Johnny and his fiddle ain't gonna win this one, though, I'm afraid.
Israel May Suspend Arms Sales to Georgia
Israel's Foreign Ministry has issued a recommendation to freeze the sale of Israeli security equipment to Georgia, fearing complications with Russia.
Israeli officials believe Russia may interpret the sale of Israeli weapons to Georgia as a move that jeopardizes Russia's security, the Israeli Daily Haaretz reported.
"Weapons deals in the Caucasus can reflect on weapons deals in the Middle East," Dr. Avinoam Idan, an expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Haifa University told The Media Line.
According to Idan, Israel found itself in a difficult dilemma following the eruption of violence in Southern Ossetia. Russia plays a significant role in security issues in the Middle East, which have a direct effect on Israel. Among them is Russia's supply of weapons to Syria and Iran.
Israel has long been trying to stop Russia from arming its enemies to the north, knowing that another beneficiary of these deals is Lebanon's Hizbullah, which enjoys the patronage of Iran and Syria.
Analysis: Israel tiptoes around conflict
When looking at the Georgian-Russian flare-up from an Israeli perspective, there are a couple of key things to keep in mind.
The first is that this is not about us, and although there is an Israeli angle in that local companies have sold arms to Tbilisi and trained units of the Georgian army, there is not a significant Israeli component to this story.
Sorry, man, I hate to break it to you, but it IS. Maybe not consciously, on the secular plane, but in the end, on the spiritual level, it always comes back to God Almighty, and His people.
And not just Israel...
The Pipeline War: Russian bear goes for West's jugular
The war in Georgia escalated dangerously last night after Russian jets reportedly bombed a vital pipeline that supplies oil to the West.
After a day of heightening international tensions, Georgian leaders claimed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, had been attacked. But it is thought the bombs missed their target.
Their claims came after Russian jets struck deep into the territory of its tiny neighbour, killing civilians and ‘completely devastating’ the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, a staging post for oil and other energy supplies.
The War in Georgia Is a War for the West
By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI
Ostensibly, this war is about an unresolved separatist conflict. Yet in reality, it is a war about the independence and the future of Georgia. And above all, it is a war over the kind of Europe our children will live in. Let us be frank: This conflict is about the future of freedom in Europe.
No country of the former Soviet Union has made more progress toward consolidating democracy, eradicating corruption and building an independent foreign policy than Georgia. This is precisely what Russia seeks to crush.
This conflict is therefore about our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy. It is about the right of small nations to live freely and determine their own future. It is about the great power struggles for influence of the 20th century, versus the path of integration and unity defined by the European Union of the 21st. Georgia has made its choice.
Georgia: Vladimir Putin sends emphatic message of global importance
By seizing the opportunity to pound Georgia with air strikes and military incursions, Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, is sending an emphatic message with global consequences.
The curtain has fallen on the era when Nato steadily expanded into Eastern Europe and onwards to embrace former republics of the Soviet Union - and Russia was able to respond with nothing more than bluster.
Moreover, Mr Putin has demonstrated that the Kremlin will use force to protect the 25 million Russians who inhabit the Soviet Union's successor states, well beyond the mother country's borders.
The importance of this message cannot be exaggerated. Whether the populations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgia's two breakaway regions, are genuinely Russian or merely the recipients of passports recently issued from Moscow matters little. Dmitry Medvedev made the crucial point last week when he stated that as Russia's president, he was obliged to protect the "security and dignity" of all Russian citizens, wherever they may live.
Countries ranging from Latvia to Moldova to Ukraine have large Russian minorities. If their presence justified Russian intervention in Georgia, might the same happen in these countries? Is the fighting in Georgia merely a prelude to what lies ahead in nations close to the heart of Europe?
Aid Groups Begin Relief Efforts in Conflict-Ridden Georgia
World Vision has begun providing emergency assistance to civilians displaced by the conflict in Georgia.
The Christian humanitarian agency started distributing food, soap, blankets and other essentials to those, mainly women and children, who managed to flee to Georgia's capital, Tblisi. Meanwhile, the United Nations' World Food Program has also started providing food rations to some 2,000 people, with the number of needy people rising by the hour.
Russian troops in Georgia advance
Russian troops have entered Georgia from the breakaway region of Abkhazia, as the conflict between the two neighbours appears to be broadening.
Moscow said it had raided the town of Senaki to stop Georgia attacking South Ossetia, another breakaway region. They later said they had left the town.
Georgia said Russian troops had seized the Georgian town of Gori - a claim Moscow and diplomatic sources denied.
Georgia: Russia fighting on several fronts as Georgian troops withdraw to defend Tbilisi
A Georgian official has said it is transferring "all its troops" from South Ossetia towards Tbilisi amid fighting in the city of Gori, about 35 miles to the south-east of the capital.
Georgians were witnessed by the Telegraph in a full scale disorganised and panicked retreat from Gori. They were crammed into vehicles heading down road from Gori to Tbilisi, the capital. They say 6,000-7,000 Russian troops are heading their way and the Georgians are abandoning their positions.
Kakha Lomaia, a senior Georgian security official, said: "We received very reliable information that the Russians decided to move towards Gori. That's why we decided to pull out all our troops and to relocate them - to defend Tbilisi."
Lomaia has since claimed that Russian forces have "captured" the city. However a Reuters reporter in Gori said: "We are right now driving through the town and I see no trace of troops or military vehicles. It is absolutely deserted."
A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said that Russian forces had also moved into the town of Zugdidi in the west and seized police stations, and had made bombing raids against communications facility in Tblisi, the Georgian capital.
Georgian president: Russians have cut country in half
Georgia's president on Monday said that Russia's troops have effectively cut the country in half by seizing a strategic city that straddles the country's only significant east-west highway.
President Mikhail Saakashvili made the statement in a national security council meeting on Monday, about an hour after officials claimed Russian troops had captured Gori, about 100 kilometers west of the capital Tbilisi.
The news agency Interfax cited a Russian Defense Ministry official as denying the reports of the seizure.
But a top official at the Georgian embassy in Moscow, Givi Shugarov, said Russian troops appeared to be moving toward Tbilisi and he alleged Russia's goal was "complete liquidation" of the Georgian government.
Israelis stranded in Georgia
An Israeli airline said radar failure at the Tbilisi airport would prevent it from evacuating Israelis from Georgia.Arkia Israel Airlines said Monday it could not fly out 100 Israeli nationals waiting to leave Georgia because the airport radar had been bombed beyond function, Ha'aretz reported.
The airline is working to reroute passengers through Azerbaijan.
European carriers reportedly have suspended all flights from their home countries to the Georgian capital because of the fighting that has broken out in the past several days between Russian and Georgian forces in the breakaway South Ossettia region and beyond.
The US state department today evacuated more than 170 Americans from Georgia as the Caucasus country sinks deeper into war with Russia.
Two convoys bound for neighbouring Armenia today carried 170 private US citizens and family members of American diplomats away from the escalating violence in Georgia, the state department said.
More convoys may leave in the coming days if other Americans seek to escape the conflict over Russia's claim to defence of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
Oil rises on Russia-Georgia conflict
VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Oil prices rebounded Monday on concerns a widening conflict between Russia and Georgia over a the breakaway province of South Ossetia could disrupt supplies in the region.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose $1.16 cents to $116.36 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by noon in Europe. The contract fell $4.82 on Friday to settle at $115.20 a barrel.
"The market is watching what happens there closely," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne. "It's not a major oil producer, but there are major transport links to Europe through that region."
*sigh* Figured as much. So far, the rise is moderate, not skyrocketing.
OTOTH, there's this:
Oil falls to three month low
Crude prices sink after a call for renewed talks about Tehran's nuclear program overshadows conflict between Russia and Georgia that could threaten a critical oil pipeline.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices fell Monday after Iran called for renewed nuclear talks and China reported a decline in crude imports, countering threats to supplies in Eastern Europe from the Georgia-Russia conflict.
U.S. crude for September delivery fell 75 cents to settle at $114.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, extending a multi-week slide that has knocked oil 22%, or about $34, from its peak.
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