On three different occasions over the last 18 months, I have headed to Somaliland or Kenya for research purposes, largely to talk about Horn of Africa politics, Great Power competition (the United States is absent without leave while China and perhaps even Russia make inroads), and regional security. Given both the importance of the U.S. and the family ties many Somalis have with the Somali diaspora, and the fact that one of my trips was in August when so many of the Somali diaspora returned home for the summer holidays, American politics loomed large in coffee house discussions and meetings with civil society and political leaders.

Over at the Hill, I have written of how frustrated many Somalis were that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, had not used her seat to advance U.S.-Somali ties. Instead, Omar has made the Palestinian issue a cornerstone of her congressional activism, apparently at the urging both of Basim Sabri, her second-largest donor and a Palestinian American real estate tycoon from Minneapolis who donated maximum amounts to Omar’s congressional campaign, as well as his daughter Karmel, a fundraiser for causes in the Gaza Strip. No group or charity can operate in Gaza, however, without cooperating with Hamas, which has ruled the Palestinian territory with an iron fist since 2006.