menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Israel, Greece, Cyprus: Power Lines Against Turkey

56 0
24.12.2025

In the Eastern Mediterranean, infrastructure has become power—and power has become measurable.

What binds Israel, Greece, and Cyprus today is not diplomatic theater but quantifiable assets: trillions of cubic feet of gas, billions of euros in infrastructure, thousands of kilometers of contested seabed, and a growing lattice of military capabilities designed to survive pressure from Ankara. This is not a soft alignment; it is a hard, material strategy built for endurance.

In this equation, energy is the foundation. Israel’s offshore gas discoveries—Tamar (≈10 trillion cubic feet) and Leviathan (≈22 trillion cubic feet)—redefined the country’s strategic horizon after 2009. In the same way, Cyprus followed with Aphrodite (≈4.5 tcf), creating an Eastern Mediterranean gas basin large enough to matter geopolitically, even if not to replace Russian supplies wholesale.

Together, these fields anchor export contracts worth tens of billions of dollars over multi-decade horizons, primarily to Egypt and regional markets, but always with Europe in view.

Meanwhile, Greece’s role is not geological but logistical and political: it is the EU-facing hinge that turns offshore molecules into European relevance.

These numbers matter because energy contracts lock states into shared risk. Disputes over reservoirs like Aphrodite–Ishai dragged on for over a decade precisely because unresolved unitization could jeopardize investment, delay development, and invite external interference. The recent move toward settlement........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)