Bill on Support to South Caucasus States Introduced before US Senate

[Gavur]

15.05.2006 14:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A bill on support to states of the South Caucasus and Central Asia for ensuring US national security interests, containing Russia's geopolitical ambition, as well as creation and support to a network of US military bases is introduced before the US Senate. Bill co-sponsor, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) stated that US vital interests in the Caspian region include ensuring independence and security of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Extremely important pipelines of oil and gas transit pass through those countries. US also has to restrain Iran, provide access to oil and gas reserves, secure good relations with Kazakhstan, promote peaceful settlement of conflict and contain Russia's geopolitical ambition,» Brownback believes. The bill concerns Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan.

[Gavur]

Jewish Lobby to Assist Azerbaijan to Liquidate Section 907

15.05.2006 16:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) intends to promote liquidation of Section 907, as well as Jackson-Venick Amendment, adopted by the US Congress regarding Azerbaijan, EAJC Head Joseph Zisels stated in Baku. «We want to engage Israel and Jewish lobby to held Azerbaijan eliminate those amendments,» he emphasized.

In his words, sponsored by the EAJC, during their May summit GUAM member states will adopt a statement addressed to the US Congress, urging to repeal all discriminating amendments regarding Azerbaijan and Moldova, which are GUAM members. Zisels also emphasized that the Jewish lobby understands the idea of unification of Azerbaijan with South Azerbaijan province in Iran and the EAJC is ready to support those tendencies, reports Day.az.

[Gavur]

Lobby groups have taken over the world!

[Gavur]

15.05.2006 16:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) intends to promote liquidation of Section 907, as well as Jackson-Venick Amendment, adopted by the US Congress regarding Azerbaijan, EAJC Head Joseph Zisels stated in Baku. «We want to engage Israel and Jewish lobby to held Azerbaijan eliminate those amendments,» he emphasized.

In his words, sponsored by the EAJC, during their May summit GUAM member states will adopt a statement addressed to the US Congress, urging to repeal all discriminating amendments regarding Azerbaijan and Moldova, which are GUAM members. Zisels also emphasized that the Jewish lobby understands the idea of unification of Azerbaijan with South Azerbaijan province in Iran and the EAJC is ready to support those tendencies, reports Day.az.

Thats verry strange because the article below tells me The man who created these xxxxamanie Kopykat NGO with an air of legitimacy had quiet a close relations with Tehran huh go figure!

[Gavur]

Kazakh Jewish Leader Making Mark

Lev Krichevsky Special to the Jewish Times
OCTOBER 31, 2004 Astana, Kazakhstan
It took Alexander Mashkevich, a Jewish university lecturer in philology from the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, about a decade to become a billionaire.

Now, Mashkevich — a leading industrialist and financier in neighboring Kazakhstan — has emerged as one of the most prominent and promising Jewish leaders in all of the former Soviet Union, and as someone with clear ambitions to play a leadership role in international Jewry.

Mashkevich, whose personal wealth is believed to top $1 billion, is the head of the Eurasian Group, one of the largest financial and industrial groups in Kazakhstan, with interests in metallurgy, coal, mining and banking.

Through his business holdings, he is believed to control as much as one-fourth of Kazakhstan's economy.

Although he calls Kazakhstan, a predominantly Muslim Central Asian state rich with oil and other natural resources, his home, he usually travels the world with an Israeli passport in his pocket and rarely spends more than a week each month in Kazakhstan.

Mashkevich, 50, now spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year mainly to support Jewish religious life in Kazakhstan and to fund the activities of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, which he helped establish.

The group unites Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union, Asia and the Pacific.

Although this figure is dwarfed by Lev Levayev, another Jewish businessman from Central Asia, it is enough to make Mashkevich a major player in Central Asian Jewish life.

"My interest in Jewish life is relatively new," Mashkevich admitted recently in a rare interview in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

Born into a Soviet Jewish family at a time when to live a Jewish life meant that one was courting danger, he said he developed his attachment to Judaism only recently.

"This comes from the inside, I cannot explain it," he said with a disarming smile.

That disarming smile is just part of his appealing personality.

Mashkevich is fit and tanned, and is very accessible at Jewish gatherings. He's got a decent command of English, a soft spot for blue suits, and likes horseback riding, skiing and playing tennis.

Although he's certainly not living a typical life for a Jew in Central Asia, his own family story is typical of many Jews in Central Asia.

Both of his parents moved East as refugees when the Nazis invaded the USSR in 1941. His father came from Lithuania, and his mother from Belarus.

Like many educated Jews on the outskirts of the Soviet empire, his parents rose to some prominence in their professions: His father was once the chief public-health doctor in Kyrgyzstan and his mother was a well-known lawyer.

Mashkevich said he has few Jewish memories from his childhood, but he remembers occasional visits as a child with his grandfather to a synagogue in the Kyrgyz capital of Frunze.

But it wasn't until he attained success in the business world that he paid attention to his Jewish roots.

Some seven years ago he met a rabbi in Kazakhstan and began to pray regularly.

His spiritual quest came hand in hand with his interest in philanthropy.

"Once I realized that I could help the Jews I began to provide support to the synagogue, at first anonymously," he said.

He said a local Chabad rabbi once came to him with an idea to create and head up a brand-new Jewish group, the Jewish Congress of Kazakhstan. "I rejected the idea, and it took quite a long time before I agreed."

Mashkevich says that despite his busy schedule and constant travels — he has homes in several places outside of Kazakhstan, including a manor outside of Brussels — he is now dealing with Jewish issues on a daily basis.

Mashkevich is widely known in Kazakhstan as a close ally of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's leader since it gained its independence in 1991.

Nazarbayev who has been criticized in the West for his authoritarian style and his tough handling of the opposition and the media, is nonetheless widely credited for his pro-free market stand and for his support of U.S.-led efforts against terrorism in a region plagued with Muslim extremism and separatism.

But some critics say Mashkevich needed his Jewish leadership role as a security policy that — due to his new stature as a Jewish leader with ties to world Jewry — would prevent him from being prosecuted should political climate in Kazakhstan change.

"Some buy themselves a security firm for $3 million; he bought himself the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress," said a prominent foreign Jewish leader on condition of anonymity, quoting the figure which Mashkevich is believed to have spent on the congress so far.

Mashkevich argues that the benefits of his role as a Jewish leader are doubtful given the possible anti-Semitic backlash.

"I do think I'm putting myself at risk by being engaged in Jewish philanthropy," he said.

Regardless of Mashkevich's reasons for activity in the Jewish community, even his critics agree that he gave the Jews of Kazakhstan something they did not have before.

"Whatever his interest is, he definitely gave the Jewish community the weight and prestige it never had before," said a foreign Jewish leader who asked not to be identified.

Local Jews say they are grateful to Mashkevich for what he has given their community: prestige and wide acceptance that they have rarely enjoyed throughout Kazakh history.

"I admire everything he is doing for us," said Efraim Bron, a 68-year-old Jew from a village in southern Kazakhstan who was invited to take part in a recent synagogue dedication in Astana, the new Kazakh capital city, along with a couple of hundred of Jews from the provinces.

The shul, funded by Mashkevich, is called Beit Rachel, in honor of his late mother. Opened last month, it is believed to be the largest synagogue in Central Asia: it can probably accommodate the entire Jewish population of Astana, which is estimated at between 300 and 500 people.

The country's Jewish community numbers anywhere between 7,000 and 20,000 people, with the majority living in Almaty, the country's largest city and the capital until 1997.

In 1999, Mashkevich's name appeared in media reports in the West in connection with an international money-laundering scandal when authorities in Belgium pressed charges against him and some of his business partners.

Mashkevich has denied the allegations as baseless, saying the scandal was created by some top Kazakh officials irritated by his growing influence in order to force Mashkevich leave the country.

Mashkevich said only Belgian judicial formalities have prevented it from being closed.

Some observers believe he is apparently trying to overcome this somewhat controversial international image by playing an increasingly active role as a Jewish leader.

Last year, he co-organized two major interfaith meetings in Almaty in which Nazarbayev emerged as a proponent of an international dialogue between Islam and Judaism.

More recently, Mashkevich visited Morocco when a group of U.S. Jewish leaders paid a historic visit to the Muslim country. Earlier this month, he was in Istanbul taking part in the dedication of a synagogue reopened after a terrorist attack last year.

In his own country, Mashkevich has been doing more than funding the construction of a large synagogue.

He has also been laying the groundwork for a visit to Tehran. The visit would represent a rare trip by a Jewish leader to the Islamic Republic.

Mashkevich told a recent meeting of the Eurasian Jewish Congress in Astana that the Iranian ambassador to Kazakhstan "is constantly updating me" on how the preparations for this visit are coming along.

Indeed, most believe Mashkevich has access to Tehran to discuss issues of Jewish concern because of the good relations Nazarbayev enjoys with top Iranian officials.

Mashkevich said he hoped that given the positive dynamics of Jewish life in the region, the quality and diversity of Jewish life in Kazakhstan should improve with time.

"This dynamic gives me hope that in 10 years it will be better than it is now. I see a future in this country," he said.

But like many wealthy people in the former Soviet Union, he prefers his own family to live abroad: His daughters, Anna, a 22-year-old graphic designer, and the 27-year-old Alla, an economist, both graduated from college in Great Britain and are now living in London.

Local Jewish leaders agree that the emergence of Mashkevich has radically changed the situation for the community in Kazakhstan.

"One day, a charismatic leader, someone who has money, appears," said Alexander Baron, president of the Mitsva association, an umbrella group for Jewish cultural and welfare centers in Kazakhstan. "We have instantly reached a higher level in everything we do."

FORUM (GENRIC) AND JTA
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

[Gavur]

"Israeli MP assisted Iran on the Caucasus"


31 May 2006 [23:13] - Today.Az

Deputy Head of the Israeli Government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tsipi Livni was going to visit Azerbaijan in the near future, but all of a sudden this week the preparations for her visit were terminated. This was announced by a well-informed diplomatic sources in Tel Aviv.


Same sources said that a few weeks earlier Mark Sofer, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at first orally, and then in a written form, charged the Israeli ambassador to Baku Arthur Lenk with the preparation of Livni’s visit. Lenk heads the embassy in Azerbaijan for less than a year, and a successful putting into effect of such an important event could noticeably raise his authority in the opinion of local officials and his Israeli colleagues. Especially with regard of the fact that since 1998, when the head of the government of that time, Benjamin Netanyahu, paid a visit to Baku, none of the Israeli prime-ministers or ministers did come any more to the capital of Azerbaijan. However, by the end of the month an instruction to stop preparations for Livni's arrival unexpectedly came to the embassy from the central apparatus of the foreign policy department. It was marked in the received notice that the visit is put off indefinitely, not specifying the reasons for such decision. Same diplomatic sources claim that the change of plans of the Foreign Ministry Head was dictated by ballyhoo caused by the trip to Azerbaijan of the member of the Israeli Knesset, Yosef Shagal, representing the Yisrael Beytenu (Israel Our Home) political party. Before his repatriation to Israel in 1990, Shagal (Shchegolev by his real name), lived in Azerbaijan, and that's why, following his election this March as a member of the Knesset he made his first visit abroad to this very country. He paid a visit to Baku on May 15-16, together with another Israeli member of parliament, and the representatives of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Statements made by Shagal at his meetings with journalists, have echoed not only in Azerbaijan, but have also drawn the attention of Armenian and Iranian establishment. According to some Israeli diplomats, this visit caused damage to the development of normal relationship of the Jewish state with all countries of the South Caucasus. Moreover, Shagal’s public statements are being used now by the Iranian officials to strengthen the regional positions of Tehran that contradict to the American interests.

At a press conference on May 15, the representative of the Israel Our Home party declared: "Israel supports a fair position of Azerbaijan in the Upper Karabakh conflict". Next day, in the interview to the online Day.Az edition he promised support of the Israeli parliament to achieve cancellation of the 907-th amendment of the US Congress, forbidding the American government to render aid to Azerbaijan, adopted in 1992 in connection with the conflict in Karabakh.

Shagal spoke as though on behalf of all Israel and the Knesset in particular, and his words were interpreted by many Azerbaijan and Armenian journalists as the official position of the Jewish state. It was promoted by the circumstance that the majority of the South-Caucasian journalists do not particularly understand the twists and turns of the Israeli domestic policy. They did not go deep in such nuances as Shagal's absence of any political experience (that he himself recognizes) or his party's opposition status. For them it was only the essence of his statements that mattered. Actually, official Israel traditionally takes an emphatically neutral position in the issue of the Karabakh conflict. In parallel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country pays a great value to the development of normal relationships both with Azerbaijan, and with Armenia. Therefore, according to the above mentioned sources, Shagal's statements have caused a perceptible damage to the development of dialogue between Tel Aviv and Yerevan.

Moreover, their wide publicity promoted strengthening of the pro-Iranian attitudes in Armenia, the growth of which has been recently marked on the background of a price increase for the Russian gas (April 2006) and the rapproachement between Moscow and Ankara (2004-2005). Now the Iranian officials got an opportunity to claim at meetings with the Armenian representatives that the recent visits of the President of Azerbaijan to the United States and of the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to Turkey, as well as the performances of the Israeli member of parliament in Baku and disturbances in Southern Azerbaijan are all links of the same chain. According to Teheran's allegation, all these events have been testifying Washington's attempts to realize its old plans regarding the creation of a strategic alliance including the United States, Israel, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and directed against Iran and Armenia. Last months the leadership of the Islamic Republic has been aiming at strengthening its relations with Armenia to exclude the possibility of its cooperation with the United States in case of an American-Iranian military conflict.

Not incidentally, the first foreign trip of the new Foreign Minister of Iran Manucher Mottaki was to Yerevan (February 2006). And it was there, when he had declared a real opportunity of participation of Armenia in the project of transportation of the Iranian gas to Europe. In turn, Washington has been making efforts to neutralize Tehran's activity on the Armenian direction. Against this background it becomes obvious, that the declarations of the Israeli member of parliament in Baku have served just to the interests of Iran.

While in Baku, in dialogue with the journalists Yosef Shagal repeatedly raised a question of opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv. Israeli diplomats are engaged in the solution of this problem from the very moment of establishment of mutual relations in 1992. Till now their efforts have brought no result because of Baku's fears to aggravate its complicated relations with Tehran, and also to lose political and economic support of the Arab countries, in particular, of the Persian Gulf monarchies.

At last, during the April visit of the president Ilham Aliev to Washington, with active assistance of the American administration, it was possible to achieve progress in the given issue. The president of Azerbaijan gave his basic consent to opening of the diplomatic mission already in the near future. Now the Israeli diplomats are afraid that Shagal’s attempt to show his own role in the solution of this issue has drawn an excessive attention to this theme not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the Muslim world as a whole.

In fact, it is one thing when those are the representatives of the local Jewish community who express their opinion on the matter (that was noted recently), and absolutely different thing when similar statements are made by a member if the Israeli parliament, especially, speaking on the behalf of the official leadership of the country. In consequence, the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv might be now postponed indefinitely. Moreover, at the meetings with the officials in Baku Yosef Shagal put forward various offers concerning bilateral cooperation in the oil business.
According to the diplomatic sources, the statements of the member of parliament on the issue have been based mostly on publications in the Internet. He, naturally, had no authority to discuss such matters with the officials of Azerbaijan. Particularly because the party represented by Shagal, is in opposition and has no relation to formation of the country's official policy, energy policy included. Diplomats say that Shagal has simply mislead his interlocutors, and this could only harm the further development of mutual cooperation...

Our sources mark that, at the best, Yosef Shagal actually represents his own party. Though its leader Avigdor Liberman, the former head of the prime minister's office and former Minister of Infrastructures and Transports, has been known as a person tempted in the big politics. He played one of the key roles in development of relations of Israel practically with all the CIS countries, and never allowed himself to make such unequivocal statements in favor of one of the concflicting sides in the post-Soviet space. In this connection the representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry believe that Liberman had only general information on Shagal's trip. The same sources consider that in a much greater extent, declarations of the Israeli MP in Baku were coordinated with the leadership of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, rather than with Israel Our Home party. The mentioned organization pursues its own interests, quite often depending on realtionships of its leaders-sponsors with the regional political elites, in Central Asia and the South Caucasus in particular. And those interests not always coincide with the interests of Israel. That fact eloquently testifies to it, that for all years of rule of Ariel Sharon (2001-2005), Alexander Mashkevich, the head of the Congress, with great efforts managed to meet him only a few times, and that, as a rule, for a few minutes, just for a joint photo session. Wherewith he had to achieve in every possible way the favor of the nominal chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, to demonstrante at least somehow his "close relationship" with the Israeli establishment. Against this background, it is not surprising that after the trip of Yosef Shagal, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs had to cancel her visit to Baku. Arrival of Tsipi Livni to Azerbaijan would have legitimized the MP's declarations. In this case Yerevan would have received weighty acknowledgement of the fears concerning the Israeli support of Baku in the Karabakh conflict. And it would become even more complex for Americans to keep Armenians from further rapproachement with Iran.

President of Azerbajan Ilham Aliev himself is hardly interested to advertise so obviously the activization of contacts with the Israelis, which would inevitably be reflected in the relations with the largest Muslim states. In such simple a way the "Russian" member of the parliament managed to sensibly affect the course of the big-time politics. The only thing is that his "success" has hardly gone on advantage both of Israel and of the countries of the South Caucasus.

By Sami Rozen

/www.axisglobe.com/


URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/26759.html

[Alexandros]

31 May 2006 [23:13] - Today.Az

Deputy Head of the Israeli Government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tsipi Livni was going to visit Azerbaijan in the near future, but all of a sudden this week the preparations for her visit were terminated. This was announced by a well-informed diplomatic sources in Tel Aviv.


Same sources said that a few weeks earlier Mark Sofer, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at first orally, and then in a written form, charged the Israeli ambassador to Baku Arthur Lenk with the preparation of Livni’s visit. Lenk heads the embassy in Azerbaijan for less than a year, and a successful putting into effect of such an important event could noticeably raise his authority in the opinion of local officials and his Israeli colleagues. Especially with regard of the fact that since 1998, when the head of the government of that time, Benjamin Netanyahu, paid a visit to Baku, none of the Israeli prime-ministers or ministers did come any more to the capital of Azerbaijan. However, by the end of the month an instruction to stop preparations for Livni's arrival unexpectedly came to the embassy from the central apparatus of the foreign policy department. It was marked in the received notice that the visit is put off indefinitely, not specifying the reasons for such decision. Same diplomatic sources claim that the change of plans of the Foreign Ministry Head was dictated by ballyhoo caused by the trip to Azerbaijan of the member of the Israeli Knesset, Yosef Shagal, representing the Yisrael Beytenu (Israel Our Home) political party. Before his repatriation to Israel in 1990, Shagal (Shchegolev by his real name), lived in Azerbaijan, and that's why, following his election this March as a member of the Knesset he made his first visit abroad to this very country. He paid a visit to Baku on May 15-16, together with another Israeli member of parliament, and the representatives of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Statements made by Shagal at his meetings with journalists, have echoed not only in Azerbaijan, but have also drawn the attention of Armenian and Iranian establishment. According to some Israeli diplomats, this visit caused damage to the development of normal relationship of the Jewish state with all countries of the South Caucasus. Moreover, Shagal’s public statements are being used now by the Iranian officials to strengthen the regional positions of Tehran that contradict to the American interests.

At a press conference on May 15, the representative of the Israel Our Home party declared: "Israel supports a fair position of Azerbaijan in the Upper Karabakh conflict". Next day, in the interview to the online Day.Az edition he promised support of the Israeli parliament to achieve cancellation of the 907-th amendment of the US Congress, forbidding the American government to render aid to Azerbaijan, adopted in 1992 in connection with the conflict in Karabakh.

Shagal spoke as though on behalf of all Israel and the Knesset in particular, and his words were interpreted by many Azerbaijan and Armenian journalists as the official position of the Jewish state. It was promoted by the circumstance that the majority of the South-Caucasian journalists do not particularly understand the twists and turns of the Israeli domestic policy. They did not go deep in such nuances as Shagal's absence of any political experience (that he himself recognizes) or his party's opposition status. For them it was only the essence of his statements that mattered. Actually, official Israel traditionally takes an emphatically neutral position in the issue of the Karabakh conflict. In parallel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country pays a great value to the development of normal relationships both with Azerbaijan, and with Armenia. Therefore, according to the above mentioned sources, Shagal's statements have caused a perceptible damage to the development of dialogue between Tel Aviv and Yerevan.

Moreover, their wide publicity promoted strengthening of the pro-Iranian attitudes in Armenia, the growth of which has been recently marked on the background of a price increase for the Russian gas (April 2006) and the rapproachement between Moscow and Ankara (2004-2005). Now the Iranian officials got an opportunity to claim at meetings with the Armenian representatives that the recent visits of the President of Azerbaijan to the United States and of the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry to Turkey, as well as the performances of the Israeli member of parliament in Baku and disturbances in Southern Azerbaijan are all links of the same chain. According to Teheran's allegation, all these events have been testifying Washington's attempts to realize its old plans regarding the creation of a strategic alliance including the United States, Israel, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and directed against Iran and Armenia. Last months the leadership of the Islamic Republic has been aiming at strengthening its relations with Armenia to exclude the possibility of its cooperation with the United States in case of an American-Iranian military conflict.

Not incidentally, the first foreign trip of the new Foreign Minister of Iran Manucher Mottaki was to Yerevan (February 2006). And it was there, when he had declared a real opportunity of participation of Armenia in the project of transportation of the Iranian gas to Europe. In turn, Washington has been making efforts to neutralize Tehran's activity on the Armenian direction. Against this background it becomes obvious, that the declarations of the Israeli member of parliament in Baku have served just to the interests of Iran.

While in Baku, in dialogue with the journalists Yosef Shagal repeatedly raised a question of opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv. Israeli diplomats are engaged in the solution of this problem from the very moment of establishment of mutual relations in 1992. Till now their efforts have brought no result because of Baku's fears to aggravate its complicated relations with Tehran, and also to lose political and economic support of the Arab countries, in particular, of the Persian Gulf monarchies.

At last, during the April visit of the president Ilham Aliev to Washington, with active assistance of the American administration, it was possible to achieve progress in the given issue. The president of Azerbaijan gave his basic consent to opening of the diplomatic mission already in the near future. Now the Israeli diplomats are afraid that Shagal’s attempt to show his own role in the solution of this issue has drawn an excessive attention to this theme not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the Muslim world as a whole.

In fact, it is one thing when those are the representatives of the local Jewish community who express their opinion on the matter (that was noted recently), and absolutely different thing when similar statements are made by a member if the Israeli parliament, especially, speaking on the behalf of the official leadership of the country. In consequence, the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv might be now postponed indefinitely. Moreover, at the meetings with the officials in Baku Yosef Shagal put forward various offers concerning bilateral cooperation in the oil business.
According to the diplomatic sources, the statements of the member of parliament on the issue have been based mostly on publications in the Internet. He, naturally, had no authority to discuss such matters with the officials of Azerbaijan. Particularly because the party represented by Shagal, is in opposition and has no relation to formation of the country's official policy, energy policy included. Diplomats say that Shagal has simply mislead his interlocutors, and this could only harm the further development of mutual cooperation...

Our sources mark that, at the best, Yosef Shagal actually represents his own party. Though its leader Avigdor Liberman, the former head of the prime minister's office and former Minister of Infrastructures and Transports, has been known as a person tempted in the big politics. He played one of the key roles in development of relations of Israel practically with all the CIS countries, and never allowed himself to make such unequivocal statements in favor of one of the concflicting sides in the post-Soviet space. In this connection the representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry believe that Liberman had only general information on Shagal's trip. The same sources consider that in a much greater extent, declarations of the Israeli MP in Baku were coordinated with the leadership of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, rather than with Israel Our Home party. The mentioned organization pursues its own interests, quite often depending on realtionships of its leaders-sponsors with the regional political elites, in Central Asia and the South Caucasus in particular. And those interests not always coincide with the interests of Israel. That fact eloquently testifies to it, that for all years of rule of Ariel Sharon (2001-2005), Alexander Mashkevich, the head of the Congress, with great efforts managed to meet him only a few times, and that, as a rule, for a few minutes, just for a joint photo session. Wherewith he had to achieve in every possible way the favor of the nominal chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, to demonstrante at least somehow his "close relationship" with the Israeli establishment. Against this background, it is not surprising that after the trip of Yosef Shagal, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs had to cancel her visit to Baku. Arrival of Tsipi Livni to Azerbaijan would have legitimized the MP's declarations. In this case Yerevan would have received weighty acknowledgement of the fears concerning the Israeli support of Baku in the Karabakh conflict. And it would become even more complex for Americans to keep Armenians from further rapproachement with Iran.

President of Azerbajan Ilham Aliev himself is hardly interested to advertise so obviously the activization of contacts with the Israelis, which would inevitably be reflected in the relations with the largest Muslim states. In such simple a way the "Russian" member of the parliament managed to sensibly affect the course of the big-time politics. The only thing is that his "success" has hardly gone on advantage both of Israel and of the countries of the South Caucasus.

By Sami Rozen

/www.axisglobe.com/


URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/26759.html

Azerbaijan’s lobbyist leaving Knesset


23.12.2008 14:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yosef Shagal, Russian-speaking lobbyist of the Israeli-Turkic strategic alliance announced that he gives up politics and returns to journalism.

A Baku native, Shagal became leader of the Azerbaijan-Israel International Association in April 2007 to “cement ties between the two states.”

In spring 2008, Yosef Shagal opposed discussion of the Armenian Genocide in Knesset, describing it as a threat to relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Shagal will not enter the history of Israeli parliamentarianism but his activities were significant for Israeli presence in the post-soviet area and for the development of the South Caucasus vector to neutralize the Iranian threat, Turtsia.ru reports.

Link