שבתחילת מאי 2020 התרחשה טרגדיה ששוב איימה לטרוף את הקלפים. נג'ווה גאדאהלדם התקשרה למעוז וסיפרה כי אינה חשה בטוב ושהיא עומדת להתאשפז בבית החולים הצבאי שבחרטום. "זו כנראה הסוכרת", היא אמרה. אלא שבתוך כמה ימים התברר כי כמו כמה יועצים אחרים של בורהאן, גם היא נדבקה בקורונה. בניגוד אליהם, היא הייתה בקבוצת סיכון בגלל כמה מחלות רקע. מצבה הבריאותי הידרדר במהירות. נתניהו התקשר לבורהאן ואמר שישראל רוצה לסייע ולהציל את חייה של אדריכלית היחסים בין המדינות. לשכת ראש הממשלה גייסה למשימה את גל לוסקי, שב-2005 הקימה עמותה שמספקת סיוע הומניטרי ורפואי באזורים מוכי אסון ברחבי העולם. לוסקי ואנשיה פועלים במדינות רבות שאין להן קשרים דיפלומטיים עם ישראל, כמו סודאן.

הבשורה הקשה שחיזקה את היחסים בין המדינות

על המטוס הפרטי שחכרה העמותה של לוסקי הועמסו עשרות ארגזים עם תרופות ואספקה רפואית. מעוז ושני רופאים ישראלים עלו גם הם על הטיסה. אלה היו ימי סגר בארץ, ונתב"ג היה משותק כמעט לחלוטין. הטיסה החריגה קפצה מיד באפליקציות המעקב אחרי טיסות, אך איש לא ידע מי נמצא על המטוס ומה מטרת הטיסה לחרטום. כשהמטוס נחת בחרטום יצאו מעוז והרופאים הישראלים אל בית החולים הצבאי. לבושים מכף רגל ועד ראש בחליפות הגנה מהידבקות בנגיף, הם נכנסו למחלקה שבה אושפזה גאדאהלדם. לרופאים המקומיים זה היה המפגש הראשון אי-פעם עם רופאים ישראלים. יחדיו הם עמדו סביב מיטתה וניסו לייצב את מצבה, כדי שאפשר יהיה לפנות אותה במטוס לטיפול בישראל, אך לשווא. הסטורציה של גאדאהלדם היתה ברמה שמחייבת הנשמה וחיבור למכשיר אקמו. טיסה לא באה בחשבון. הרופאים הישראלים השאירו לעמיתיהם הסודנים ציוד והנחיות להמשך הטיפול ויצאו חזרה לשדה התעופה. יממה אחרי שהמשלחת שבה לישראל הגיעה לירושלים הבשורה הקשה - נגיף הקורונה הכריע את אדריכלית היחסים בין ישראל לסודאן. אלא שדווקא האירוע הזה חיזק דרמטית את היחסים בין המדינות. "עבור בורהאן זה היה מסר שישראל לא מזניחה את בעלות הברית שלה. הוא אמר לנו אז - 'אני איתכם עד המוות'", נזכר מעוז.

היחסים עם סודאן המשיכו להיות מוקד מתיחות בין המוסד לבין המטה לביטחון לאומי, כששני הגופים התחרו ביניהם מי יביא לפריצת דרך. התוצאה הייתה תקריות דיפלומטיות שהעיבו על היחסים בין ישראל לסודאן. בכיר לשעבר במטה לביטחון לאומי מספר כי אחרי חידוש היחסים עם צ'אד, ביקר בישראל ראש המודיעין הצ'אדי. הוא סיפר כי כבר כמה שנים שלא היה לו קשר עם אף אחד במוסד, ואנשי המל"ל החליטו לעשות את החיבור. בשיחות בין אנשי המוסד לאנשי המודיעין של צ'אד עלתה הסוגייה הסודנית.

ראש המודיעין של צ'אד הציע לעזור וסיפר למקבילו יוסי כהן על בחור בשם מוחמד חמדאן דקלו, הידוע לשמצה בכינוי "חמיתי". לאחר הפלת הרודן אל-בשיר, מונה חמיתי לסגן יו"ר מועצת הריבונות הזמנית - מספר 2 של בורהאן. אבל בשנים קודם לכן הוא עמד בראש מיליציה אכזרית שביצעה מעשי טבח ואונס המוני בחבל דרפור. במהלך השנים השתלטה המיליציה של חמיתי על מכרות זהב ועסקים גדולים אחרים בסודאן, והוא הפך לאדם העשיר ביותר במדינה. בתיווך המודיעין הצ'אדי, נפגשו אנשי המוסד עם חמיתי. העיתון "אל-ערבי אל-ג'דיד", שמזוהה עם קטאר, דיווח כי בפגישה השתתף ראש המוסד, יוסי כהן, בעצמו. יו"ר מועצת הריבונות הזמנית של סודאן, הגנרל בורהאן, נדהם לשמוע על הפגישה בין סגנו לבין אנשי המוסד. בכיר לשעבר במטה לביטחון לאומי סיפר כי בורהאן הביע מורת רוח רבה על הפגישה ודרש לדעת אם ישראל חותרת תחתיו באמצעות סגנו. נדרשו מאמצים רבים כדי להרגיע את בורהאן ולהבהיר לו שהוא איש הקשר היחיד מבחינת ראש ממשלת ישראל.

אדריכלית היחסים בין ישראל לסודאן. לוי עם גאדהאלם (משמאל)(צילום: אתר רשמי, -)

כריכת הספר "השלום של טראמפ: הסכמי אברהם והמהפך במזרח התיכון"(צילום: אתר רשמי, .)

השיחות בין ארצות הברית לסודאן על הוצאת המדינה מרשימת הטרור התקדמו באותם חודשים בעצלתיים, אלא שאז הגיעה ההודעה ב-13 באוגוסט 2020 על הסכם הנורמליזציה בין ישראל לאיחוד האמירויות. בדינמיקה החדשה שנוצרה, חיפש ממשל טראמפ עוד מדינות שיצטרפו למה שזכה לשם הסכמי אברהם. בכירים ישראלים ואמריקנים סיפרו כי בישראל כיוונו אז את הבית הלבן לעבר סודאן. ישראל הציעה למזג בין ערוץ השיחות של ארצות הברית וסודאן על רשימת הטרור, לבין ערוץ השיחות של ישראל וסודאן על הנורמליזציה. ממשל טראמפ קיבל אז עצה דומה לגבי סודאן גם מאיחוד האמירויות. בניגוד להסכמים של ישראל עם איחוד האמירויות ובחריין שאליהם דחף הבית הלבן, במקרה הזה ישראל היא זו שדחפה את ארצות הברית וסודאן זו לזרועותיה של זו. היחסים הקרובים עם הבית הלבן במהלך כהונת דונלד טראמפ והאמון שנוצר בין ירושלים לחרטום אפשרו לישראל לקחת את המשא ומתן המדשדש בין ארצות הברית לסודאן ולהעלות אותו על מסלול שהוביל להסכם שלושה חודשים לאחר מכן.

כששר החוץ האמריקני פומפאו ביקר בישראל בסוף אוגוסט 2020, סודאן הייתה במקום גבוה בסדר היום של שיחותיו עם נתניהו. שר החוץ האמריקני, שלא היה מעורב בצורה משמעותית בהסכמים עם איחוד האמירויות ובחריין, רצה לנסות ולהביא הישג מדיני משלו. הבית הלבן ולשכת ראש הממשלה כיוונו אותו לסודאן. הישראלים השתמשו בקשריהם עם הסודנים כדי לארגן לפומפאו טיסה ישירה מנתב"ג לחרטום. לפני שהמריאו לסודאן, קיבלו יועציו של פומפאו תדרוך מפורט מיועציו של נתניהו, שאף כלל עצות כיצד לנהל את השיחות עם המנהיגים הסודנים. שר החוץ האמריקני נפגש בחרטום עם בורהאן, שהיה להוט להתקדם הן בנושא רשימת הטרור והן בנושא הנורמליזציה עם ישראל. אך הוא הדגיש בפני פומפאו שכדי שזה יקרה, עליו לקבל אור ירוק מראש הממשלה חמדוק. כשפומפאו פגש את חמדוק מיד לאחר מכן הוא הציע לו עסקה - הוצאת סודאן מרשימת הטרור של ממשלת ארצות הברית, חבילת סיוע כלכלית אמריקנית - ונורמליזציה עם ישראל. פומפאו לחץ למהלך בזק. הוא אמר לחמדוק כי הנשיא טראמפ מוכן לממש את העסקה באופן מידי. בכירים אמריקנים סיפרו לי כי הוא אף הציע לו להתקשר מתוך הפגישה לנשיא טראמפ ולראש הממשלה נתניהו כדי לסגור את העסקה על המקום. פומפאו היה אגרסיבי מדי והבהיל את ראש הממשלה הסודני. חמדוק היסס, ולבסוף אמר לפומפאו כי הוא עדיין לא מרגיש מוכן למהלך כזה.

Before the agreement with Israel: Pompeo announces the removal of Sudan from the terrorist list

On video: Pompeo's statement on the removal of Sudan from the terrorist list (Photo: Reuters)

במקביל לביקורו של פומפאו בסודאן יצאה משלחת ישראלית-אמריקנית משותפת לאבו דאבי לביקור ראשון מאז ההכרזה על הסכם הנורמליזציה. על המטוס היה יועצו הבכיר של הנשיא טראמפ, ג'ארד קושנר, שרצה לנצל את החודשים עד הבחירות בנובמבר כדי לקצור עוד הישגים עבור טראמפ. אריה לייטסטון, שהיה עוזרו של שגריר ארצות הברית בישראל באותה עת ורצה לקדם את הנושא הסודני, הציע לקושנר לשלב את איחוד האמירויות במאמצים להשיג הסכם עם סודאן. שעה קלה לאחר מכן, בפגישה עם היועץ לביטחון לאומי של איחוד האמירויות, שייח' טחנון בן זאיד, קושנר הציע להזמין את בורהאן לאבו דאבי ולקיים משא ומתן מואץ על פתרון המחלוקות בין ארצות הברית לסודאן. האמירתים התלהבו מהרעיון ואף הסכימו לסייע בשיחות עצמן. קושנר הטיל על הגנרל מיגל קוריאה, מהמועצה לביטחון לאומי בבית הלבן, להוביל את השיחות עם סודאן. כאן החלו הבעיות.

ישראל הציעה להשתתף גם כן בשיחות כדי לסייע, אבל קוריאה רצה להתקדם לבד. ב-21 בספטמבר הוא נפגש באבו דאבי עם בורהאן ועם שר המשפטים הסודני. בתוך זמן לא רב השיחות התפוצצו. בכירים ישראלים ואמריקנים אמרו לי כי סיבה אחת לפיצוץ הייתה הפער בין היקף חבילת הסיוע הכלכלי שארצות הברית הייתה מוכנה לתת לבין הציפיות הגבוהות של הסודנים. סיבה אחרת הייתה הפערים התרבותיים בין הצדדים וקשיי שפה, שגרמו לכך שהנושאים ונותנים התעמתו - והשיחות הגיעו למבוי סתום. בורהאן רתח. מעוז התקשר למנהיג הסודני וניסה להרגיע אותו. הוא ארגן שיחת ועידה משולשת עם הגנרל קוריאה כדי ליישר את ההדורים - אבל גם השיחה הזו התפוצצה.

בלית ברירה נאלצו בישראל לדבר עם קושנר ואנשיו ולבקש מהם לטפל בעניין. ההחלטה הייתה להכניס את לייטסטון החביב ובעל הכישורים הפוליטיים המפותחים למשא ומתן עם הסודנים כדי לרכך מעט את הגנרל הקשוח קוריאה.

אחרי שהשיחות קרסו, הישראלים והאמירתים ניסו לגשר על הפערים, להרגיע את הכעס והתסכול ולהחזיר את הצדדים לשולחן המשא ומתן. בכירים ישראלים אמרו כי ישראל ואיחוד האמירויות הבהירו לסודנים כי עליהם לקחת את ההצעה האמריקנית גם אם היא אינה כוללת את כל מה שקיוו, וזאת כיוון שלאחר הבחירות בארצות הברית הם יקבלו הצעה גרועה יותר, אם בכלל. במקביל, ישראל ואיחוד האמירויות ביקשו מהבית הלבן להמתיק את העסקה עבור הסודנים ככל האפשר.

גם הוא נתן אור ירוק למהלך. ראש ממשלת סודאן לשעבר חמדוק(צילום: רויטרס, Hannibal Hanschke)

חודש אחרי כישלון השיחות באבו דאבי, טסו הישראלים והאמריקנים פעם נוספת יחד למפרץ. הפעם למנאמה, בירת בחריין, כדי לחתום על ההסכם לכינון יחסים דיפלומטיים. בין הפגישות עלה שוב הנושא הסודני. מעוז ומנכ"ל משרד ראש הממשלה, רונן פרץ, הציעו לקבוע מפגש משא ומתן מכריע בחרטום מיד אחרי סיום הביקור בבחריין. פרץ ומעוז אף הציעו לחכור מטוס על חשבונה של ממשלת ישראל. הגנרל קוריאה לא כל כך אהב את ההצטרפות של יועצי נתניהו לנסיעה, אך כיוון שזה היה הטרמפ שלו לחרטום, לא הייתה לו ברירה. ב-21 באוקטובר המריאו מעוז ופרץ יחד עם קוריאה ולייטסטון לסודאן בתקווה לחזור משם עם הסכם. כשהגיעו לארמון הנשיאות בחרטום, ישבו מעוז ופרץ עם הנשיא בורהאן בעוד שהצוות האמריקני ניהל משא ומתן בחדר סמוך עם שר המשפטים הסודני. בכיר ישראלי סיפר לי כי אחרי כמה שעות המשא ומתן שוב היה על סף פיצוץ - בעיקר סביב השאלה מה יקרה קודם.

הסודנים רצו שארצות הברית תודיע קודם כל על הוצאתם מרשימת הטרור. האמריקנים דרשו כי סודאן תודיע קודם על נורמליזציה עם ישראל - או לפחות במקביל להודעה אמריקנית על ההסרה מהרשימה. בסופו של דבר, האמריקנים הסכימו לבקשה הסודנית. מחלוקת אחרת הייתה על גובה הסיוע הכלכלי וכמויות אספקת החיטה שסודאן תקבל מארצות הברית כחלק מן ההסכם וכן על הניסוח של ההסכם בין הצדדים - האם ישתמשו במילה שלום, פיוס או נורמליזציה. "אתה עושה כאן היסטוריה", אמר מעוז לבורהאן. "עזוב את הוויכוח על כמה מיליוני דולרים או על מילה כזו או אחרת". בורהאן השתכנע. הוא קרא לראש הממשלה חמדוק להצטרף ועבר עמו על פרטי ההסכם. חמדוק נתן גם הוא אור ירוק. יומיים לאחר מכן, בשיחת טלפון עם נתניהו ועם מנהיגי סודאן, הודיע הנשיא האמריקני דונלד טראמפ על ההסכם. "ביבי, אתה חושב שג'ו הישנוני היה מביא לך דיל כזה?" שאל טראמפ אל מול מצלמות הטלוויזיה. הנשיא קיווה לקבל הודעת תמיכה מראש ממשלת ישראל בשידור חי, לקראת הבחירות לנשיאות שעמדו להתקיים בארצות הברית שבועיים לאחר מכן. נתניהו שהיה על קו הטלפון, התחמק. טראמפ התקשה להסתיר את אכזבתו. הוא לא שכח זאת לנתניהו.

עוד בוואלה!

ישראל וסודאן הכריזו על הסכם נורמליזציה בין המדינות

לכתבה המלאה

לא שכח לנתניהו את ההתחמקות שלו. טראמפ מכריז על ההסכם בשיחה עם נתניהו ומנהיגי סודאן(צילום: רויטרס)

הסודנים היו האמיצים ביותר מכל ארבע המדינות שנרמלו יחסים עם ישראל בין אוגוסט לדצמבר 2020. הם עשו מהפך דרמטי של מעבר מעוינות ולחימה לתנועה לעבר פיוס ושלום. חיילים סודנים נלחמו בחיילים ישראלים בשתי מלחמות לפחות. ישראל הרגה אזרחים סודנים בהפצצות מן האוויר שבוצעו, לפי פרסומים זרים, על אדמת סודאן - ואף בבירה חרטום. בורהאן וחמדוק הלכו למהלך הזה כשהם עומדים בראש ממשלה זמנית ושברירית, שמנסה לבנות מחדש מדינה שנמצאת על סף פשיטת רגל, וזאת אחרי עשרות שנים של דיקטטורה רצחנית. מצד שני, הסודנים הרוויחו לא מעט מהנורמליזציה עם ישראל. הם יצאו מרשימת הטרור של הממשל האמריקני, הסנקציות הבינלאומיות עליהם הוסרו, רוב התביעות נגדם בארצות הברית נגנזו, והם קיבלו חבילת סיוע של 700 מיליון דולר לצד אספקת חירום של מזון ודלק.

Nevertheless, at the time of writing these lines, the process of normalization between Israel and Sudan has not been completed.

The countries have not yet signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations, and relations between the countries are faltering.

The change of government in Israel also created difficulties in relations, partly due to the retirement of Maoz, who was a critical player in relations with Khartoum.

After his departure, the interest in Sudan in the Israeli political-security system decreased.

In addition to this, the military coup in Sudan in October 2021 introduced the country into a new vortex of political instability and a struggle for control between the military faction and the civilian faction in the transitional government, effectively freezing the normalization process.

Sudan is not as attractive as the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain, but it needs Israel very much.

Precisely in Sudan, Israel can play a unique role in agriculture, medicine and water, and besides realizing political interests, also fulfill the Jewish value of tikkun olam, which hopefully also exists in the consideration system of the decision makers in Israel.

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