GREECE AND ISRAEL IN AN ERA OF STRATEGIC FRIENDSHIP AND COOPERATION

OCTOBER 2011 16:38

Vassilios Damiras (Counterterrorism and Defense Analyst, USA) Copyright: www.rieas.gr Greece and 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 Organization (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. For example, on July 7, 1982, a Jordanian diplomat was assassinated and another seriously injured in Athens. The notorious terrorist Abu Nidal and his brutal organization found safe haven. Nidal's organization assassinated Cultural Attaché and British Council representative Kenneth Whitty on an Athens street on March 28, 1984..............................................................more:

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