[Peace-discuss] US cat's-paw in the Caucasus

[C. G. Estabrook]

"Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently denounced Colombia -- long one of
the largest recipients of US military aid after Israel -- as the 'Israel of
Latin America.' Georgia's government, to the detriment of its people, may
have tried to play the role of the 'Israel of the Caucasus' -- a loyal
servant of US ambitions in that region -- and lost the gamble. Playing with
empires is dangerous for a small country."

	Tel Aviv to Tbilisi: Israel's role in the Russia-Georgia war
	By Ali Abunimah
	The Electronic Intifada
	12 August 2008

 From the moment Georgia launched a surprise attack on the tiny breakaway
region of South Ossetia last week, prompting a fierce Russian counterattack,
Israel 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 Russia's fury unabated, Israel'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
Israel's military prestige and prowess. Worse, Israel fears that Russia
could retaliate by stepping up its military assistance to Israel's
adversaries including Iran.

"Israel 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, "Israel recognizes the territorial
integrity of Georgia and calls for a peaceful solution."

Tbilisi'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
Israel, the diplomat said, Georgia is fighting a war on "terrorism." Israeli
officials politely told the Georgians that "the address for that type of
pressure was Washington" (Herb Keinon, "Tbilisi wants Israel to pressure
Russia," The Jerusalem Post, 11 August 2008).

While Israel was keen to downplay its role, Georgia perhaps hoped that
flattery might draw Israel further in. Georgian minister Temur
Yakobashvili -- whom the Israeli daily Haaretz stressed was Jewish -- told
Israeli army radio that "Israel 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 August 2008).

Since 2000, Israel has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in arms and
combat training to Georgia. 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
Georgia: 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 Georgia'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 Lebanon 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 Israel's conduct of its war against Lebanon 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"
Israel 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 August 2008).

Yet on the ground, the Israeli-trained Georgian forces, perhaps
unsurprisingly overwhelmed by the Russians, have done little to redeem the
image of Israel's military following its defeat by Hizballah's in
July-August 2006.

The question remains as to why Israel 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 Israel's growth industries. But the close
Israeli involvement in a region Russia considers to be of vital interest
suggests that Israel might have been acting as part of the broader US scheme
to encircle Russia and contain its reemerging power.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been steadily encroaching on
Russia'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 Clinton administration,
adopted former Soviet satellite states as its own, using them to base an
anti-missile system Russia 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 Russia.

Georgia 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
America." Georgia has been trying to join NATO, and sent 2,000 soldiers to
help the US occupy Iraq. It may have hoped that once war started this
loyalty would be rewarded with the kind of round-the-clock airlift of
weapons that Israel receives from the US during its wars. Instead so far the
US only helped airlift the Georgian troops from Iraq back to the beleaguered
home front.

By helping Georgia, Israel may have been doing its part to duplicate its own
experience in assisting the eastward expansion of the "Euro-Atlantic"
empire. While supporting Georgia was certainly risky for Israel, given the
possible Russian reaction, it has a compelling reason to intervene in a
region that is heavily contested by global powers. Israel 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
Middle East. It is a familiar role; in the 1970s and 1980s, at the behest of
Washington, Israel helped South Africa's apartheid regime fight
Soviet-supported insurgencies in South African-occupied Namibia and Angola,
and it trained right-wing US-allied death squads fighting left-wing
governments and movements in Central America. After 2001, Israel marketed
itself as an expert on combating "Islamic terrorism."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently denounced Colombia -- long one of
the largest recipients of US military aid after Israel -- as the "Israel of
Latin America." Georgia's government, to the detriment of its people, may
have tried to play the role of the "Israel of the Caucasus" -- 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.

[Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One
Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
(Metropolitan Books, 2006).]