Greece's Mitsotakis risks harsh judgement of history for meeting with Israel's Netanyahu, say analysts

BRUSSELS / ISTANBUL

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be harshly judged by history for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling Israel a “democratic state,” said two prominent analysts, Irish journalist and author David Cronin and Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Cronin told Anadolu that Greece has demonstrated its loyalty to Israel both before and during the genocide in Gaza.

“It is always shameful that Greece is so willing to buy weapons from Israel,” he said, citing a recent Jerusalem Post analysis of the Israeli defense industry’s “key” role in a €25–€28 billion ($29.5 billion-$33 billion) modernization of the Greek army.

The program includes a $3.5 billion investment in the Israeli-made Barak MX, David’s Sling, and Spyder systems, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, to replace aging American and Russian platforms, the article said.

“Among the firms that benefited from this process is Israel Aerospace Industries, which itself boasts of playing a key role in the war against Gaza,” Cronin added.

He underlined that Greece’s close cooperation with Israel effectively implicates Athens in aiding genocide, which is a “grave violation of international law.”

Mitsotakis is ‘competing with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’

“Kyriakos Mitsotakis seems to be competing with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,” Cronin told Anadolu, adding that both politicians have visited Netanyahu this year.

Cronin stressed that the purpose of these meetings was not to ensure Netanyahu’s legal punishment or his arrest for genocide.

“The aim is to show that Greece and Germany stand with Israel. Mitsotakis and Merz conveniently ignore the fact that they are parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu. History will judge them harshly,” he said.

'Greece has failed'

Roth explained that if Netanyahu visits Greece, the Greek government is obligated to arrest him under the ICC’s arrest warrant.

He underlined that Mitsotakis is not prohibited from meeting with Netanyahu, adding that the purpose of such visits is “the real question.”

“Mitsotakis has failed in this regard. His characterization of Israel as a ‘democratic state’ ignores the ongoing illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, the apartheid regime it imposes in these areas, and how far Israel is from being democratic,” he said.

Roth noted that Mitsotakis previously met with the Palestinian Authority and reaffirmed Greece’s support for them.

However, Mitsotakis did not explicitly state that the Palestinian Authority should play a role in the transition process in Gaza, nor did he express support for a Palestinian state, as many Western governments have done, Roth added.

“Mitsotakis’ visit does not signal any distancing from the genocidal Israeli government,” he underlined.

Athens deepening its relations with Israel

Netanyahu, Mitsotakis, and Greek Cypriot Administration leader Nikos Christodoulides met on Monday at a trilateral summit in West Jerusalem.

While the stated emphasis on the summit was on defense, Netanyahu’s move, given his isolation in international politics, was interpreted as seeking closer ties with Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis, who also visited Netanyahu this April, became the first European leader to physically meet with the Israeli prime minister after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him for war crimes committed in Gaza.