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Strange Bedfellows
// Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Visits Israel
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who recently described the Ilyushin planes used by the Russian Emergencies Ministry to deport Georgians from Russia as "cattle cars," has again demonstrated his insatiable appetite for provocative and shocking comparisons, this time by likening the Georgians to the Jews. Never mind that this comparison is on its last legs. It is difficult to find two countries in the world that are so completely unlike each other as Georgia and Israel. Let's begin with the fact that Israel controls its territory to a degree that far exceeds that of most other countries, a degree that Georgia cannot even dream about. Then we should note that within Georgia President Saakashvili is clearly not threatened by that which threatens any Israeli leader if he takes a single unsure step. This is because unlike Georgian territory, Mikheil Saakashvili controls power in a way that his Israeli counterpart could never imagine. In general, the Israeli democracy is obviously fundamentally different from the Georgian version.
Nevertheless, despite all of these discrepancies, the comparison of persecuted Georgians with hunted Jews cuts right to the chase. Mikheil Saakashvili has once again caught Moscow out in its mistakes and is making use of a moment when even those who completely approve of the policies being followed by the Russian authorities regarding Georgians must admit to glaring excesses in the authorities' campaign. In the meantime, when President Saakashvili names as his idol not the Georgian David [the Georgian King David IV "The Builder" was one of Georgia's greatest early Medieval monarchs] but the Israeli David – meaning David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the Israeli state – it cannot help but gratify the Israeli ego. What other foreign leader would speak so openly about his or her readiness to take the Israeli model as an example?
President Saakashvili is clearly profiting from his visit to Israel. It doesn't look like the Israeli leadership is doing too badly for itself either, and not just in terms of military contracts with Tbilisi. Those who are called "Russian" in Israel are repatriated not only from Russia but also from other former Soviet republics: newly-fledged Israeli deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman is actually from Moldova. That means that there are also "Russians" from Georgia living in Israel. And the Israeli "Russians" directly from Russia are hardly likely to be infected with strong anti-Georgian feelings as a sign of solidarity with their discarded former homeland. As such, from the point of view of domestic Israeli politics the cozying-up to Mikheil Saakashvili is a overt political gesture by the government in the direction of ?migr?s from the former USSR.
And what of Moscow, which protested vociferously against the visit? Whatever Moscow has fought for lately, it has ended up hurting itself on. During the recent visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the Russian capital, it was popular to explain to him that Israel has nothing to fear from Russia's arms trade with Syria. The Israeli side considers Syria its enemy, but it swallowed the line anyway. But then Israel made its countering move. The veiled message that it sent to Moscow can be defined thus: you forced us to say that we have nothing to fear from Russian supplies of weapons to Syria. Well, okay then, let's play by those same rules: now you have to say that the Israeli weapons deal with Georgia is also nothing to fear. And then we can consider ourselves quits.
Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 02, 2006
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