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Israel predicted Georgia and Russia headed for war in 2007
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Georgia, Russia, Israel 

Israel decided to scale back its arms deals with Tblisi in late 2007 because it believed Georgia was heading toward an armed conflict with Russia.

The defense and foreign ministries started ordering military exports to Georgia be cut last year, thwarting a major deal for Israeli-made Merkava tanks.

Privately-owned Israeli military contractors, like those operated by Major General (Res.) Yisrael Ziv and Brigadier General (Res.) Gal Hirsch, continued training Georgian security forces, though they had reduced their activities over the past few months.
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Ziv is the former Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate head, and Hirsch was the commander of the Galilee Brigade when reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah on the northern border, sparking the Second Lebanon War.

Corporate officials say they scaled back activities because their contracts had ended, and that the decision was not connected to the tensions with Russia.

However, some of the senior Israeli generals apparently felt a showdown was imminent, and preferred not to get directly involved. When the war broke out last Friday, most Israeli trainers were already home.

Officials in Jerusalem said on Wednesday that the government's decision not to sell weapons to Tblisi was not part of a deal with Moscow regarding its arms sales to Syria and Iran. Russia has often raised the issue of Israel's arms sales to Georgia, in response to complaints that Russia is supplying Israel's Arab neighbors with weapons and Iran with uranium and nuclear technology.

However, Israeli government officials said on Wednesday that Russia has repeatedly rejected any intervention in its weapons sales, and that Israel's decision not to sell arms to Georgia was unilateral.

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      1.   Tom Clancy`s "Ghost Recon" game predicted it in 2003 08:42  |  yoyo 14/08/08
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