Greek - Israeli Friendship & Alliance

[Kappa21]

What do you greeks think of Greeks abroad? Im curious......
interesting abour conscription? So basically 18-19 you have to go to the army? and reserves?

[Kappa21]

Here is a salute to this thread and to Greek - Israeli cooperation!

The master of Greek - Jewish relations:

GEORGE MICHAEL!!!!



Greek Father......Jewish Mother!!!!

[mountf]

Proof that Jewish blood doesn't automatically mean you'll be terrible at sport.

[Kappa21]

One of my first...of many...heartbreaks came in high school...

to a Girl with a Greek father and a Jewish mother
she meant the world to me..........

I just wanted to play with her boobs!

[Kappa21]

Who can forget Jewish Greeks?
The King of them all...

Hank Azaria ....or better yet...Cheif Wiggum..or APUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

[skymantle]

Originally Posted by mountf

Proof that Jewish blood doesn't automatically mean you'll be terrible at sport.

Or Greek blood

Actually Pete Sampras is not Greek-Jewish like Hank Azaria, only partly Jewish on his father's side.

Early life and career
Pete Sampras was born in Potomac, Maryland, and is the third child of Sammy and Georgia Sampras. His mother immigrated from Sparta, Greece, and his father was born in the United States to a Greek father and a Jewish mother.[2][3] Greek culture played a big role in his upbringing.[3][4] Pete attended regular services of the Greek Orthodox Church on Sundays...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Sampras

One thing for sure, he's one of the greatest tennis players ever, and one of the greatest athletes from America, if not the world, as well as a gentleman, a family man now and a philanthropist throughout his life.

I never knew about George Michael having Jewish ancestry and there's not much evidence of that online, but I did find this.

...Michael might seem like an unlikely champion of serious-mindedness. As the creative half of the gorgeously coiffed 1980s pop duo Wham! ("I don't know anything about haircuts, but I can blow dry hair brilliantly," he remarked with a laugh. "It's the Greek in me"), he was derided as the anti-punk, a decadent purveyor of meaningless fluff. Yet even as Wham! profited from hedonistic hits such as "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," Michael practiced progressive politics; the group participated in the miner's strike benefits that were the left's cause célèbre (though they were criticized for lip-syncing) and Wham! was the first Western pop group to play in communist China.

This was the beginning of the public expression of that duality upon which Michael dwells. Its roots can be traced to his family life. His maternal grandmother was Jewish but married a Gentile and raised her children with no knowledge of their Semitic heritage. This was during World War II, and "she thought if they didn't know that their mother was Jewish, they wouldn't be at risk," Michael said. His mother was sent to convent school, effectively obliterating any traces of his grandmother's faith...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,3920802.story

He's definitely one of the most famous pop-stars ever, if we like his music or not.

[Prometheus]

Wow I didn't know about Michael, Sampras and Azaria (one of my favourite dudes!).



Israeli Foreign ministery Dani Ayalon meeting with the new Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos in Athens (Nov 23).

I was curious to see the relationship and how it would continue sans Papandreou, and as the article on the other page said, it seems that some of the first contacts of the new PM/Cabinet were with the Israelis.

Further, the more the potential showdown with Iran looms, the more I think this new relationship is a good one. For whatever the prevailing opinions in Athens were/are, I doubt anyone wants to see a nuclear armed Iran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/wa...on/20iran.html

The 2008 exercise 'Glorious Spartan' was believed by many to have been a dress rehearsal for any future operations against Iran's nuclear capability. Carried out over Crete its was interesting for many reasons:

-The distance from Israel to Crete is almost exactly the same as it is from Israel to Iran.
-It involved over 100 aircraft from Greece and Israel.
-Greece uses anti-aircraft systems which Iran does to (SA-15, S-300, SA-8) which provides a real opportunity for Israel to train against precisely the systems it would encounter in Iran.

With the loss of access to Turkish airspace for training, this role can be filled by Greece which has ample facilities and airspace. No doubt, especially given the current economic circumstances, the economic partnership between the two countries cannot be equal to the one Israel had with Turkey, but it has already paid off since Athens sent Nicosia to Tel Aviv for exploitation of the new gas field in the Cypriot EEZ.

And Greece helped make sure a Mavi Marmari 2 didn't happen which I'm sure the Israeli side really appreciated.

So the relationship has born fruit already. Here's hoping it continues.

[Gzdvtz]

Originally Posted by Kappa21

btw....Greece...fatherland or motherland?

'fatherland' i believe, 'patrida' from 'pater' 'father'.

[Kappa21]

So they have a struggle? Like the Germans? Spaniards and Bulgarians?

[χρηστος]

Originally Posted by skymantle

Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture

Hi again my brothers!

skymantle this maybe help your relation of our countries

http://www.amazon.com/Hebrew-Greek-J.../dp/0728900130

[Maniatisa]

Europe is now not a continent with good economic prospects for the present.

Greece needs to look out into the world for new chances to progress in development and Israel is an obvious good partner in the region.

Israeli tourism to Greece would replace the loss of the Europeans, who are staying home due to their austerity.

The Greek islands can be the mass tourism all inclusive package destinations.

But what about going far away from mass tourism to authentic undiscovered mainland Greece and yet with easy access back to Athens airport via daily summer flights.

Koroni in southmost Peloponnese is a well kept secret by the Greeks, who themselves now have too much austerity to travel much in their own country.

Continued this year is the flight by Aegean Airlines from Athens (ATH) to Kalamata (KLX) every day for the summer til October. So a flight from Tel Aviv to Athens and then directly onto Kalamata is possible. Maniatis Travel (Pelops Car Hire) deliver / collect car hire from the airport, and Koroni is a quiet scenic 45 minute coastal drive from the airport nicely signposted in English as well as Greek, with plenty of stops to sip coffee by the beach en route and for day trips out from Koroni, of which there are plenty.

The troubles in central Athens do not affect Koroni, that is a quiet picturesque fishing village with its great Venetian castle over its harbourfront tavernas.

For more details please see my personal website www.anastasias-koroni-greece.co.uk
and link to pages on my Greek website for more photographs. There is a page made especially for Israel on my website named Flights from Israel, http://www.anastasias-koroni-greece....ael/4552609765

I will be there soon myself, as I am every year.

[skymantle]

It's always good to see people welcoming visitors to lovely Greek locations, but with only one post, your contribution seems more like advertising (spam) than anything else. Hope you will contribute further.


Latest news

Athens, J'lem announce joint diaspora conference

Unique conference to take place this summer; Greek deputy foreign minister key factor in vastly improved relations.

Greece and Israel announced Tuesday a unique diaspora conference, the brainchild of visiting Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitrios Dollis, to take place in Thessaloniki (Salonika) this summer.

The idea to discuss how Greece and Israel can strengthen their ties with their diaspora communities isn’t Dollis’s only brainchild – he is also widely credited with being a major force behind Athens’ dramatic realignment of its foreign policy toward Israel.

The Greek diplomat, who has an Australian accent, lived in Melbourne for 28 years and worked in Parliament, where current Prime Minister Julia Gillard served as his chief of staff.

“Dollis is one of Israel’s best friends in Greece,” said Aryeh Mekel, the envoy to Athens.

“He has been arguing for more than 20 years that Greece should get closer to Israel. He is a close associate of former prime minister [George] Papandreou, and was one of the architects of Greece’s decision to upgrade its relationship with Israel, which has only flourished since then.”

Dollis credits his time in Melbourne, where there are large Greek and Jewish communities that work closely on a number of issues, with planting in him the idea of Greek-Israeli cooperation.

“Our communities abroad have grown up together and cooperate, and it makes sense for us to do it here as well,” he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Asked what took so long, Dollis replied, “Strange things happen, and strange things don’t happen.”

He said that Greece was preoccupied with everything else in the 1970s and 1980s: the country’s path to the EU, changes after the dictatorship.

“It doesn’t matter that it took so long,” he said of the dramatic warming of ties.

“What is important is that it taking place in truthful manner, with an emphasis on the long run, and not only on the present.”

Dollis returned to Greece in 1999 at a time when Papandreou, then foreign minister, was trying to get Greek expatriates to return to the country.

Dollis became one of his advisers. When Papandreou became prime minister in 2009, he named Dollis deputy foreign minister.

Papandreou, with Dollis advising him, made a historic visit to Israel in 2010, signaling the significant upgrade in ties. While this improvement in relations came as Israeli- Turkish ties were already in a tailspin, Dollis denied that this was part of the equation in improving ties with Israel.

“If we try to build relationships on something temporary, then the foundations would not be real,” he said.

Dollis admitted that some in the Arab world were surprised with the dramatic change in ties – there were nine Greek ministerial visits in 2011, contrasted with almost zero from 1991 to 2010 – but said he did not think the relationship cost Greece friendships elsewhere.

“You don’t lose friends by making new friends,” he said.

Dollis, explaining what Israel could provide Greece, mentioned the country’s expertise in agriculture, water management and technology.

He also said that there were tremendous opportunities for Israeli-Greek cooperation, along with Cyprus, in the energy sphere. With the huge discoveries in Israel’s territorial waters of natural gas, and significant discoveries off the coast of Cyprus as well, Greece is beginning the process of its own exploration efforts, and is interested in being an energy hub for Israeli and Cypriot gas exports to Europe.

“This offers huge opportunities,” Dollis said, adding that Greece could serve as a gateway to Europe. Concrete plans are premature to discuss, he added, since Israel has not yet determined whether it intended to export natural gas west to Europe, or east to Asia.

“We are developing plans to have Greece as a hub for energy distribution,” he said, adding that this was something Israel might take into consideration when considering its own plans.

Asked what Greece was interested in from Israel, the deputy foreign minister said investments. Paradoxically, according to Dollis, the deep economic crisis in Greece was opening up investment opportunities for foreigners, since one of the EU’s conditions for assisting the country is that it privatizes the economy.

This is leading to investment opportunities in a wide range of fields, from real estate to tourist development.

Dollis expressed appreciation to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for extending a $100 million line of credit in September to Israeli businesses investing or trading with Greece.

As to what else Israel could do to help Greece overcome its present difficulties, Dollis said it was always good to have “friends speaking for you,” alluding to Israel’s ties with the US.

While acknowledging that Greece has very good ties with the US and does not need Israel as a channel to Washington, “it is always better to speak with more than one voice,” he said.

Regarding Iran, Dollis danced around the question about whether Athens was concerned about a possible Israeli strike, saying, “I have learned over the years not to worry about things that I don’t control.”

He acknowledged that Greece was hit hard by the EU decision to embargo Iranian oil, since over the past two to three years the country has become more dependent on Iran as a fuel source than other European countries because of its economic crisis.

Dollis said that Iran became a primary supplier of oil to Greece because it was willing to provide the best credit terms and lowest prices.

Even though Iran became the cheapest source of oil, and over the last two years has at times supplied some 50 percent of the country’s oil needs, Athens is now looking for alternative sources, primarily in Latin America and with the Saudis, Dollis said.

Greece is going along with the embargo decision regardless of the hardship, he stated, because there are some important decisions “you have to make,” and then figure out later ways to deal with their consequences.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPol...aspx?id=259813

[Kappa21]

Good to see!

happy xristos anesti!

[mountf]

Depressing photos from Greece. 51% youth unemployment.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2...crisis/100285/

[Kappa21]

Sad. Hopefully better days ahead for the Greeks!

[mountf]

Not for a while. Misery loves company however and Greeks certainly won't be the only Europeans feeling the pinch in the coming years.

[skymantle]

Times a tough and no doubt they will get tougher, but it's good to know that their exists some solidarity and support from others.

Greece shouldn΄t feel alone

I have visited Greece on countless occasions, drawn by professional and personal reasons. But the most recent visit this month left a particularly deep impression on me.

It is clear, even from a brief stay, that the country is hurting badly. With unemployment skyrocketing, the economy contracting, more austerity demanded by the troika, extremists in the wings, and many storefronts and office for rent, even the bright sunshine could not lift the collective mood.

Yet I remain bullish on Greece.

Perhaps it is my American-style optimism. We Americans, influenced by Hollywood, like to believe in happy endings.

Perhaps it is my belief that the new Government of National Salvation, knowing it has its back to the wall, has an unique opportunity to begin the long process of turning things around, transforming a crisis, yes, into an opportunity.

Or perhaps it is because I draw inspiration from the history of Greeks and Jews, which Winston Churchill, in his own inimitable way, captured so brilliantly:

“No two races have set such mark upon the world. Both have shown a capacity for survival, in spite of unending perils and sufferings from external oppressors, matched only by their own ceaseless feuds, quarrels and convulsions… No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and Jerusalem… Personally I have always been on the side of both, and believe in their invincible power to survive internal strife and the world tides threatening their extinction.”

It may be more than just sheer coincidence that Greeks and Jews are today once again drawing closer to one another.

Each faces challenges. Each finds a source of strength and support in the other.

It is especially gratifying to see the growing link between Greece and Israel. I have been involved in Greek-Jewish issues long enough to remember a time when the ties between the two countries were weak and frosty, largely because Greece saw its interests in the Arab world.

Our point, repeated over and over, was that Greece did not have to choose between Israel and the Arab world. Other European countries managed to have good ties with both, and, therefore, it need not be viewed as a zero-sum equation.

Things began to change in earnest with Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, assisted by then Foreign Minister Antonis Samaras. They saw the obvious advantage in exploring relations with a neighboring democracy in the Eastern Mediterranean. That was two decades ago.

But in the last few years, things have really begun to take off in many spheres, with a potential for still more. As Greek leaders told us in Athens, “Greece and Israel today have a strategic partnership.” And the forthcoming visit to Greece of Israeli President Shimon Peres, following other Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, will no doubt take the link to the next level.

With the Arab upheaval in full swing – Egypt’s future direction uncertain, Syria in flames, Gaza in the grip of Hamas, and Lebanon threated by Hezbollah’s state-within-a state – the nexus between Greece and Israel suddenly makes a lot of sense to more and more people.

Add to that the rapidly changing energy picture. Israel and Cyprus have discovered massive reserves of gas in their territorial waters. That has profound consequences for the region, including Greece, which, I hope, will one day soon find itself in the same category as its friendly neighbors.

Then there’s the growing stream of people coming into contact with one another. Israelis have discovered Greece as a tourist destination that is alluring and, at the same time, familiar. And Greeks are realizing that Israel, a country that until recently had no natural resources yet built a cutting-edge economy based on intellectual capital, has much of value and applicability to share from its own experience.

As an American Jew with many friends in Greece, including the proud Jewish community reduced to a shadow of its former self by the Nazi occupation and deportation, I also do not want to be on the sidelines as Greece goes through its current anguish.

Friends are tested in time of need. This is such a time. Together with our partners in the Greek American community, I hope we will encourage more Americans to visit Greece, to explore business opportunities, and to support government initiatives that contribute to brighter days ahead. There is a reservoir of good will in the United States towards Greece, explained by the prominent role of Americans of Greek background in all walks of life, by the deep contribution of Greek civilization to the evolution of American ideas and ideals, and by the recognition that, for reasons of outlook and security, democracies must stand together in this topsy-turvy world of ours.

No outsider, neither Israel nor American Jewry, can singlehandedly reverse Greece’s direction. That is, first and foremost, a challenge for the Greek people. In the spirit of Churchill, I have confidence the challenge will be met. But nor should Greece ever feel alone in its struggle. Our task is to help ensure it does not.

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/greec...84t-feel-alone