‘Oil, Israel and Iran’ Among Factors that Led to Georgia War
by Gil Ronen, Israel National News, August 11, 2008
IsraelNN.com) Analysis of the war in Georgia points to a fight over a major oil route as the main reason for hostilities, but also to an Israeli connection.
Channel 2’s expert on the Muslim world, Ehud Ya’ari, told viewers of the central evening newscast that Russia and neighboring countries were vying for control of a strategic oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. This relatively new pipeline passes through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey and is the only pipeline between Asia and Europe that does not pass through Russia or Iran. Israel is expecting to receive oil and gas through the pipeline.
By using the ethnic Russian population in South Ossetia to destabilize Georgia, Russia was making a play for the pipeline, he said.
The Israeli Connection
The Georgian move against South Ossetia was motivated by political considerations having to do with Israel and Iran, according to Nfc. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili decided to assert control over the breakaway region in order to force Israel to reconsider its decision to cut back its support for Georgia’s military.
Russian and Georgian media reported several days ago that Israel decided to stop its support for Georgia after Moscow made it clear to Jerusalem and Washington that Russia would respond to continued aid for Georgia by selling advanced anti-aircraft systems to Syria and Iran.
Hundreds of Israeli defense experts are reportedly in Georgia and Israel’s military industries have been upgrading Georgia’s air force, training its infantry and selling the country unmanned aerial vehicles and advanced artillery systems.
Former minister Ronny Milo was reportedly among the leading Israeli middlemen in the arms deals with Georgia and Brig.-Gen. Gal Hirsch has been training army units through a company he owns.
Russia nixes ceasefire
Georgia has ordered its forces to cease fire, and offered to start talks with Russia over an end to hostilities in South Ossetia, Georgian officials said Sunday. However, Russia has reportedly rejected the offer. Earlier in the day, Georgia said its troops had pulled out of the breakaway region and that Russian forces were in control of its capital, Tskhinvali. Georgian President Saakashvili said Sunday that his country’s sovereignty is in danger.
After conducting consultations regarding events in Georgia, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel “recognizes Georgia’s territorial integrity.” Israel also called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Former minister Ronny Milo was reportedly among the leading Israeli middlemen in the arms deals with Georgia.
Russia bombs Israeli-run plant
Also on Sunday, Russia bombed a Georgian military plant in which Israeli experts are upgrading jet fighters for the Georgian military. According to Nfc, the bombing was a “sharp message” to Israel.
A Russian fighter jet bombed runways inside the plant, located near Tbilisi, where Israeli security firm Elbit is in charge of upgrading Georgian SU-25 jets.
Dozens Waiting to Make Aliyah from Georgia
Eight Jews were scheduled to arrive from Georgia to Israel Sunday evening and dozens more intend to make Aliyah to the Jewish state, once they finish the required paperwork. Representatives of Russian Aliyah agency Nativ will provide the Olim with Aliyah permits. The Georgian government claims Tbilisi’s international airport was damaged Sunday after being bombed by Russian jets, and it is not clear if flights will be able to take off in the coming days.
Russia’s foreign minister denied the Georgian claim, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Russia is not denying reports that it bombed a military airport in a suburb of Tbilisi twice.
Russia: Western Media is Pro-Georgian
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin said Sunday that international and western press coverage of events in Georgia were biased in favor of the Georgians.
“The West behaved strangely in the first hours of the attack on South Ossetia,” Karasin said, and added that “the U.S.A.’s negative attitude” would be “taken into consideration in the future in contacts about other global questions.” The US says it will ask the United Nations to condemn Russia’s actions in Georgi
BS. PBS and the BBC are solidly behing Russia. This is another Hungary, yet the Russkies are being portrayed by our Arab-Leftist media as the good guys. I’m all for sinking a few Russian ships Let’s see if the vacuum tubes fall out of their rockets when they try to retalliate — or whether they can even free up the rust enough to launch them.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — August 11, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
This is an extreme misunderstanding of the whole situation in Georgia. The aggressor in this war was US supported Georgia which attacked a defenseless minority population with military means under cover of the Olympic peace declaration. If you are for sinking Russian ships coming to support the Osseitnes, you may just as well be for sinking American ships trying to assist Israel in a similar future situation.
Because the utter fools in Washington D.C. have got it all wrong, there is no need for everyone else to join them into the abyss.
Comment by Per — August 11, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
Russia has never ceased being the evil empire.
Comment by Laura — August 11, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
But you, for one, should at least try to think a bit less evil in this matter. It is fantastic to see how brainwashed Americans have become over the last couple of days by the new cold war rethoric from Washington D.C. It is very ugly indeed to see the corrupt gangster regime in Tblisi hailed as heroes and mourned as victims. They are neither. They are aggressors and war criminals (and friends of the State Department).
It is easy to understand that Washington needs another enemy to replace “Islamofascism” which is non existing. It is more than obvious that none of the candidates for presidency can accept Islam as their future enemy, in particular since the “war on terror” has been thoroughly lost wherever it has been fought.
That is the main reason why useful idiots in Washington has decided to rekindle the cold war and appoint Russia their new enemy, thereby taking unpleasant focus away from their lost jihad battles with Islam, and in particular their new understanding (not yet but soon friendship) with Iran.
It is almost unbelieveable that American intellectuals have already bought that cheap political trash from Washington D.C.
Comment by Per — August 11, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
Thank you, Per Oslosson. I see you’ve addressed the above to me.
First of all, no Russian ships are coming in support of the Ossetians. The Ossetians are a land-locked people, far from any benefit they could receive from the Russian fleet. The Russian fleet is not attacking Georgians in South Ossetia, but Georgians in the rest of Georgia.
Secondly, you talk about “attacking a defenseless minority population”. Ossetians comprise about 2/3 of South Ossetia’s population, and Georgians the other 1/3. The defenseless minority being attacked is Georgian, not Ossetian.
The “sinking a few Russian ships” comment was to underline what this conflict really is: An attack by the Russians against a people allied with the Americans, and therefore against America. It’s the same sort of good-old proxy war as Vietnam and Afganistan, resurrected from the Cold War days. I’m proposing that we just go after the real villains instead of dilly-dallying around and making people like the Georgians and Ossetians suffer. The Russian navy needs scrapping anyway — it would be no great loss.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — August 11, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
There is no point in favoring Russia in this or any other conflict or adventure in which they may involve themselves. On the other hand, the worst of all possible outcomes for the West is to openly oppose them and engage in military confrontation with the Russians. These machinations in Georgia are Russia’s last gasp (hopefully) before entering a completely new era (within the next thirty years)in which they will lose all power to retain their wealth and land.
Russia will become the first of the “western” countries to have boundaries without the population to control them. Their lifestyle no longer supports family life, so they cannot even replace themselves. There is no reason to raise children in Russia. The life-expectancy is dropping, vodka is considered a necessity of life, and connections between people are tenuous. The culture is corrupt, and is saved only by the unfathomable wealth still in their soil.
Russian xenophobia prevents them from truly integrating with other cultures, so their population will never be enhanced by new immigrants desperate for a better economic and social life. Their dour quality, enhanced by vodka and a world-class depressive literature, does not endear them to more optimistic personalities. In short, their deep and dark view of the world will continue to be their downfall. Only a really good war will bring them back to self-analysis on a broad enough scale to save them. Therefore, in order to punish the Russians with exile, death and illness, just leave them alone as much as possible for as long as possible. In an attempt to find happiness in the midst of despair, the Russians will party themselves into oblivion.
Comment by jerry — August 11, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
Does anyone have a link that explains the beginning of this conflict. Eg what were the circumstances of secession? Does it all boil down to self determination vs sovereignty?
Comment by Ted Belman — August 11, 2008 @ 11:38 pm
Ted.
To wind up this conflict back to the beginning may lead you all the way back to the Middle Ages and the Muslim expansion into the Bysantine Empire, when the South Russian Ossetines were driven from their old lands and sought refuge in the Caucasus mountains. In more recent times, it was the Soviet “People’s Commisar,” Yosif Vissarionovich, aka Stalin, who designed the borders of the Soviet republics, including his own homeland Grusia (Georgia).
The Ossetines in the south, as well as their brethren in the north, feel themselves, and in fact are more related to the Russians both ethnically and religiously. They have therefore sought and received assistance, both humanitarian and military protection, in their struggle for independence from the Georgians.
Whether you like or dislike it, there is a certain resemblance between the situations in Ossetia and in Kosovo. There is also a valid point in Putin’s reference to Western hypocricy in their policies in the region. It is really strange to see the US allying with Georgia while bombing Serbia, and allying with Saakashvili while hanging Saddam Hussein. I would have understood it better if it were the other way around.
I found a couple of fairly good comments in todau’s Asia Times Online:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH12Ag02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH12Ag01.html
Comment by Per — August 12, 2008 @ 2:43 am
Per:
If “They are aggressors and war criminals (and friends of the State Department),” then they are no friends of President Bush, since the State Department has tried to undermine every step of the Bush administration’s efforts (just as the Foreign Office sabotaged Churchill on the Palestinian question) in the Middle East, and if Islamofascism in “non-existing,” then all problems in the world are the product of America’s malevolence and evil intentions indeed, including the Inquisition, the Crusades and Black Death. And I forgot Genghis Khan’s cruel conquest of Russia.
It seems that hatred of America has no bounds in some circles and it completely distorts their ability to apprehend reality.
Comment by scorpio — August 12, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
Wikipedia is a good place to start
and :
http://www.civil.ge/eng/
It can’t all boil down to anything simple. There is Russian interest, money and influence involved. How far would Hezbollah have gotten without immigrants pouring across the border from Syria and Iranian money?
Another unnecessary war fanned by unchecked nationalist militants and encouraged and assisted by third party world powers.
Not done with vote but the bullet.
Continual Russian encroachment and the Russians hope to use this topple the Western style government of Georgia and replace with one favourable to their own and keep Georgia out of NATO.
Nothing so simple nor nice. A lot of innocent people victimized and set against each other mostly by by Russian ambition and power.
Russian Imperialism.
If they lived next door they could have done the same thing in Quebec.
Turn peace into War and human beings into pawns and the dead.
Comment by Max — August 13, 2008 @ 12:49 am
Here’s a map ot the ethnic division of Georgia:
http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/caucasus/CaucMaps/caucasMAP.jpg
It ought to be obvious, that if the Ossetians are allowed national ambitions in Georgia, Georgia will be split in two and the proposed Caspian-Mediterranian pipeline will be nixed (Advantage: Russia). Ossetian territorial ambitions will not stop at the enclave of “South Ossetia”. With the Russians behind them, they will continue with demands for an “ethnic homeland” that cuts clear across the country. The Arab demands for a connector between Judea and Gaza ought to set off a warning light.
Comment by BlandOatmeal — August 13, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
By pounding Serbia into submission and allowing the Muslims gain “independence” amidst Christian Balkans by taking over the Serbs’ heartland, Kosovo, the U.S. and NATO are not in a good position to lecture Russia on territorial integrity of Georgia. By trampling on the Serbs’ feelings and national rights, how can the Western alliance now preach respect to the Russians as they see a hostile entity arising on their Southern border?
Comment by scorpio — August 13, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
It is not the point. The point is to help McCain by turning the camera lenses away from the failures in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.
Comment by Per — August 13, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Good map Oatmeal.
Also, one should note there is no clear “nationalist territory:
Also:
.
I doubt these populations are naturally antagonistic given their long co-existence and I really suspect that if not for the arming and financing done by the Soviet Putin that the conflict needed to reach the extent of extreme militarism.
Also:
There has been a lot of civilian process for non-violent resolution of these problems and it seems that most of that process has been short-changed.
Comment by Max — August 14, 2008 @ 12:19 am
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