Greece and Cyprus are traditionally the most friendly to the Arabs European countries. They were never part of the European colonial project in the Middle East. The modern Greek “national project” was born in the 13th century, out of resistance to the Crusaders who occupied Constantinople in their way to the East. Greece has suffered greatly of the efforts of western powers to control it and also to control Cyprus (80% of the population of which is Greek), in order to launch their military campaigns in the Middle East. This is why Americans imposed a military junta in Athens, in 1967, then Henry Kissinger pushed it to organize a coup against President Makarios of Cyprus, which served as a pretext for the Turkish invasion of the island n 1974. In 1981, the then Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou send Greek merchant ships to Beirut, in order to save and transport Yasser Arafat and thousands of Fatah militants, under siege in the Lebanese capital. The Greek Left (and not only the Left) has always mobilized in favor of Palestinians and against the invasion of Iraq. SYRIZA deputies were among people who broke or tried to break the naval blockade of Gaza.
All this is making very interesting and very surprising the openings of the SYRIZA government and their leaders to Israel and speaks a lot about the kind of the international forces, especially from USA and Britain, which have a determining, albeit behind the scenes, influence on the leading nucleus of SYRIZA, probably since 2012.
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/146255/greeks-boost-military-ties-israel
