As I have written before, in power the Syriza-led government has reneged on other promises too, such as those of its once anti-militarist foreign policy. Their electoral manifestos once included the promise of “abolition of military cooperation with Israel.” In power, their government in fact continued the joint military exercises with Israel that began under the conservative government in 2009.
During a visit to Israel in July, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias even said that Greeks needed to “learn to love Israel” and disgracefully called Israel part of a “line of stability” in the region – something that will some as news to the friends and relatives of those 551 Palestinian children murdered by Israeli during its summer 2014 war against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
This was a climb-down by the Syriza-led government on previously decent Syriza policy, much as it has made fundamental reversals of policy in domestic economic matters.
But Syriza as a leftist movement put some distance between itself and its government’s contacts with Israel: Defence Minister Panos Kammenos was from the Independent Greeks (a right-wing coalition partner) and Kotzias is an independent.
Or it did put such distance until this week. As of now, the Syriza U-turn on Israel is complete.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras went on his first ever visit to Israel this week. And it constituted far more than what some may argue was necessary diplomatic contact (though I’d disagree with even that, personally). Tsipras went to discuss increasing economic links with Israel, including the export of recently-discovered offshore natural gas to Europe.
Tsipras also reinforced Zionist mythology by claiming that “our peoples are very ancient.” In fact, Israel was founded only in 1948, on top of the mass graves of Palestinians killed during the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine from its native inhabitants: the Nakba, or Catastrophe. Israel is, in essence, a European settler-colonial state, which latches onto Bible stories to use as foundational myths for its illegitimate state.
Tsipras met with accused war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, in a jovial press conference, in which both sides gushed about “a natural affinity between the Israelis and the Greeks.”
Perhaps most disgustingly of all, Tsipras went even further in his grovelling to Israel than any other European leader by recognising the illegal 1967 Israeli annexation of Jerusalem (which was formalised in 1980). Tsipras signed the guest book of Israeli President Reuben Rivlin saying it was a “great honour to be in your historic capital”.
