Aristotle Tziampiris: Athens Meets Israel
[Aristotle Tziampiris is an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Piraeus. The views represented herein are his own.]
Despite recent economic challenges, Greece still has a constructive role to play—in the Middle East, acting as a bridge between Israel and Europe. Such efforts should be actively facilitated and supported by Washington.
Today, the state of Israel is becoming ever more isolated: it faces an existential threat from a potentially nuclear Iran, relations with Turkey keep deteriorating, the White House seems increasingly critical, and a host of determined enemies such as Hamas and Hezbollah remain powerful.
Such developments will inevitably make Israel act like any individual or country that considers itself secluded. It will become more nervous, less predictable and, ultimately, more dangerous. Without doubt, this would erode regional stability, with possibly adverse international implications.
It is precisely at this juncture that Greece can play a positive role by further improving relations with Israel. Any such improvement should not be viewed as antagonistic to Athens’s traditionally excellent relations with the Arab world, but rather as complementary. Nor would it mean an end to the sympathetic way in which Greeks have viewed the Palestinians during the past few decades.
The pursuit of a strategy that brings Greece and Israel closer actually makes sense from a historical and cultural point of view. The Greeks and the Jewish people share the common bond of being two of only a handful of peoples who can claim a continuous presence for more than three thousand years...
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Despite recent economic challenges, Greece still has a constructive role to play—in the Middle East, acting as a bridge between Israel and Europe. Such efforts should be actively facilitated and supported by Washington.
Today, the state of Israel is becoming ever more isolated: it faces an existential threat from a potentially nuclear Iran, relations with Turkey keep deteriorating, the White House seems increasingly critical, and a host of determined enemies such as Hamas and Hezbollah remain powerful.
Such developments will inevitably make Israel act like any individual or country that considers itself secluded. It will become more nervous, less predictable and, ultimately, more dangerous. Without doubt, this would erode regional stability, with possibly adverse international implications.
It is precisely at this juncture that Greece can play a positive role by further improving relations with Israel. Any such improvement should not be viewed as antagonistic to Athens’s traditionally excellent relations with the Arab world, but rather as complementary. Nor would it mean an end to the sympathetic way in which Greeks have viewed the Palestinians during the past few decades.
The pursuit of a strategy that brings Greece and Israel closer actually makes sense from a historical and cultural point of view. The Greeks and the Jewish people share the common bond of being two of only a handful of peoples who can claim a continuous presence for more than three thousand years...