Russia apparently has gone well beyond a “fraternal” invasion of South Ossetia to “protect” its newly granted Russian citizens and has moved on into Georgia itself, which didn’t do the math when it began beefing up its own armed forces and threatening to drag breakway Ossetia and Abkhazia back into its own (unwanted) embrace. The Russian armed forces are many many times larger than those of Georgia’s and Russia has been spoiling for a fight for quite a while. So there are, as usual, well armed idiots on both sides of the conflicts, while those too slow, too asleep, or too unbelieving, are getting blown to smithereens. But here’s a piece that might not have occurred without proper digging.

DEBKAfile discloses Israel’s interest in the conflict from its exclusive military sources:

Jerusalem owns a strong interest in Caspian oil and gas pipelines reach the Turkish terminal port of Ceyhan, rather than the Russian network. Intense negotiations are afoot between Israel Turkey, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Azarbaijan for pipelines to reach Turkey and thence to Israel’s oil terminal at Ashkelon and on to its Red Sea port of Eilat. From there, supertankers can carry the gas and oil to the Far East through the Indian Ocean.

Aware of Moscow’s sensitivity on the oil question, Israel offered Russia a stake in the project but was rejected.

Last year, the Georgian president commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, estimated at up to 1,000, to train the Georgian armed forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery combat tactics. They also offer instruction on military intelligence and security for the central regime. Tbilisi also purchased weapons, intelligence and electronic warfare systems from Israel.

These advisers were undoubtedly deeply involved in the Georgian army’s preparations to conquer the South Ossetian capital Friday.

In recent weeks, Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Jerusalem halt its military assistance to Georgia, finally threatening a crisis in bilateral relations. Israel responded by saying that the only assistance rendered Tbilisi was “defensive.”

Debka File

Meanwhile, Brzezinski, who is one of Obama’s chief foreign policy advisors, is saying this is like Stalin’s attack on Finland. Thanks for the helpful clarification, Leonid!