I had the honor of serving as Israel's ambassador to Chad between 1969 and 1971. On the very day I entered office, Libyan revolutionary Moammar Gadhafi seized power over his country and singled out Israel as the enemy of the Libyan revolution.
Was Gadhafi right about this? Well, perhaps. Situated south of Libya and west of Sudan, Chad is in a delicate geopolitical position in terms of Israel and the Arab world. Gadhafi wanted to rule over Chad, a country with valuable resources such as uranium and oil; in short, a country with power.
But Gadhafi feared that if he made a move there, hostile forces would likely close in on him from all sides – from the Arab world, and, more importantly, from Israel.
My term as ambassador was quite challenging. Chad is a predominantly Muslim country, but in the years I was posted there, the president, Francois Tombalbaye, was a member of the Christian minority. He feared Gadhafi, so for him, Israel was an important ally.
I particularly remember then-Prime Minister Golda Meir's visit to Chad, and the meeting held by the three of us: Meir, the Chadian president and myself. I was immensely proud to contribute to the ties between Chad and Israel, and it pained me to learn that the relations were severed one year after I stepped down.
But on Sunday, when Chadian President Idriss Déby made the first visit to Israel by any leader of his country, it proved that Gadhafi – who was toppled and killed in 2011 – had failed.
Israel and Chad share strategic interests of the highest degree, certainly in military terms. Gadhafi made every effort to distance Chad from Israel, but the uplifting photographs Sunday of Israel's prime minister standing alongside the Chadian president right here in Israel only proves that Gadhafi lost in a big way.
