Somaliland recognition wasn’t diplomacy. It was preparation. Israel expects to need leverage later — abut now it’s stuck with the damage. Right, so Israel has recognised Somaliland as a state in and of itself, the first nation on the planet to formally do so. The decision is done, it’s public, and it’s already costed in. Israel has chosen to step into a sovereignty dispute most states have avoided for three decades and has decided it can live with the fallout. Well I wonder why that is? Because Somaliland didn’t suddenly become viable. Its status didn’t change. The law didn’t change. What changed is Israel’s tolerance for contradiction. The same state that insists recognition must follow negotiations, uses that line to block Palestine, and treats unilateral recognition as destabilising has just done it anyway, where it suits. And when a state alr ...