People are pointing out all the connections between Israel and Georgia, including McCain's neonate neocon braintrust. But Georgia reminds me of the Palestinians in '48. Who's the stronger power here? Russia, of course. As were the Zionists (backed with arms by American Jewry and the Czechs). Who's the occupier? Russia. Who started it? Well: the Georgians, with their ill-advised move of last week–as some say the Palestinians started the violence in '47, post-Partition, with a feckless uprising. And who is the darling of a large part of the world that now won't lift an M-16 in their behalf? The Georgians. A lot like the Palestinians, beloved and abandoned by the Arab world.
Who has nukes?
In fact, you might compare the Georgia/Russia border with the Partition borders drawn by the U.N. special committee in '47. The Jews ignored those borders when they set about to have a majority Jewish state, extirpating and ethnically-cleansing Arab villages and Jaffa and Haifa, places that the U.N. stated must retain their Arab character. (Israel is still ethnically-cleansing Jaffa.) The Russians are ignoring those borders now, ignoring world opinion. Nationalist-maximalist Putin reminds me of various Israeli nationalist strongmen. Begin. Shamir. Sharon. They cared just as little about international legitimacy. Facts on the ground!
While the quixotic righteous silver-tongued Mikheil Saakashvili is as charming to us as Yaser Arafat was for all Arabs. It's just a matter of time before the terrorist acts of resistance begin.
Georgia is now the darling of the western world, the focus of compassion and concern. Mine too. Why not share a little of that compassion with the Palestinians?
