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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| 'We cut Georgia arms sales months ago' |
| 2008-08-11 |
| Israel has rejected frequent requests for arms from Georgia in the months leading up to the outbreak of hostilities with Russia, and an attempt by Georgia to procure missiles from Israel ended in failure, a defense official told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "Several months ago, we carried out an evaluation of the situation in Georgia and realized that Georgia and Russia were on a collision course. We have good relations with both, and don't want to back either in this conflict," the official said. "We therefore made a decision to drastically minimize sales of weapons to Georgia. Frantic requests from Georgia to Israel for military hardware leading up to the current conflict with Russia set off alarm bells at the Ministry of Defense. "We saw that there was a surge in requests for weapons, and we therefore decided to, in effect, minimize the entire issue. After our decision, we sold only defensive weapons in small quantities to Georgia," he said. "If Georgia asks us to send in first aid to treat casualties, we will oblige. But we will not get into the heart of the war between Georgia and Russia," he added. I wonder, if Georgia and USA such good allies, why Georgians came to Israel (where you've to pay cash) for weapons? |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #5 gromguru: I wonder, if Georgia and USA such good allies, why Georgians came to Israel (where you've to pay cash) for weapons? Maybe they couldn't afford the Cadillac Escalade of weapons systems, so they had to settle for the Chevy Suburban price range. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-11 16:55 |
| #4 He's really Israeli, Zhang Fe, originally from Russia. And a physicist who worked at Los Alamos, as I recall, although not when my little sister was there. Please calm down, all of you. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-11 16:51 |
| #3 gromguru: I wonder, if Georgia and USA such good allies, why Georgians came to Israel (where you've to pay cash) for weapons? I wonder if Russia and Israel are such good allies, why is Russia selling major weapons systems to both Syria and Iran - Israel's most likely adversaries? Are you really Israeli? Or just a Russian troll trying to bait Americans over our relationship with Israel? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2008-08-11 16:46 |
| #2 they may have gone to israel, cause Israel has good weapons. Israel is an ally of the US, and had the US pressed Israel to sell weapons to georgia, its certain they would have, I think. Theres no evidence that Washington took the imminent threat of conflict in georgia seriously, though. Israel clearly has an interest in keeping an open LOC to Azerbaijan, which is a prowestern outpost next to Iran. Its also clear that Israel doesnt want to piss off the USSR unnecessarily, and isnt going to sacrifice itself for georgia, esp if it doesnt look like its going to make the difference. Its also true that even IF Israel HAD been selling weapons to Georgia, someone would be trying to say otherwise, to make the Russians less angry. |
| Posted by: superstitiousGalitizianer 2008-08-11 16:38 |
| #1 g(r)omgoru A Counter question.. How good an ally of the USA is Israel? Do you give a flying fck about the US? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-08-11 16:18 |