Greece: A Strategic Alternative to Turkey?
INSS Insight
No. 201, August 20, 2010
In less than a month the prime ministers of Israel and Greece exchanged official visits; each visit was the first of its kind. It is hard to find a precedent for this proximity of visits in the annals of Israeli diplomacy.
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| photo: zingarate.com |
In less than a month the prime ministers of Israel and Greece exchanged official visits; each visit was the first of its kind. It is hard to find a precedent for this proximity of visits in the annals of Israeli diplomacy.
Until recently the low profile of their bilateral relations suited the interests of both Greece and Israel. While appearing at the Arab Economic Forum on May 20, 2010, George Papandreou noted the friendship between many Arab leaders and his father, then-Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, and spoke about the solidarity of the Greek nation with Arab nations. He stipulated, "Israel, must respect United Nations Security Council resolutions. And of course the Arab peace initiative must be promoted. The roadmap obligations must be fulfilled, to move forward on core issues, on the basis of a two-state solution along the 1967 lines."
There is little likelihood that the reference to the 1967 lines escaped the Israeli team that prepared for the Greek prime minister's visit to Israel in late July and the Israeli prime minister's visit to Greece this week (August 16-17). But it is also likely that at the same time, they eyed a no less important strategic issue, namely, containing the damage caused by the souring of relations between Israel and Turkey. The shift in Turkey's foreign policy that has led it to draw closer to Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizbollah signals a significant change in the strategic balance, not only from Israel's perspective. Cairo, Amman, Beirut, and Ramallah also see this shift as cause for concern, although perhaps with less severity than Israel. Athens almost certainly is worried by this shift in Turkey's foreign policy, as well as the ramifications of this change and the internal processes in Turkey.
More on (source): http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4538&articleid=2215
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