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Athens, Greece – Greece has emerged as a key supporter of Israel within the Jap Mediterranean, a place unimaginable little greater than a decade in the past and apparently at odds with public opinion.
“I come right here not simply as an ally however as a real pal,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis informed his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv on October 23, because the latest Center East battle flared.
“Greece, from the very first second, supported the best of Israel to defend itself in step with worldwide regulation,” he stated.
In contrast to another European leaders who demonstrated comparable solidarity, Mitsotakis didn’t additionally pay a courtesy go to to Mahmoud Abbas, chief of the Fatah Palestinian motion.
Which will rankle with the two-thirds of Greeks, who assist neutrality within the present warfare.
Whereas simply 18.4 % are in favour of a pro-Israel place, 11.5 % need Greece to be brazenly pro-Palestinian, in response to an opinion ballot aired by Star Channel two days after Mitsotakis’s go to.
Regardless of championing humanitarian support for Palestinian civilians trapped in Gaza, Greece was certainly one of 45 abstentions from a UN Basic Meeting vote calling for a direct humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas, on October 27. A majority of 120 international locations voted in favour.
“Eight EU members voted for the UN name for a humanitarian ceasefire. Greece, beneath Mitsotakis, selected to not be amongst them,” European Parliament member for the opposition Syriza get together, Dimitris Papadimoulis, informed Al Jazeera.
Anybody who “needs humanity and peace to prevail” would comply with a “extra balanced place that additionally maintains good relations with the Arab world – a place that’s conducive to an answer for the Palestinians,” Papadimoulis stated.
Greece did, nevertheless, be part of a European Council name for “protected and unhindered humanitarian entry” in Gaza on October 27, “together with humanitarian pauses and corridors”.
However Greece has gone past statements in serving to Israel.
In line with Greek media, massive numbers of United States C-17 and C-130 transport plane have been stationed on the US air and naval base at Souda Bay, in Crete, and the Greek air drive base at Elefsina, close to Athens, in case a mass evacuation of US residents from Israel needs to be crucial.
An historic change
Greece’s official overseas coverage place, now backed by right- and left-wing events when in energy, is starkly completely different to its historically pro-Palestinian coverage in the course of the Chilly Battle, when Greece and Israel nonetheless had not developed full diplomatic relations.
When Netanyahu’s predecessor, Menachem Start, invaded Lebanon to destroy the navy wing of the Palestine Liberation Group in 1982, Greek ships spirited the organisation’s chief, Yasser Arafat, to security in Athens.
Again then, expatriate Palestinians incessantly held demonstrations on the streets of Athens with Greek left-wing get together assist, to trumpet their trigger on European soil.
![Once pro-Palestinian, Greece is now one of Israel’s closest European allies | Israel-Palestine conflict News 1 Protesters march outside the Israeli embassy, during a pro-Palestinian protest in Athens, Greece, October 29, 2023. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2023-10-29T135743Z_88169050_RC2D24AANUX0_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-PROTESTS-GREECE-1698743629.jpg?w=814&ssl=1)
The assist for Palestinians was not merely sentimental.
Greek-owned tankers carry a 3rd of the world’s crude oil, and that commerce dictated good relations with the Arab world for many years.
One more reason was Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
“Greece was very focused on getting UN votes in favour of its place on the Cyprus subject,” Aristotle Tziampiris, professor of worldwide relations on the College of Piraeus informed Al Jazeera. “You needed to weigh one Israeli vote versus 20 or so Arab votes.”
The beginnings of rapprochement occurred in 1990, when Mitsotakis’s father, former prime minister Konstantine Mitsotakis, totally and legally recognised Israel, which he thought-about crucial “for the restoration and institution of peace within the area”.
Nevertheless, Israel’s shut relationship with Turkey within the Nineties was an issue for Greece.
![Once pro-Palestinian, Greece is now one of Israel’s closest European allies | Israel-Palestine conflict News 2 PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT WALKS HAND IN HAND WITH GREEK ARCHBISHOP OF ATHENS (L) AND HEAD MUSLIM CLERIC IN JERUSALEM.Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (C) walks hand in hand with Christodoulos (L), the Greek Archbishop of Athens and head of the Church of Greece, and Mufti Ikrema Sabri, the head muslim cleric in Jerusalem, prior to their meeting in Bethlehem August 25, 2000. Christodoulous will be visiting the Holy Land for a week.](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2000-08-25T000000Z_104830736_RP2DRIBVIBAA_RTRMADP_3_MIDEAST-1698744316.jpg?w=814&ssl=1)
“The Turkish criterion, a everlasting fixture within the Greek overseas ministry, dictates that we will’t have good relations with Israel if it’s also creating its relations with Turkey,” a senior Greek authorities official informed Al Jazeera on situation of anonymity.
“We put this dilemma to them and the Israelis in these days had rather more strategic pursuits in Turkey, so we compelled them to choose Turkey.”
In 2010, one other conflict between the Israeli military and Hamas modified every thing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan despatched a flotilla with humanitarian help to the Palestinians’ support. Israeli commandos attacked the flotilla, suspecting it of carrying weapons, killing 9 individuals.
The breakdown in Turkish-Israeli relations was a void Greece’s political institution moved to fill “with astonishing pace”, stated Tziampiris.
“Israel has been Greece all these years as a gateway to the European Union that would facilitate Israel’s relationship with the EU and soften its isolation on account of Israel’s behaviour in direction of the Palestinians,” stated the federal government official.
Greece’s budding friendship with Israel “just isn’t private or partisan, however represents a nationwide technique that is occurring for shut to fifteen years”, stated Tziampiris.
In a rustic whose politicians are given to infighting and incessantly inserting get together pursuits above nationwide pursuits, that, he stated, is “one thing to be admired”.
Greece had its personal causes to embrace Israel.
It had primarily gone bankrupt that 12 months, and wanted a bailout from its eurozone companions and the Worldwide Financial Fund in Washington. By signalling assist for Israel, it drew nearer to the US.
Greece was additionally turning into a part of a budding power partnership. 2010 was the 12 months during which Israel found Leviathan, holding an estimated 566 billion cubic metres of gasoline and turning Israel in a single day into the Jap Mediterranean’s largest proprietor of exportable gasoline.
The next 12 months, Greece and Israel began discussing constructing EastMed – a 1,900km-long (1,180-mile), $7bn largely undersea pipeline to hold 10-20 billion cubic metres of Israeli gasoline to Europe by way of Greece every year.
Greek hydrocarbon corporations have fashioned a consortium to construct that pipeline, and one Athens-based firm already performs a strategic function within the Israeli economic system. Partly via Israeli financing, Energean now operates a floating manufacturing, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform anchored offshore Israel, which extracts and liquefies Israeli offshore gasoline for export.
Defence relationship
When in 2020 Greek-Turkish relations grew to become tense, Greece sought a relationship with Israel’s subtle defence trade.
Greece signed its first navy settlement with Israel on Might 6 2020, leasing two Heron UAVs to observe the Aegean. Greece had been caught unawares by Turkey’s growth of its Bayraktar drones and wanted the Herons as an interim resolution earlier than creating its personal UAVs – one thing the Hellenic Aerospace Trade is now doing in collaboration with Greek universities.
In 2022, Greece would additionally purchase the Drone Dome anti-drone defence system from Israel’s Rafael Superior Protection Techniques, and in 2023 it could purchase dozens of Orbiter 3 surveillance and reconnaissance drones, additionally from Rafael.
Mitsotakis signed cybersecurity cooperation protocols with Netanyahu in June 2020, and invited Israeli traders to make use of Greece as a base from which to succeed in the EU single market, particularly in IT.
In contrast to in 2010, when Greece’s economic system was teetering, the invitation now had takers.
In February 2021, Israeli defence producers SK Group and Plasan took management of the defunct Hellenic Automobiles Trade (ELVO).
In 2022, Greece and Israel’s Elbit launched a joint flight coaching centre within the southern Greek city of Kalamata. Israel had as soon as sought coaching airspace from Turkey. Now it had using Athens’ huge flight info area.
In 2023, Greece purchased 34 Spike NLOS short-range missile defence techniques with about 500 missiles from Israel’s Elbit to guard its east Aegean islands.
Turkey has moved in the other way throughout this time, providing Hamas leaders passports and places of work on Turkish soil.
Erdogan not too long ago annoyed Washington when he stated Hamas was not a “terrorist” organisation and referred to as Israel an occupier.
That locations Greece and Turkey on reverse sides in the course of the battle in Gaza.
“Internet hosting Hamas was all the time a problem between Israel and Turkey and once we talked about rapprochement it was a problem that was on the desk, and it’s nonetheless on the desk,” Israeli ambassador Noam Katz informed Greece’s Open TV.
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