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.
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Mikheil Saakashvili in Israel
2006
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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 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.
