Anti Somaliland voices are making two demands of Hargeisa. Cut relations with Israel, or keep them so superficial that recognition produces no serious partnership. Both demands ask Somaliland to carry the cost of their hostility while its critics preserve the boycott that created Israel's opening.
Cutting relations would not make Somaliland principled. It would paint Somaliland as a backstabbing nation that does not honour partnerships and gives up at the first challenge. Israel became the first United Nations member state to recognise Somaliland while others mobilised against that decision. If Hargeisa retreats once pressure begins, every government weighing recognition would conclude that Somaliland accepts costly commitments but will not defend them. Recognition is an act of trust, and Somaliland cannot repay it with strategic betrayal while expecting the next recognising government to believe its word.
The demand for superficial relations fails on its own terms. Many Arab and Muslim governments want Somaliland to keep its distance from Israel while they maintain their own boycott of Somaliland. They deny it recognition, oppose those who recognise it, then presume to decide whom Hargeisa may trust. Governments may oppose Somaliland's ties with Israel. But they cannot boycott Somaliland and still dictate its partnerships. That is not solidarity. It is control without partnership, as the case for a realistic Arab policy on Somaliland makes clear.
If Arab and Muslim foreign ministries genuinely want to slow deeper links with Israel, they must reverse the sequence by recognising Somaliland, forming partnerships of their own and competing for its trust. Recognition gives them standing, partnership gives them influence, and peaceful competition in Somaliland gives Hargeisa options. Without alternatives, every new denunciation raises the value of Israel's recognition partnership. A boycott is not a brake. It is an accelerator.
Call this the boycott dividend, the political value Israel gains whenever its rivals isolate the partner it recognised. Current Arab and Muslim policy pays that dividend with every attempt to isolate Somaliland. The durable principle is simple. Exclusion does not create leverage over the excluded. It transfers leverage to the country that broke the isolation.
If they want less Israeli influence in Somaliland, they must stop giving Israel a monopoly on recognition.