World Affairs: Kazakh involvement in int'l groupings quietly satisfies J'lem; Kazakhstan is a moderate Muslim country with positive Jewish images.
By HERB KEINONIsrael smiles as Kazakhstan takes presidency 311 R (photo credit: RIA Novosti/Reuters)
ASTANA – Israel, it turns out, is not the only country in the world interested in rebranding. So is Kazakhstan. There has been intensive discussion in Israel’s Foreign Ministry for much of the last decade about the need to change the country’s brand – so that when the mechanic in Topeka, Kansas, thinks about Israel, he doesn’t think about bombs on buses, roadblocks on the way to Bethlehem, or wars. Rather, he thinks about sun and smiles and fun – the Coca Cola of countries.And we are not unique among the world’s nations keen on rebranding (though we are probably unique in how much we talk about it). Other countries do the same.RELATED:Kazakhstani Jew plans news channel to rival Al-JazeeraAhmadinejad launches tirade against United States, WestBut while Israel’s interest in rebranding is born of an over-exposure in the headlines over the years, mostly negative, Kazakhstan’s rebranding is the result of an under-exposure.Few people know about it, at least on the other side of the Volga. And if they do, it is likely because of Sacha Baron Cohen’s boorish and unsympathetic portrayal of a Kazakh national in Borat.While Israel tries to rebrand itself by trumpeting endlessly that it is rebranding itself, the Kazakhs have set out to become involved with, and eventually chair and host conferences for, every international organization they can get their hands on.Just last year, Kazakhstan took over, and held a high-profile conference for, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It just ended its tenure as chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – a central Asian security organization founded in 2001 that includes China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and presents itself in the region as an alternative to NATO – and hosted a summit of that group’s heads of state this week. Also this month, Kazakhstan took over the reins as president of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).And if that isn’t enough, it also initiated a conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions that meets about every three years in the country’s spanking-new capital, Astana. It even set up its own international organization with an alphabet soup name, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev is keen on promoting his country, and himself, as the bridge between East and West (a door that has opened wider over the last five years as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has steered his country – which used to relish that role – more east than west), and as a facilitator of harmony through dialogue.From Israel’s perspective, all of this is well and good. Israel wishes Kazakhstan success in its efforts to carve out a larger niche for itself on the world stage, especially the world Islamic stage, because Kazakhstan and Israel count each other as friends; and for Jerusalem, friends like Kazakhstan – a state with a very moderate brand of Sunni Islam – are both rare and a net positive.
“Relations with Kazakhstan are very important,” says Yisrael Mey Ami, Israel’s Kazakhborn envoy to Astana, sitting in the conference room in the embassy’s offices overlooking part of the city’s ultramodern skyline: bright orange, yellow and blue buildings in various geometric shapes.First of all, he points out, Kazakhstan is a natural resource superpower, sitting on a quarter of the earth’s uranium, possessing the third-largest copper, lead and zinc reserves in the world, ranking as the seventh- largest wheat producer and – especially important to Israel – the 18th-largest oil producer on the planet. Every fourth liter of gas in Israel originates deep beneath the Kazakh steppes.Second, the ambassador says, Kazakhstan is important to Israel for historic reasons. The Kazakhs took in tens of thousands of eastern European Jews – like his parents – who fled east during the Holocaust when the Nazis invaded the Ukraine and Poland. “We owe them a moral debt,” he says.Third, Mey Ami continues, is the politicaldiplomatic aspect of the relationship. “It is a friendly Muslim country that supports us, and wants to promote dialogue,” he says.“That is significant."And that is the component of the relationship likely to become more significant now that Kazakhstan has taken over as president of the OIC, a body not especially known for its moderate or tolerant views toward Israel. In perhaps an indication of where things might go under Kazakh leadership, Kazakhstan hosted an economic meeting of the OIC member states earlier this month and invited Israel’s representative in the country to attend as an observer – something that wouldn’t happen, for instance, were the OIC headed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia or Pakistan.Is this going to change the Islamic world’s perception of Israel? Obviously not. But it does put a more moderate Islamic voice (Nazarbayev has been characterized as a twice-a-year mosque-goer) at the center of Islamic dialogue. Also, in meetings with Arab leaders, Nazarbayev may well articulate a counterbalance to strident anti-Israel sentiments, as well as divert the conversation from Israel-bashing to more important issues for the Islamic world.Which leads to the next question: It is clear what Israel wants from Kazakhstan, but what does Kazakhstan want from Israel? Or, in blunter words reflecting traditional Jewish insecurity, why do they want to be friends with us? The question is even more interesting considering that while 20 years ago, when Kazakhstan first stepped out of the former Soviet Union and declared independence, it viewed ties with Israel as a gateway to the West, that is no longer a key consideration.The US has since become well aware of Kazakhstan’s military and economic importance, and Astana no longer needs Israel or American Jewish organizations to open doors and set appointments in Washington.The Kazakhs can get those meetings on their own.But over the past two decades, Kazakhstan has grown to appreciate what it gets from the bilateral relationship.First of all, according to diplomatic officials, there is an appreciation in Kazakhstan for Israel’s achievements and for Jewish intelligence.Remember, Kazakhstan is close to China, and in China – speaking of branding – when you say the word Jew, two things usually come to mind: “Albert Einstein” and “wealth” – and not generally in an ani-Semitic context.In Kazakhstan, both elements – Jewish ingenuity and money – are appreciated and sought after.Regarding the first, Kazakhstan is brimming with Israeli developments: from the stop lights controlling the traffic in Astana, to camel-milk ice cream in the former capital of Almaty, to a more productive strain of wheat in the rural areas.And of course, the ingenuity is evident in the security relationship – which is close, but which no one will speak about, other than admitting it exists – in both intelligence- sharing and arms sales. If Israel and Kazakhstan do $1.5 billion worth of business a year, which was the 2010 figure, it is widely assumed that the number balloons when the military aspect of the relationship is factored in.Kazakhstan is concerned about terrorism and the situation in nearby Afghanistan. Its leaders are worried about what will happen there when the US forces eventually leave, and it is planning for all contingencies.When engaged in that type of planning and thinking, it is beneficial to have a good relationship with Jerusalem.As for money, Nazarbayev has, as one source put it, an “appreciation” for Jewish investors, and is interested in attracting them to his country. A good relationship with Israel often helps. One of Nazarbayev’s friends – Alexander Mashkevitch – is an Israeli/Kazakh billionaire who has invested enormously in Astana, pretty much transforming it since 1997 from a minor remote town in the country’s hinterlands to a capital with eye-popping architecture ranging from classical monuments, to pyramids with pretentious names like the Palace of Peace and Accord, to yellow buildings with distinctly Ottoman vaults and lines.Walk through the futuristic-looking city, with its improbably wide avenues, overly grandiose monuments and huge plazas, and very little looks familiar. It’s so new that it doesn’t feel like anywhere else.Except for the street markings. Those broken white lines dividing the avenue into lanes, the spacing between the lines, the width of the lines, the arrows painted in the turn lanes, the zebra crosswalks – those all look familiar. As they should: They’re Israeli – a mundane influence, but one that demonstrates the degree to which Israel has penetrated a strategically situated country with serious yearnings to play in the big leagues.
