By, Anshel Pfeffer
1 min read
ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer
When Syriza first swept to power in Greece in January 2015, no one could have foreseen that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and half his cabinet would mark the first anniversary of their government with a joint meeting with their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem.
Greece has traditionally been rather hostile to Israel and much closer to the Palestinians, and the expectation was that the radical-left Syriza would take that antipathy to new heights.
But changing geopolitical realities, particularly the falling out of Israel and Turkey - Greece's longstanding adversary - brought Jerusalem and Athens much closer to each other. After the joint cabinet meeting last Wednesday, Mr Tsipras and Benjamin Netanyahu continued on to Cyprus, where they held a three-way summit with Prime Minister Nikos Anastasiades.
While the security links between the three countries have been intensifying in recent years, including Israeli-Greek air and naval exercises over the eastern Mediterranean, the three leaders chose to focus on energy ties.
An electricity grid linking them was mooted, as was the export of Israeli natural gas to Europe through Cyprus and Greece. It is still unclear, however, whether the amount of gas under the sea will make such infrastructure commercially viable.
Ultimately, the more powerful Turkey is more important to Israel than either Greece or Cyprus. Mr Netanyahu said after the summit that the links with Greece and Cyprus would not come at the expense of ties to other countries, and by that he meant Ankara.
Talks over a rapprochement with Turkey are stuck over the demand by the Erdogan regime to have some form of involvement in Gaza, to which Israel and Egypt are adamantly opposed.
Finding itself increasingly isolated, however, Turkey is now looking more eager to rebuild ties. The recent deal for Turkish companies to build and operate two gas-powered electricity stations in Israel is a sign that relations are improving.
In the eastern Mediterranean, Israel is finding itself in a rare win-win situation between Greece and Turkey.
