Good Morning, Καλημέρα! בוקר טוב ו!
It is an honor for me, as Chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and Vice-President of Republicans Overseas International, to join Jonathan Constantine, Republicans Overseas Greece and the Hellenic Institute for Strategic Studies in this timely conference on Energy Security in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Consider this: there are approximately 9 million American citizens residing abroad around the world. If they were to be treated as a U.S. state, it would be the 11th largest in the Union. Republicans Overseas, with chapters in over 40 countries, including Greece and Israel, represents the voice of the US Republican Party to these voters and conversely, the voice of these voters to the Republican Party.
With an election coming up in one year and with all that is going on NOW in Washington, D.C., the importance of these voters and Republicans Overseas cannot be overstated. In fact, in Israel where we have nearly 300,000 eligible American voters, thanks to Republicans Overseas 80% voted for the Trump-Pence ticket in 2016. Moreover, our campaign in Israel proved instrumental in persuading millions of pro-Israel voters in the United States to cast their votes for the Republican candidates in that election.
In fact, just this week US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and I were reminiscing about the hugely successful rally we held in Jerusalem just 10 days before the election at which I introduced him as the “next Ambassador to Israel.” Little did we know!
My friends, the Greek and Jewish People have a long and eventful history. It dates back more than 2,500 years. It was foreseen by the Prophet Daniel, Chapter 7, Verses 3 to 7.
That prophecy came true in the year 329 BCE when Alexander the Great met the Jewish High Priest, Simon the Just, other priests and members of the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, at Jerusalem where today I practice international law. The encounter is recorded in the greatest of Jewish legal texts, the Talmud, Tractate Yoma, Page 69A.
There it is written that Alexander dismounted from his great white steed and bowed down to the High Priest. Why? Because Alexander had seen the face of the High Priest as an angel in a dream he had.
The interaction between Hellenic and Jewish civilizations forms the basis for the holiday of Hanukkah, our festival of lights, which we will be celebrating this year starting on December 22 and ending on December 30 – coinciding with the western Christmas holiday.
The Greek Orthodox Christmas I believe is January 7, 2020. For Jews around the world Hanukkah is the holiday of freedom and hope, celebrating the victory of a small nation, the Jews, over what was then the greatest civilization in the Western world … the Greek civilization.
But what began with Alexander as an encounter of mutual respect and then evolved into a clash of civilizations ultimately formed the basis for all of Western civilization. It is this synthesis of Jewish and Greek civilizations that has changed the world and all of mankind for the last two millenia and – with a few hiccups and bumps along the way, for the better.
It is against this backdrop of civilizational conflict and synthesis that, thanks to the great work of Jonathan Constantine and his team at Republicans Overseas Greece and the Hellenic Institute we have come here to Athens to discuss what is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of our day: energy security in the Eastern Mediterranean.
It is extraordinary to consider that the key to achieving security in this part of the world depends in large measure upon the contemporary collaboration of Greece and Israel, just as it did over 2000 years ago.
It is no accident that two days ago the Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, Gen. Christos Christodoulou, paid an official visit to Israel, where he was welcomed by Lt. General Aviv Kochavi, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Nor is it a coincidence that yesterday, Israel’s Foreign Minister, my friend, Yisrael Katz, was here in Athens for high-level consultations with the Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Dendias. And, of course, we cannot forget that US Secretary of State Pompeo made a high-level visit, his first, to Greece last month. Republicans Overseas is working in DC, Athens and Jerusalem to promote close cooperation between our countries.
Given the confontational history of Greek-Israeli foreign relations since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the emerging close ties between the countries are quite extraordinary. They result from a recognition by both nations that recent developments in the region make close cooperation between Greece and Israel essential to ensure the stability of the Eastern Mediterranean. Let me briefly recount what has happened of late.
First, significant offshore deposits of petroleum and natural gas have been confirmed in the Eastern Med. Thanks to private firms like Noble Energy, Israel is now producing commercial quantities of natural gas from offshore wells in its Exclusive Economic Zone. Greece, too, has identified important fossil fuel resources in the Aegean Sea, while Cyprus is in the process of exploiting its offshore natural gas resources.
Second, Greece, Israel and others in the region are working together to design and construct means to deliver East Med and possibly Middle Eastern gas and oil to Europe – a sorely needed alternative to shipping through the endangered Straits of Hormuz and pipelines running through problematic geopolitical areas.
Third, while the production and transmission of fossil fuels from and through the Eastern Med has now become or will shortly become a reality, the security situation in the region has been threatened by a cascade of political, social and military developments in the area.
We need only mention a few: the so-called Arab Spring of 2011, the collapse of Syria in the civil war there since 2012, the dangerous adventurism of Turkey now evidenced by its invasion of Northern Syria, its continued occupation of Northern Cyprus and its hostile activity vis a vis Israel in Gaza, the attempts by Iran, directly and through its surrogates (like Hizbollah, Hamas and Houthis) to threaten Middle Eastern states, including Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Gulf States; the rise and fall of the Iran Nuclear deal engineered by the previous US administration; the rise and dismemberment of ISIS and its short-lived caliphate in Syria and Iraq; recent unrest in Egypt and continued terrorist activity in the Sinai; the emergence of Kurdish autonomies in Iraq and Syria; the intervention of Russia militarily in Syria and on the Mediterranean littoral and the diplomatic and economic imperialism being practiced by China in its Belt and Road initiative; and the uncertainties occurring in the European Union occasioned by Brexit, German immigration policy, resistance by the Visegrad countries and the decision to suspend EU accession by certain Balkan states.
To this I need not mention the political developments in the United States and Israel of late.
The challenges affecting our region are immense. That is why this conference is so extremely important. Military and strategic cooperation between Greece, Israel and other like-minded energy producers in the region is essential to ensure the stability necessary for developing and transporting those resources.
It is in the spirit of that cooperation and synthesis that has ultimately characterized the interaction between Greeks and Jews over the past millenia that we tackle the enormous challenges and opportunities before us in the Eastern Mediterranean today.
I look forward to participating with you in this critically important conference.
Thank you.
Marc