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Israelis wave both Georgian and Israeli flags as they chant anti-Russian slogans during a demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, 11 August. (Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)
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Учурдан баштап грузия launched a surprise attack on the tiny breakaway region of South Ossetia last week, prompting a fierce Russian counterattack, Израиль has been trying to distance itself from the conflict. This is understandable: with Georgian forces on the retreat, large numbers of civilians killed and injured, and Орусия‘s fury unabated, Израиль‘s deep involvement is severely embarrassing.
The collapse of the Georgian offensive represents not only a disaster for that country and its US-backed leaders, but another blow to the myth of Израиль‘s military prestige and prowess. Worse, Израиль деп коркот Орусия could retaliate by stepping up its military assistance to Израиль‘s adversaries including Иран.
"Израиль is following with great concern the developments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and hopes the violence will end," its foreign ministry said, adding with uncharacteristic doveishness, "Израиль recognizes the territorial integrity of грузия and calls for a peaceful solution."
Тбилиси‘s top diplomat in Tel Aviv complained about the lackluster Israeli response to his country’s predicament and perhaps overestimating Israeli influence, called for Israeli "diplomatic pressure on Moscow." Just like Израиль, the diplomat said, грузия is fighting a war on "terrorism." Israeli officials politely told the Georgians that "the address for that type of pressure was Washington" (Herb Keinon, "Тбилиси каалайт Израиль кысым көрсөтүү Орусия," Иерусалим Post, 11 август 2008).
жатканда Израиль was keen to downplay its role, грузия perhaps hoped that flattery might draw Израиль further in. Georgian minister Temur Yakobashvili — whom the Israeli daily Haaretz stressed was Jewish — told Israeli army radio that "Израиль should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers." Yakobashvili claimed rather implausibly, according to Haaretz, that "a small group of Georgian soldiers were able to wipe out an entire Russian military division, thanks to the Israeli training" ("Georgian minister tells Israel Radio: Thanks to Israeli training, we’re fending off Russian military," Haaretz, 11 август 2008).
2000-жылдан тартып, Израиль has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in arms and combat training to грузия. Weapons included guns, ammunition, shells, tactical missile systems, antiaircraft systems, automatic turrets for armored vehicles, electronic equipment and remotely piloted aircraft. These sales were authorized by the Israeli defense ministry (Arie Egozi, "War in грузия: The Israeli connection," Ynet, 10 August 2008).
Training also involved officers from Israel’s Shin Bet secret service — which has for decades carried out extrajudicial executions and torture of Palestinians in the occupied territories — the Israeli police, and the country’s major arms companies Elbit and Rafael.
The Tel Aviv-Tbilisi military axis appears to have been cemented at the highest levels, and according to YNet, "The fact that грузия‘s defense minister, Davit Kezerashvili, is a former Israeli who is fluent in Hebrew contributed to this cooperation." Others involved in the brisk arms trade included former Israeli minister and Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo as well as several senior Israeli military officers.
The key liaison was Reserve Brigadier General Gal Hirsch who commanded Israeli forces on the border with Ливан during the July 2006 Second Lebanon War. (Yossi Melman, "Georgia Violence – A frozen alliance," Haaretz, 10 August 2008). He resigned from the army after the Winograd commission severely criticized Израиль‘s conduct of its war against Ливан and an internal Israeli army investigation blamed Hirsch for the seizure of two soldiers by Hizballah.
According to one of the Israeli combat trainers, an officer in an "elite" Израиль army unit, Hirsch and colleagues would sometimes personally supervise the training of Georgian forces which included "house-to-house fighting." The training was carried out through several "private" companies with close links to the Israeli military.
As the violence raged in Georgia, the trainer was desperately trying to contact his former Georgian students on the battlefront via mobile phone: the Israelis wanted to know whether the Georgians had "internalized Israeli military technique and if the special reconnaissance forces have chalked up any successes" (Jonathan Lis and Moti Katz, "IDF vets who trained Georgia troops say war with Russia is no surprise," Haaretz, 11 август 2008).
Yet on the ground, the Israeli-trained Georgian forces, perhaps unsurprisingly overwhelmed by the Russians, have done little to redeem the image of Израиль‘s military following its defeat by Hizballah in July-August 2006.
The question remains as to why Израиль was involved in the first place. There are several reasons. The first is simply economic opportunism: for years, especially since the 11 September 2001 attacks, arms exports and "security expertise" have been one of Израиль‘s growth industries. But the close Israeli involvement in a region Орусия considers to be of vital interest suggests that Израиль might have been acting as part of the broader US scheme to encircle Орусия and contain its reemerging power.
Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been steadily encroaching on Орусия‘s borders and expanding NATO in a manner the Kremlin considers highly provocative. Shortly after coming into office, the Bush Administration tore up the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and, like the Клинтон administration, adopted former Soviet satellite states as its own, using them to base an anti-missile system Орусия views as a threat. In addition to their "global war on terror," hawks in Washington have recently been talking up a new Cold War with Орусия.
грузия was an eager volunteer in this effort and has learned quickly the correct rhetoric: one Georgian minister claimed that "every bomb that falls on our heads is an attack on democracy, on the European Union and on Америка." грузия has been trying to join NATO, and sent 2,000 soldiers to help the US ээлөө Ирак. It may have hoped that once war started this loyalty would be rewarded with the kind of round-the-clock airlift of weapons that Израиль тартып алат US during its wars. Instead so far the US only helped airlift the Georgian troops from Ирак back to the beleaguered home front.
Жардам берүү менен грузия, Израиль may have been doing its part to duplicate its own experience in assisting the eastward expansion of the "Euro-Atlantic" empire. While supporting грузия was certainly risky for Израиль, given the possible Russian reaction, it has a compelling reason to intervene in a region that is heavily contested by global powers. Израиль must constantly reinvent itself as an "asset" to American power if it is to maintain the US support that ensures its survival as a settler-colonial enclave in the жакынкы чыгыш. It is a familiar role; in the 1970s and 1980s, at the behest of Washington, Израиль жардам берген Түштүк Африка‘s apartheid regime fight Soviet-supported insurgencies in South African-occupied Намбия жана Ангола, and it trained right-wing US-allied death squads fighting left-wing governments and movements in Борбордук Америка. 2001-жылдан кийин, Израиль marketed itself as an expert on combating "Islamic terrorism."
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently denounced Колумбия – long one of the largest recipients of US military aid after Израиль — as the "Israel of Latin America." грузия‘s government, to the detriment of its people, may have tried to play the role of the "Израиль -ныкы Саясат" — a loyal servant of US ambitions in that region — and lost the gamble. Playing with empires is dangerous for a small country.
As for Israel itself, with the Bush Doctrine having failed to give birth to the "new Middle East" that the US needs to maintain its power in the region against growing resistance, an ever more desperate and rogue Israel must look for opportunities to prove its worth elsewhere. That is a dangerous and scary thing.
Электрондук Интифаданын негиздөөчүсү Али Абунима автору One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).
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