In the News
As Israel and Greece deepen their ties, Breaking Defense quoted B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin on the continued strength of relations—including with Cyprus—across key sectors.
Read more at Breaking Defense.
As ties between Israel and Greece have improved over the last decade, defense firms here have begun to eye Athens as a potentially growing market.
That interest was on full display last week, when Greece held its DEFEA defense exhibition in Athens. Israel’s Ministry of Defense, through its International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT), brought 25 defense companies to the show.
“The impressive Israeli participation highlights the country’s position as one of the global leaders in defense technology and underscores the partnership between Israel and Greece,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
There is a strategic reason Israel and Greece have begun tying together — and, according to Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies, that reason is spelled “Turkey.”
“Greece is both a buyer of Israeli defense products and a security partner of Israel,” she said. “The Turkish threat seems to solidify the shared interests between Israel and Greece in the security realm for many years forward.”
“Israel and Greece have had especially close ties for the past decade,” said Lahav Harkov, a senior research fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist strategy, but ties have only improved as Israel’s relations with Turkey have been on the rocks.
Still, said Harkov, “This is more than ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ The countries [Greece and Israel] have done military exercises together and share intelligence.”
Dan Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, noted that Israeli ties with Greece, as well as Cyprus, have withstood the challenges of the recent conflict in Gaza. (In 2021 Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed a program of tripartite military cooperation, and there are also plans for a possible natural gas pipeline that would link Israel via Cyprus and Greece to Europe.)
“Save for some votes at the United Nations related to the war in Gaza, whether it be in the field of energy, civil aviation, military-to-military ties, ministerial visits, or in the tourism sector, relations amongst Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have remained relatively positive,” he said.