Curt Mills says rising U.S. media attention on Somali Americans and Somalia is politically driven and linked to the Israel lobby and Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
Curt Mills, Executive Director of The American Conservative, has argued that the growing focus on Somali Americans — and Somalia by extension — in U.S. mainstream media is not accidental, but part of a broader political campaign driven by the Israel lobby, one that he says is closely tied to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
Speaking on the growing prominence of Somali Americans and Somalia in U.S. media and political discourse, Mills said hostile narratives, anti-Somali hatred, and unsubstantiated fraud allegations targeting Somali American communities are being driven and amplified by the Israel lobby to serve wider foreign policy objectives in the Middle East.
“The reason why Somalia is so in the mainstream of American media right now is that, I think frankly, the Israeli lobby wants to push it, and it wants to radicalize people on this issue to distract from the larger macro issue of the Israel lobby in the United States driving foreign policy on this discrete issue of Iran.”
Mills said the focus on Somalis should not be seen in isolation, warning that Iran is only the starting point of a wider agenda.
“When I say discrete issue — this specific issue of Iran — I think when they get what they want in Iran, they are going to widen it to Turkey. They may even widen it to Saudi Arabia. The way you hear people talking about the region these days, it will never really stop.”
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Israel has formally taken a side in Somalia’s long-running political conflict by recognizing Somaliland, a self-declared breakaway region that Mogadishu considers an integral part of Somalia. The move has been widely criticized across Somalia and among Somali communities abroad, who see it as interference in the country’s sovereignty and internal affairs.
According to Mills, portraying Somalia and Somali Americans through a lens of suspicion fits into a familiar political pattern.
“I think the idea that this is separate from the process that went out from the Global War on Terror — the process that Donald Trump won the presidency projecting in 2016 and again in 2024 — yet it’s separate things, is pretty laughable.”
He further linked these developments to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-term political vision.
“Netanyahu had a long career as a politician. He has been almost the most important Israeli politician since the founding generation’s death, and his greater project has been remaking the Middle East with American force of armies.”
Somali analysts say the rhetoric highlighted by Mills risks further stigmatizing Somali Americans while masking deeper geopolitical agendas, particularly as Somaliland recognition becomes increasingly entangled with Middle East politics and U.S. domestic debates.
For many Somalis, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland is no longer viewed as an isolated diplomatic decision, but as part of a wider strategy with consequences reaching from Mogadishu to Washington.
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