Greece’s Dividend of Friendship with Israel |
It is good to know which side of one’s bread is buttered. The older I get, the less cynical that phrase sounds and the more accurate it becomes. In a Europe currently gripped by moral theatrics, diplomatic hedging, and fashionable outrage over Israel, a few countries have quietly chosen something far less glamorous but far more consequential: strategic clarity.
Greece is one of them.
At a moment when much of Europe is engaging Israel with a long pole – issuing condemnations, suspending cooperation, or offering lectures from the comfort of distance – Athens has done something refreshingly un-European: it has acted in its own long-term national interest, and in doing so, deepened a friendship with Israel that is paying tangible dividends.
I find this deeply reassuring. Not because Israel needs validation from Europe – it has long learned to survive without applause – but because genuine partnerships, built on shared threats, shared values, and shared capabilities, still matter in a world addicted to symbolism over substance.
This week’s trilateral summit in Jerusalem between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus is not merely another diplomatic photo opportunity. It is the visible tip of a relationship that has been maturing for over a decade, quietly and deliberately. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meetings with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides speak to something deeper than polite alignment. They reflect a convergence of strategic realities in a volatile Eastern Mediterranean.
For Greece, the calculus is straightforward. Turkey’s expanding military posture, its assertive maritime doctrine, and its increasingly erratic regional behavior are not abstract concerns........