“The nation of Greece would like to express its deep love and friendship for another ancient people in this region, the nation of Israel.… We are united with your nation historically and culturally, and in our joint desire to advance security and peace. I hope that the new chapter recently opened in the ties between Greece and Israel will be a new beginning that will continue to develop and flourish long into the future.…”—Dr. Karolos Papoulias, president of Greece, during a two-day, mid-July official visit to Israel. (Jerusalem Post, July 14.)
ATHENS AND JERUSALEM
Editorial
JerusalemPost, July 10, 2011
Athens and Jerusalem are ancient cultural rivals. While the Greeks of old viewed nature as inherently perfect, celebrated the body and embraced polytheism, the Jews sought tikkun olam, emphasized the spiritual over the physical and adhered to strict monotheism.
Even after the creation of the modern State of Israel, ties between the Greeks and the Jews of Zion were strained.… Greece was the only European democracy to have voted with the Arabs in 1947 against the UN General Assembly partition resolution, which endorsed the establishment of a Jewish state (and a Palestinian one).
Relations remained cold even after the ouster of Nazi collaborator George Papadopoulos’s military junta in 1974 and remained that way for over a decade. Shortly after being elected prime minister in 1981, Andreas Papandreou, father of the present Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, cultivated close ties with PLO chief Yasser Arafat as part of a larger policy of “Tritokosmikos” (Thirdworldism).
Papandreou the father had hoped that his pro-Palestinian policies would bring in Arab investments, protect oil interests and strengthen Greece’s standing with Muslims vis-a-vis secular Turkey. The gradual warming of relations with Israel began in 1990 under then-prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis’s “New Democracy” government, which ended a decade of tense relations with the US and, as an extension with Israel. In that year Greece became the last European Community member to form full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
In recent years there has been a dramatic upgrade in the ties between Israel and Greece. A month after Papandreou was voted in as prime minister, Greece abstained during the November 2009 UN vote on the Goldstone Report, a stance that once would have been unthinkable.
Papandreou visited Israel in July of last year, the first Greek premier to do so since Mitsotakis. Just three weeks later, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent a few days cruising the Greek islands with Papandreou. It was obvious that special chemistry had developed between the two prime ministers, both of whom speak flawless American English (Papandreou was born in St. Paul, Minnesota).
Since then there have been a number of high-level visits.
The Israel and Hellenic air forces have trained together and Israel has offered Greece military supply deals with generous financing terms. In February, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations held its annual meeting in Athens, and Israeli tourism to Greece has boomed.
Most recently, Athens was instrumental in preventing anti-Israel activists from setting sail from Greek ports to challenge the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, including the forced blocking of US ship The Audacity of Hope and the arrest of several activists.
The enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend-syndrome has something to do with the warming of relations. Even before last May’s Mavi Marmara debacle, Turkey’s public patronage of Hamas, an anti-Semitic terrorist organization bent on the destruction of Israel, and Ankara’s close ties with Syria and Iran, placed the Ankara in direct conflict with Jerusalem, opening the way for relations between Israel and Greece—which has been in conflict with Turkey since it gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century.
Greece’s severe financial crisis is another factor. Desperate for the international community’s financial support and perhaps slightly overestimating world Jewry’s power and influence, the Greeks are hoping that improved relations with Israel and the American Jewish community will further their economic interests.
Diaspora Jewry is viewed by the Greeks as being critically influential in international finance and potential investors in their foundering economy. The prospects of Israel turning in the coming decade into a major natural gas exporter, following the recent discovery of vast natural gas fields off the coast, is another attraction for Greece.
Warming relations between Israel and Greece, while hardly a substitute for Turkey’s crucial influence on regional stability, is nonetheless a positive development that should be pursued and nurtured. Greek President Karolos Papoulias’s two-day visit to Israel that [took place a week ago] is yet another positive sign that the historic tensions between Jerusalem and Athens are eminently bridgeable—and that doing so is mutually advantageous.
GREEK-ISRAELI RELATIONS
AND THE NEW DYNAMIC DIPLOMATIC RAPPROCHEMENT
Vassilios Damiras
Defence Viewpoints, July 21, 2011
Greeceand Israel’s rich and complicated histories and cultures have seen them associated with all the crucial historical developments in the eastern Mediterranean, Balkan and Middle East regions. The Jewish Zionist movement that was created in the late 19th century by Theodore Herzl had very similar characteristics to the Greek irredentist movement of the “Great Idea.” Both nations have triumphed as diaspora. Both ethnic groups have been occupied by the Ottomans yet still managed to influence the economy of the Ottoman Empire. Both countries are Western-style democracies, allied to the United States and located within a crucial geostrategic region.
From the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 until 1991, the Greek political and social establishments perceived Israel as a major antagonist in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Athens followed a more pro-Arab stance reflecting the strong dependence Greece had upon crude oil from Arab countries. In the 1970s these Arab states imposed an oil embargo on the United States and Western Europe in order to curtail their pro-Israeli stance.
Greek-Israeli diplomatic relations were stagnant for nearly forty-five years. The pro-Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou viewed Israel as an American pawn that suppressed the self-determination of the Palestinian people. Under Papandreou’s rule the PLO extensively acted on Greek territory.…
The first wind of significant change came in 1995, due to several significant factors. Firstly, Greece sought to increase its diplomatic deterrent power vis-a-vis Turkey. Another was the death of Papandreou in June 1996. The improvement and expansion in U.S.-Greek relations under the socialist Prime Minister Kostas Simitis encouraged a shift toward Israel. Developments in the Middle East peace process—such as Israeli-PLO dialogue—also assisted Greek rapprochement with Israel. In September 1998, the then Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai denied a request from Turkey that Israel assist Turkish Armed Forces in the event of conflict with Greece. Mordechai’s comments that “Turkish-Israeli cooperation is not against any other country” encouraged Greece to enhance its economic relations with Israel.
Improved relations between Greece and Israel resulted in a substantial increase in trade throughout the 1990s. By 2004, Israel was importing $242 million worth of products from Greece, with $142 million going in the opposite direction. Many Israelis chose to visit Greece for summer vacations. The then Israeli President Moshe Katzav declared Greece an important economic partner and a gateway to the Balkans. Improved relations also led to Israel recognizing the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Greece and Cyprus.
Currently, the Israeli navy is developing strategic plans to protect its own EEZ, home to two large gas fields. The Leviathan field is located eighty miles off Haifa and contains sixteen trillion cubic feet of gas. The other field—known as Tamar—is situated 30 miles north of Leviathan and contains eight and a half trillion cubic feet of gas. Both fields are located near the border of the Greek and Cypriot EEZs. Accordingly, the IDF is expanding the 7,000-person navy, the smallest of the country’s armed services. Priority has gone to acquiring three more Dolphin-class submarines from Germany.
Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to improve relations with Greece in order to counterbalance the expansion of Turkey’s regional influence. On the Greek side Prime Minister George Papandreou aims to assist mediation in peace agreements between Israel and its neighbours to enhance his image as an assertive regional peace negotiator. In addition, Papandreou wants to attract Israeli investment to offset Athens’ severe economic problems.…
On military issues the IDF will have the opportunity to train the Greek armed forces in symmetrical and asymmetrical warfare tactics and various counterintelligence and counterterrorism methods. Military cooperation with Israel may also lead to tangible benefits for the Greek economy and civilian industries. By adopting Israeli defense tactics and purchasing materiel, the Greek Armed Forces may also enhance their status within NATO. For example, Greece will have the opportunity to buy various missile systems and homeland security capabilities. In addition, the Israeli defense industry can upgrade and modernise ageing Greek defence systems.
It should be also noted that decades of Greece diplomatically cold-shouldering Israel did not defeat the cultural affinity between Greeks and Israelis, a key factor that is consistently underestimated in discussions about Greek-Israeli bilateral relations. Without a doubt Greek-Israeli diplomatic relations are entering a new period. Domestic and international factors will influence the new era of understanding and friendship among these two old and proud nations.
(Vassilios Damiras is a counter terrorism analyst with experience in defence, intelligence and terrorism affairs. He has a PhD from Loyola University in Chicago.)
ISRAEL-GREECE TIES KEEPS FLOTILLA ANCHORED
Calev Ben-David & Paul Tugwell
Bloomberg, July 10, 2011
Greece’s move to prevent a flotilla from departing its ports and challenging Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip highlights the deepening ties between the once antagonistic countries.
After a previous attempt ended in violence last year, pro- Palestinian activists planned a second, bigger convoy this month to undermine the blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza by delivering aid without permission. The effort fizzled as Greece stopped seven ships from sailing.…
“The relationship with Israel is multidimensional; it’s economics, tourism, military exercises, and part of the equation is natural gas,” said Aristotle Tziampiris, associate professor of international relations at Greece’s University of Piraeus. “It was the deterioration of the relationship between Turkey and Israel that provided an opening.…”
Ties between Greek and Israel have been slow to develop. The relationship was especially acrimonious during the 1980s, when then-prime minister Andreas Papandreou was a strong supporter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and a vocal critic of Israeli policies.
His son George Papandreou, the current Greek prime minister, has taken a different approach. In July 2010 he became the first Greek premier to visit Jerusalem in decades. The next month he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on an unprecedented visit to Athens.
Netanyahu, 61, singled out “my friend” Papandreou, 59, in a July 1 speech praising U.S. and European leaders for opposing the flotilla.
Leviathan Field
The biggest potential for economic cooperation lies with Israel’s natural gas discoveries, especially the Leviathan field that lies close to Cyprus and holds an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet. Israel and Greece have discussed exporting the gas either through an undersea pipeline to the Greek mainland or via a liquefied natural gas conversion plant to be built in Cyprus.
“Greece could very much become a hub for Israeli gas exports from the Leviathan field to Europe at a time when Europe is seeking to diversify away from its reliance on Russian gas,” said John Sitilides, chairman of the board of advisers for the Southeast Europe Project of the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington-based research institute. “This is a relationship that makes sense.…”
Military Drills
Greece…is providing Israel with airspace, land and sea territory to conduct large-scale military exercises, replacing what had formerly been Turkey’s role. Greece and Israel have conducted at least two joint military exercises in the past year, including a just-concluded two-week aerial drill.
Israeli officials also see an opportunity to increase trade. Shipments between the countries were $412.8 million last year. Trade so far this year was $179.1 million, up from $153.6 million in the January-May of 2010, according to the Israeli statistics bureau.…
TurkeyTies Totter
Among the Israeli companies doing business in Greece are Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., the world’s largest generic drugs company, and agrochemicals maker Makhteshim-Agan Industries Ltd. (MAIN)
One of the beneficiaries of Israeli business may be the Greek tourism industry, with the country increasingly popular as the preferred Aegean resort in place of Turkey. The number of Israeli tourists in Greece increased 139 percent in 2010 to 197,159, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority.
As ties with Greece strengthen, some of Israel’s links to Turkey are fraying. In the first five months of this year, the number of Israelis traveling to Turkey fell 60 percent, Hurriyet said last month.…
J’LEM, ATHENS PURSUE
A STRONG RELATIONSHIP IN ALL ASPECTS
Herb Keinon
Jerusalem Post, July 10, 2011
Greek President Karolos Papoulias [was recently in Israel] for a visit symbolizing the dramatic upgrade in Israeli-Greek ties.… Papoulias, who served two stints as foreign minister in the late 1980s and mid-1990s, when Greece was considered one of the least friendly countries in Europe to Israel, was a close associate of the late prime minister Andreas Papandreou, the father of the current prime minister, George Papandreou. The elder Papandreou was widely considered pro-Palestinian, and Papoulias was among those who built Greece’s strongly pro-Arab foreign policy at the time.
Now Papoulias is considered in Jerusalem as a supporter of Greece’s realignment of its policy toward Israel. Ahead of his arrival, The Jerusalem Post conducted an email interview with Papoulias, in which he answered eight of 16 questions posed to him.…
Why are good ties with Israel important for Greece?
Greeceand Israel have rich and diverse ties—shared history in the wider Mediterranean area; shared pain through the extermination of Greek Jews by the Nazis. We are now involved in an intensive process of cooperation. Our ministers and officials systematically consult and work together on all levels and in key areas: energy, defense and security, agriculture, tourism. We are also working together on international issues and matters of regional concern to both countries. We are pursuing a strong relationship—strong on trade, strong on investment, strong on political and security cooperation.
Why are close ties with Greece important for Israel?
I would say that this question would best be answered by Israeli officials.
Greeceand Cyprus offer a safe and secure route towards Europe and the West. It is safe because it is not based on the good political climate between our two countries alone. Relationships based on politics may change, as we are all aware of. Our relationship is built on the more solid foundations of our common culture. The Greek route offers a safe environment for Israeli tourists, possibilities of increased economic cooperation, trade development and two-way investment, political and military cooperation that can benefit both our countries.…
What are you most interested in? Strategic ties? Military ties? Economic ties?
I do not see relations with Israel as developing in piecemeal fashion. Relations between countries are not static.
For example, as I mentioned, the discovery of major reserves off the coast of Cyprus and Israel changes the geo-economic situation in the region. It opens up new opportunities for cooperation between Greece, Israel and Cyprus. That is why it is now strategically even more important that a viable solution be found to the Cyprus problem, and we are counting on the support of Israel to achieve this.…
Earlier this year, Greece hosted the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Why is it important for Greece to have ties with the Jewish Diaspora? In what way can the Jewish and Greek diasporas cooperate?
Both Greece and Israel have large and vital diasporas, which closely monitor and support their respective homelands on issues of national interest.
Improved ties between Greece and Israel have also brought Jewish and Greek communities in the diaspora closer. This rapprochement clearly provides them with an opportunity both for local cooperation and for enhancing the mutual support of our national interests.…
I understand that you will be traveling to Ramallah after coming to Jerusalem. What message will you be bringing to the Palestinians?
Greecehas always been present in the Middle East. Large Greek communities live here.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem is here. We have an interest in a stable, secure and prosperous Middle East. The political deadlock in the peace process remains and affects the wider region. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict also deeply affects the people in the area. They are the ones to suffer. It is their future that is at stake.
In substance we support a two-state solution—a democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel within secure borders. As far as the process is concerned, I remain convinced that direct negotiations between the two sides are the only way to achieve a comprehensive and viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through its good relations with all countries in the wider area, Greece has contributed to the peace process and will continue to do so. Ultimately, of course, it is up to the parties involved to make the hard choices that will be necessary in order to achieve results.…
