No Israeli Gains in Partnership with the Greeks

Israel and the Greeks have close cooperation for a while. The scope of their friendship varies from the pipeline projects in the Eastern Mediterranean to military exercises along the region. However, Israel’s gains are too constricted from such kind of a partnership. Let me explain why.

First of all, the hydrocarbon zones in the Eastern Mediterranean which are located between Israel and South Cyprus, are in deadlock because of the Turkish counter-act towards the UN-recognized Libyan government. Libyan agreement basically consists of the maritime borders for both countries and shapens the Exclusive Economic Zones that is especially significant improvement for Turkish rights according to the international law. The Greeks are confused due to the agreement, their plans which are based on a very long pipeline across the Mediterranean, become rubbish. In its original version, the EASTMED pipeline project already seems non-secured and very expensive, so the construction process once raised questions in minds. Today, it is just nonsense giving a hand to a dead born project. No time to lose on pure fictional projects.

Secondly, the Greeks are not a strategic asset for Israel. There is almost nothing that Israel could strategically derives from such partnership. Greece and South Cyprus are small powers in military terms and their relatively small armies have no experience on modern war. Both of them still struggle to survive in the meaning of economy, owing to the Eurozone crisis in 2008. European leaders repeatedly argued that showing the door for Greeks is a must.

In addition, none of them are geopolitically important for Israel. Israel’s main problems are in the Middle East, particularly about Iran and its proxies. None of the Greeks could provide strategical contributions to those tasks. Their locations are not convenient, their potentials are not enough. Also no public interest on such topics.

Finally, there is no Israeli gains in this partnership. On the contrary, it is causing Turkish anger towards Israeli positions. With support of Israelis, the Greeks are bullying to Turks. If our Israeli friends truely think of a rapproachment, the list starts with the Greeks.