Greece’s manifestly close relations with Israel and their collaboration on defense matters are a major factor in the enhancement of Athens’ defensive capabilities.
On the other hand, they risk provoking a crisis with Turkey, whose own relations with Israel are at an all-time low, and drawing the ire of at least some of Greece’s Arab allies and the displeasure of those who would rather have Greece prioritize their own weapons systems.
Over the last three years, Greece has had to defend itself over its ever-tighter relationship with Israel to its European Union partners and even the US, because of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that followed Israel’s response to the massacre of over 1,000 of its citizens by Hamas.
The Greek government is careful to point out that its close relations are with the state of Israel itself and not Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, although it is difficult to make the distinction clear when Netanyahu has been the PM for all but one and a half of the past 17 years. Actually, bilateral relations slowed down under the June 2021 – December 2022 coalition government, but this can be attributed to the instability of a government made up of hardline nationalists, conservatives, leftists and Arab Israelis whose main connective feature was hostility to Netanyahu.
