C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 001826 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 
08/18/2018 TAGS: PREL, MOPS, RS, GG, AJ, IS SUBJECT: ISRAEL: MFA 
DISCUSSES RESPONSE TO CRISIS IN GEORGIA REF: TEL AVIV 1762 Classified 
By: Ambassador James B. Cunningham for reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d). 

1. (C) 
SUMMARY: On August 14, PolOff and Pol-MilOff met with several MFA 
officials to discuss the crisis in Georgia and Israel's response. In 
separate meetings, EmbOffs met Hillel Newman, FM Livni's chief policy 
advisor on Europe and Eurasia; Gary Koren, Director of the Eurasia 
Department; and Roey Gilad, Director of the Export Controls Department. 
All three officials said the GOI was seriously considering the request 
received in Washington to reverse the decision to reduce Israeli 
military assistance to Georgia, but added that they are now proceeding 
carefully with Georgia within the context of their relationship with 
Russia. They said that the MFA and MOD plan to hold a joint meeting 
during the week of August 18 to discuss the way forward. END SUMMARY. 

2. (C) Newman told EmbOffs that Livni had recently spoken to Russian FM 
Lavrov, as well as the Georgian FM, while arranging the evacuation of 
several hundred Israelis from Georgia. He said that during the 
conversation, Lavrov thanked Livni for the decision to restrict military
support to Georgia, an indication that Russia is watching Israel's 
actions closely. 

3. (C) In a separate conversation, Eurasia Director 
Koren emphasized that the GOI is taking the USG request to continue 
military support to Georgia very seriously and underlined that the 
Israeli goal is not Russian "satisfaction", but explained that it is 
important for Israel to prevent Russian "dissatisfaction" leading 
potentially to Russian transfers of increasingly sophisticated arms to 
Iran and Syria. (Note: Other GOI officials have told us the Russians 
have explicitly threatened to link sales of advanced weapon systems, 
especially air defense systems, to Iran and Syria with Israeli behavior 
on issues of key concern to Russia.) Koren also said that Israel had 
been worried for some time about providing offensive weapons to Georgia 
out of fear that the Georgians would over-reach, which it appears they 
did. He added that the GOI was not surprised by the war, given the 
recent rising tensions and Russian troop movements. 

4. (C) So far, Koren
said that Israel had been focusing on the immediate reaction to the 
crisis and was just starting its strategic thinking about the 
ramifications of reductions in military assistance in this new context. 
Israel had just evacuated approximately 600 citizens out of Georgia on 
four flights over the previous two days, and started providing medical 
humanitarian assistance - medicine, doctors, and potentially ambulances -
to the affected areas. Overall, Koren acknowledged that Israel "needs 
to mend its relationship" with Georgia, to a certain extent. However, he
noted that while the two countries traditionally have strong ties, 
non-security trade with Georgia is small, around USD50 million a year, 
and the regional focus of Israel's interest is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan 
(BTC) pipeline and Azerbaijan. 

5. (C) There are also 12,000 Jews living 
in Georgia, Koren said, and the GOI is concerned about incidents of 
anti-Semitism. While anti-Semitism is historically very low in Georgia, 
he explained, there seem to be attempts in the Russian media to blame 
the outbreak of the war on the Jews by pointing out that the Georgian 
Minister of Defense, the Georgian minister in charge of territorial 
negotiations and several other high-ranking Georgian officials directly 
involved in the issue are Jewish. 

6. (C) In a third conversation, Export
Controls Director Gilad acknowledged Washington-based conversations 
with the Israeli DCM on the matter, and confirmed the MFA-MOD meeting 
later this week to discuss a way forward. He pressed for details of any 
changes in U.S. military assistance to Georgia, and requested both sides
keep the other informed.

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CUNNINGHAM