Fear of Russia ends Israeli support for Georgia

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=16875

Monday, August 11, 2008 Ryan Jones


Fear of Russia ends Israeli support for Georgia

A top Georgian envoy in Israel on Sunday urged the Jewish state to use whatever leverage it has to put pressure on Russia to pull its forces out of the small Caucasus nation. But while voicing support for Georgian territorial integrity, Israel decided instead to appease Russia by halting all arms sales to Tbilisi.

Israel has sold some $500 million worth of military equipment to Georgia over the past few years, and top Israeli military experts have been involved in training Georgian armed forces.

Israeli soldiers who participated in training Georgian forces as recently as four months ago told Ha'aretz that they were not surprised when hostilities broke out. "There was an atmosphere of war about to break out. ...From my point of view, the battles of the past few days were to be expected," said one soldier.

As Russian forces invaded Georgia late last week and the two nations engaged in what is increasingly being called a full-scale war, Israel's leadership expressed concerns that Moscow could retaliate for continued Israeli military support of Georgia by selling advanced arms to Iran and Syria. snip

Said one Israeli official, "We have good relations with , and don't want to back either in this conflict. We therefore made a decision to drastically minimize sales of weapons to Georgia."

Seems to me they are deadly serious about maintaining their control of oil in that region.

After cashing in on $500 million. WOW! That's some neutrality. :puke:

The best news is that we now have some balance back on this planet. Never thought I'd say it but Thank You Russia. One Superpower is a disaster for this planet.