Athens-Tel Aviv: Greece wants to be Israel’s main partner. Why not? Nobody else does…
Athens-Tel Aviv: Greece wants to be Israel’s main partner. Why not? Nobody else does…
December 1983: Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat and 8.000 Fedayin
fighters sneak out of their hideout in Lebanon, right under the noses of
Israeli and US intelligence. Three Greek vessels, sent by PM Andreas
Papandreou and his foreign minister, Carolos Papoulias (today’s
president) transport them safely to Algiers and Tunis. The Arab world
never forgot this mission and has ever since rewarded Greece both
financially and diplomatically.
Several veteran analysts and reporters recalled this incident, whose importance for the history of the Middle East should not be underestimated, as Yorgos Papandreou, son of Andreas and today’s PM visited Israel, in the first such visit in 30 years. The official visit was the symbolic end of an era, an end that, as journalist D. Konstandacopoulos pointed out, first took shape during G.Papandreou’s stint at the foreign ministry.
Papandreou visited Israel just two months after the May 2010 bloody Israeli raid against the Freedom Flotilla and the jailing of dozens of Greek citizens, confirming with his presence the “strategic partnership with Israel” long touted by then vice foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas. The partnership was further deepened by Israeli-greek airforce exercises.
Papandreou’s contacts in Israel were a strange mix. Most Israelis he met are accused, in some country or another, for crimes of war or crimes against humanity. The Palestinian “president” Mahmud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen to most people, except Papandreou who thought they were two different persons) has been accused for a coup against the Palestinians’ elected leadership. As for the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayad, he was never elected, and most people remember him as an ex IMF staffer. A carefully hidden aspect of Papandreou’s visit to Israel was that the officials he met with were either Israeli or Palestinians tolerated by Israel.
These meetings ended with lukewarm TV statements praising Tel Aviv’s peaceful intentions without touching issues such as the occupation, the return of the stolen Greek ships and the complete lifting of the Gaza blockade- a move that some thought could come as a “gift” of Israel to the Greek PM for his services.
Several veteran analysts and reporters recalled this incident, whose importance for the history of the Middle East should not be underestimated, as Yorgos Papandreou, son of Andreas and today’s PM visited Israel, in the first such visit in 30 years. The official visit was the symbolic end of an era, an end that, as journalist D. Konstandacopoulos pointed out, first took shape during G.Papandreou’s stint at the foreign ministry.
Papandreou visited Israel just two months after the May 2010 bloody Israeli raid against the Freedom Flotilla and the jailing of dozens of Greek citizens, confirming with his presence the “strategic partnership with Israel” long touted by then vice foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas. The partnership was further deepened by Israeli-greek airforce exercises.
Papandreou’s contacts in Israel were a strange mix. Most Israelis he met are accused, in some country or another, for crimes of war or crimes against humanity. The Palestinian “president” Mahmud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen to most people, except Papandreou who thought they were two different persons) has been accused for a coup against the Palestinians’ elected leadership. As for the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayad, he was never elected, and most people remember him as an ex IMF staffer. A carefully hidden aspect of Papandreou’s visit to Israel was that the officials he met with were either Israeli or Palestinians tolerated by Israel.
These meetings ended with lukewarm TV statements praising Tel Aviv’s peaceful intentions without touching issues such as the occupation, the return of the stolen Greek ships and the complete lifting of the Gaza blockade- a move that some thought could come as a “gift” of Israel to the Greek PM for his services.