'No such thing as winning on points'

It's been 19 years since Israel began to be flooded with the wave of immigrants still known collectively as "the Russians." Now that Russia and Georgia are at war, however, this large human aggregation is revealing divisions between its members, based on their views and land of origin.

The divide, of course, is not total. There are ex-Russians who support Georgia, and here and there, one can find a Georgian who is willing to criticize his former homeland. And, in contrast to the general Israeli sympathy and support for little Georgia, in Russian-language blogs in Israel, as well as in private conversations, one can hear such comments as "Saakashvili is a Hitler," the Russian counterpart to the Georgian, "Putin is a fascist."

Nonetheless, compared to the ambivalence characterizing the relations of local Russians to Vladimir Putin and his policies, the Georgian community has stood almost to a man behind their former country, and in this dangerous moment in Georgia's history, also behind its leadership.

There is no other community in Israel with such a strong connection to its birthplace as the Georgians. Only four years ago, when the fresco depicting the 12th-century Georgian national poet Shota Rustaveli, at the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem was vandalized, members of the local Georgian community - most of them traditional Jews - protested vehemently, and compared the act to desecration of the Western Wall.

In the last Georgian election, in January, local activists hung posters supporting their candidate, Mikheil Saakashvili. "We are all with Misha," called out banners strung on overpasses crossing the Ayalon Freeway - and everyone knew who Misha was. It is hard to think of another country that never caused its Jewish population to be quite so certain of its identity the way Georgia has.

But the total identification with the former homeland has a practical component, too: fear. "We have real sympathy, but there is a certain amount of fear of criticism because of our relatives who have remained there. The Georgians in Israel have never really believed that Georgia is a real democracy," said Dr. Reuven Enoch, who is responsible for Israel Radio's Georgian-language broadcasts and a senior lecturer at the College of Judea and Samaria, in Ariel.

However, Enoch, who came to Israel in 1992, says that while the identification with Georgia has not changed, the support for former president Eduard Shevardnadze was greater than that for Saakashvili today. At the moment, though, it no longer matters: Broadcasts are now devoted to calming the families in Israel and locating relatives caught in areas where combat is taking place. One people, one nation together.

But Putin and Russia are something else. First, there is no overriding sense of identity among the Russians. Even those with the strongest sentiments and ties to Mother Russia - and there are many in Israel - can easily and quickly have reservations about Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his policies. "The attitude toward Putin is complex," said Dr. Roman Bronfman, a former MK and the chairman of the Israel-Georgia friendship organization. "The majority are disgusted by his imperialistic objectives, but appreciate what he has done for the economy and national pride of Russia. In the present war, anyone who identifies with Russian culture is torn between supporting Russia and their sympathy for the lack of proportionality between the Russian elephant and the Georgian fly," said Bronfman.

Yaakov Kedmi, the former head of the semi-covert Nativ agency, which dealt with Russian immigration to Israel, points to another element: power. "The Russian culture is one of power, and Putin is a man of power," explained Kedmi. "The Russians in Israel also have no respect for a weak government."

In response to the claim that Saakashvili also showed strength, even to the point of provoking the Russians, Kedmi said: "Only the winner is a man. The view is that whoever provokes, deserves what he gets. In any case, whoever loses, is not a man."

Even if today no one would open a bar named for Putin and paper it with dozens of pictures of him, like the one that opened in Jerusalem at the start of his presidential term, the Russian community in Israel still has a respect for Putin that it does not have for any Israeli leader.

"With Putin, there is no such thing as winning on points, as they tried to sell us the results of the Second Lebanon War," summed up a Russian-speaking commentator.