Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Greece
Greece: its Jewish community, the EastMed alliance with "Israel" and Cyprus, and Israeli arms deals
Between 4,200 and 6,000 Jews lived in Greece in 2000, according to an estimate cited by the World Jewish Congress (WJC); 96.5% of the pre-war community was murdered in the Holocaust.[1] Greece, Cyprus and "Israel" signed the EastMed gas pipeline agreement in 2020,[2] and in 2021 Elbit Systems won a $1.65 billion contract to run the Hellenic Air Force's flight training centre.[3]
Jewish community
Most Greek Jews live in Athens, followed by Thessaloniki. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the WJC's affiliate, is the umbrella body for nine communities: Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa, Volos, Corfu, Chalkis, Ioannina, Trikala and Rhodes. The WJC describes the rise of the Golden Dawn party as "especially worrying to Greek Jews".[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
The WJC notes that Chabad helps provide kosher food in Greece.[1]
Holocaust
The WJC says that by the end of 1945, 96.5% of the Greek Jewish community had been murdered, and that fewer than 2,000 of the 50,000 Jews of pre-war Thessaloniki survived.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with Greece as upgraded in May 1991, with "Israel" represented by its embassy in Athens.[4] According to the WJC, full diplomatic relations were established in 1991, and in August 2010 Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to make an official visit to Greece. The Israeli embassy is at 1 Marathonodromon Street, 154 52 Palaio Psychiko, Athens.[1]
Greece–Cyprus–"Israel" alliance and EastMed
On 2 January 2020, at the seventh trilateral summit in Athens, the energy ministers of "Israel", Greece and Cyprus signed the agreement for the EastMed gas pipeline, to run from "Israel" through Cyprus and Greece to Europe. Benjamin Netanyahu said: "This is a true alliance in the Eastern Mediterranean that is economic and political" and that "Israel is rapidly becoming an energy superpower".[2]
Arms trade
In April 2021 Elbit Systems announced a contract worth about $1.65 billion to set up and operate the International Flight Training Center of the Hellenic Air Force for about 20 years, as part of an agreement between the Israeli and Greek defence ministries.[3] SIPRI also records Greek orders for Spike NMT coastal defence systems with Spike-NLOS missiles (part of a EUR270 million deal, 2023), Spike-NLOS missiles for AH-64 helicopters (EUR45 million, 2023), leased Heron maritime patrol drones (2020–2021), and 36 PULS multiple rocket launchers in a EUR650 million deal that included component production in Greece, selected but not yet ordered by the end of 2025.[5]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $1,098.8 million from Greece in 2025 (2024: $983.6 million) and exported goods worth $427.9 million to it (2024: $494.6 million).[6]
Political interference
UN voting
Greece voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[7]
Ehud Barak emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[8]
- On 19 July 2015 Joshua Hantman sent Barak a "one pager" on a plan by a subsidiary of Cyprus-based Cynergy Capital, Cynergy Financials, to raise EUR100–200 million to buy Eurobank Cyprus "from its current Greek parent company". It said that Barak would be offered a 0.5% success fee if he brought in at least EUR10 million through his contacts.[9]
- On 8 August 2015 Jeffrey Epstein forwarded to Barak an exchange with Noam Chomsky, in which Epstein had written: "Only go to Greece if you feel well, I just had to send my plane to bring another lefty friend back from Athens to see a Jew doctor in New York." Chomsky replied that he had decided not to go, adding: "I was invited to talk at the Parliament, but what can one say?"[10]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cyprus
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Albania
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bulgaria
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Croatia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Kosovo
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Montenegro
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to North Macedonia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Romania
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Serbia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Slovenia
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 World Jewish Congress, Community in Greece worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Israeli Prime Minister's Office, EastMed Gas Pipeline Agreement Signed at Trilateral Summit between PM Netanyahu, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot Pres. Nicos Anastasiades gov.il, 2 January 2020, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Elbit Systems, Elbit Systems Awarded a $1.65 Billion Contract for Flight Training Program, as Part of Agreement Between Israeli and Hellenic Ministries of Defense elbitsystems.com, 18 April 2021, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Joshua Hantman to Ehud Barak, "One Pager on Eurobank Cyprus", 19 July 2015, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!12/1 (364).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Ehud Barak, "Fwd: Re:", 8 August 2015, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!11/1 (429).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026.