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A report that Israel was “surprised” by the Oct. 25 military coup in Sudan doesn’t pass the smell test.  Israeli intrigues in Sudan, and East Africa as a whole,  go back decades.  

Not only was an Israeli delegation in Khartoum only days before the generals seized power, according to reports, but Israeli officials, including from Mossad, were back in the capital only days after the civilian government was toppled.  

Jerusalem likes these generals.  It was they who supported opening relations with Israel last year following the so-called Abraham Accords, not the country’s now-dethroned, pro-Palestinian civilian leaders. It makes you wonder what the real reason was for the Mossad’s visit—but not for long. The answer lies in a little context.

All this prompted memories of my own time reporting from the region many decades ago, when I got to know Uganda’s crackpot dictator Idi Amin and first learned of Israel’s clandestine operations to help him and his murderous officers take power and hold onto it.