For Georgia's president, Ben-Gurion in the mirror
By Edan Ring
Tags: georgia, tbilisi
TBILISI - The president of Georgia stood for a long time shaking the hands of the dozens of people waiting in line to congratulate him. Well-groomed women with coiffed hair and skullcap-wearing men with white hair and gold watches passed by in a row, and some even stopped for a quick photo.
For more than two hours earlier this month, President Mikheil Saakashvili attended the festive dinner in honor of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. His aides said that he had never devoted so much time to a delegation. At some point he even asked one of his bodyguards to stop the stream of well-wishers; with all due respect to the important guests from America, his stomach was grumbling.
The unusual amount of time Saakashvili devoted to the delegation is only one example of the welcome received by the Jewish leaders in the Georgian capital. One after another came all the government ministers, most of them young people who speak fluent English, and all came with a similar message: We love America, we love Israel, the war in Iraq is the front line against terror, we will not allow Iran to carry out its intrigues.
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The heads of the organizations were seen by the Georgian administration as official representatives for all intents and purposes, not only of the U.S. administration but of Israel as well. They gave each minister a gift of a tree-shaped mezuzah, and went out to the lobby to eat salmon and drink Georgian wine.
Georgia, a small country located at a strategic junction between East and West, is eager for Western support. Its relations with its former ruler, Russia, have long since gone sour, mainly because of Moscow's support for the separatist districts South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The uncovering of a Russian intelligence squad that operated in Georgia led to a deterioration in the relations between the countries two years ago. Russia responded by placing an embargo on Georgian products, ceasing flights between the countries and closing the border crossings.
For Georgia, this was a harsh blow. Up until a few years ago, it was almost entirely dependent on Russian trade, mainly Russian gas.
In the face of Moscow's hostility, the Georgians turned to Washington. The members of the Jewish delegation repeatedly heard about the "common values" that Georgia, the U.S. and Israel share, and about the war against terror, in which Georgia plays an active role.
Saakashvili told his guests, "When Israel is harmed, Georgia is harmed as well," and swore, "The only place in the world where I feel at home is Israel."
In spite of that, the real influence that those Jews with connections and money wield on the administrations in Washington and Jerusalem is open to question. Some apparently have open doors to various Congress members, but in the final analysis, "The very fact that people think that we have influence turns us into people with influence," as one of the senior leaders said last week, in a moment of post-modern illumination.
The Iranian connection
Several weeks before the members of the Conference of Presidents landed in Tbilisi, the Georgian special security forces arrested an Iranian citizen on the outskirts of the capital. According to reports by U.S. intelligence and Interpol, he is one of the Iran's leading arms dealers, perhaps even a supplier of nuclear components.
That week turned out to be a dramatic one for Tbilisi-Tehran relations. When the Iranians found out about the arrest, they were furious and demanded that the man be released. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was even sent to the ceremony where Saakashvili was sworn in for another term as president, on January 20, in order to conduct negotiations for his release. But the Georgians refused. They made a simple calculation: In order to gain the total support of the U.S. against Russia, they had to sacrifice their relations with Iran and to serve as a front in the battle against global terror.
When diplomatic negotiations didn't help, Tehran began to use threats. The Georgians claim that the Iranians hinted they would try to harm the 2,000 Georgian soldiers deployed on the Iraq-Iran border and would join the anticipated Russian support for the separatist districts' independence. Tbilisi was not impressed.
The Georgian ambassador to Iran was brought back to his country, and relations between the countries froze. The arms dealer was transferred to American hands and is now in an unknown place.
The timing of the visit of the Congress of Presidents, which also included a delegation of Israeli journalists sponsored by the Georgian administration, was ideal. Leading administration members leaked news of the arrest to the journalists, and at the beginning of the week, after the delegation had left, the news was published in Israel. During the course of the week, there were also many hints of the military and intelligence cooperation between Georgia, the U.S. and Israel on the Iranian issue. Saakashvili even met with a small group of congress leaders and told them about it.
Ruining their relations with Iran is a very high price for the Georgians. The two countries used to be active trading partners, and they have a common historical and cultural background. In the face of Russian hostility and Georgia's dependence on Russian gas, Iran almost became a lifesaver for Tbilisi.
In the cold winter of 2006, when Russia insisted on raising the price of its gas exports, and even cut the supply, Georgia turned to Iran, which offered to sell it for less than the Russians, on one condition only: an official visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Tbilisi. The Georgians refused, and cooperation between the countries was called off.
Georgian loyalty to the U.S., occasionally at the expense of other interests, is liable to turn out to be a big gamble. The severance of relations with Iran and the tension with Russia are liable to leave it in splendid isolation in Central Asia. Thus, its leaders may come to understand that with all due respect to the sponsorship of the great power across the ocean, it might be a good idea to develop treaties with nearby countries as well. That is apparently why Tbilisi is discussing a "Black Sea community," similar to the cooperation among the Baltic nations.
A frozen opposition
Several hours before Saakashvili's speech to the congress leaders and several hundred meters from the luxury hotel where the event took place, about 20,000 opposition supporters gathered in order to protest the event. They claimed that the most recent presidential elections were fraudulent and that the government is not concerned about the ordinary people. The demonstrators stood opposite the Parliament building, with the violent suppression of their previous protest, in November, still fresh in their minds.
If that is not enough, two days earlier one of the opposition leaders, Badri Patarkatsishvili, died in England. Although British police determined he died of a heart attack, many of the demonstrators speculated that Saakashvili's regime had assassinated him because it considered him a threat.
In the past year the Georgian economy has reaped praise from the World Bank and other international financial bodies. It is considered a "developing market" that is worth investing in, and Israelis happen to be responsible for a significant percentage of the real estate development in Tbilisi. But the ordinary people do not benefit from that. Experts explain that growth there "has not yet filtered down," or in other words, while six new luxury hotels are being built in Tbilisi, 60 percent of the population has no regular work and the streets are lined mainly with crumbling, abandoned buildings.
In spite of that, the atmosphere at the demonstration was not particular heated, unrelated to the freezing Georgian winter. It was evident that the participants have despaired of the political system, and the unqualified American support also places an insurmountable obstacle in their path. Saakashvili has a winning card in the media, and in international public opinion he is perceived as a lover of democracy. All the protesters can do is come to the Parliament square and stand there silently.
"We have become strangers in our own country," said Lemira, a 58-year-old teacher who refused to reveal her surname or to be photographed. "Nobody listens to us. Saakashvili only builds magnificent fountains and organizes concerts. He thinks that the history of this country began when he came to power."
And in fact, the comparisons Saakashvili made in his speech to the delegation members, between his country and Israel, and between himself and David Ben-Gurion, demonstrated the man's highly developed sense of history. "Our country is at a historic crossroads. We will not allow anyone to interfere," he said.
In an attempt to flee from Russian imperialism and to build a new Georgian nation, Saakashvili may be forgetting his own people and opening the door to another type of imperialism, less aggressive but much more effective. The guests from the U.S. and Israel love him, and opinions are mixed among his own people, while some of them - as well as the neighboring countries - hold him in much lower regard.
haaretz.com |
