Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Jerusalem. Photo: Facebook.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened his meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Jerusalem on Tuesday by announcing that “Israel is going back to Africa,” the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Tuesday.

“Many African countries are interested in relations with Israel and you are leading this trend,” Netanyahu told Kenyatta. “There are many cooperative efforts going on between our two countries in all realms: defense, agriculture, technology and more. You father was the founder of Kenya and an architect of ties with Israel, and you are continuing in this vein, in your first state visit to Israel.”

Kenyatta arrived Monday for a three-day visit to the country, the first by a Kenyan president since 1994.

Netanyahu also brought up the subject of the Entebbe Raid, the 1976 hostage-rescue operation in which his brother, Yonatan, was killed. “The people of Israel and I personally remember Kenya’s contribution to the rescue of the hostages and thank you for it.”

Kenyatta responded by saying that Israel and Kenya have much in common, including their war against radical Islamic terrorism. “We believe in freedom of expression, democracy and religious freedom, and these values bring us closer,” he said. “You and we live in dangerous neighborhoods with security concerns.”