People of Israel, members of the serving Government of Israel, fellow Republicans in Israel, friends and supporters, on my first visit to your great country with 4000 years of history, as Warden of the Women’s Chapter of Republicans Overseas in Greece, I salute your great Nation, your warm and affectionate people, and the Government of Israel.
I would also like to thank Marc Zell, Chairman of Republicans Israel, and my Israeli friends for their hospitality and I am also happy to announce that our internet news platform www.eastmednews.org is already functional and serves as a common internet forum for articles from Republicans Overseas in Greece and Israel which will help inform Republicans worldwide on the activities of both our chapters, as well as commentaries on problems in our region.
Israel and Greece are two great nations and two of the greatest peoples in world History who share common roots, common experiences, as they were both subjugated by the Ottoman Empire for centuries, common ideals, we share the Old Testament in our religious beliefs, but most important we share, HERE.. TODAY… and TOMORROW, both a common enemy in RADICAL ISLAM, but also a common future, which lies in the management of the energy assets of the Eastern Mediterranean and the establishment of a safe haven for peace and prosperity in our region.
Unfortunately, we are surrounded by our arch enemies, common to all of us, but we also have friends, especially in each other.
We have friends on the other side of the Atlantic, but we also have friends closer to home. It is high time that we move ahead, gathering what unites us and rejecting what divides us, in order to achieve the EastMed Coalition Dream.
Greece and Israel, as the two major military powers in the region MUST form a defensive coalition aimed at thwarting ALL and ANY military threat to our two Great Nations, and provide cover to the other trading and military partners, such as Cyprus, Egypt, and at a later date possibly Italy and even the free state of Libya, who would wish to enter this great scheme.
Israel knows very well that it cannot rely forever on foreign interventions. Cyprus also has learned its bitter lesson after 50 years of Turkish occupation, and that is that nations must mainly rely on their own strength, either military, or economic, or a combination of both to thwart all aggression. International organizations such as the EU, UN have proved to be totally ineffective in providing real assistance to countries being bullied by rogue states such as Turkey and Iran. Rarely has the international community intervened on the side of the righteous, as a matter of fact, usually the UN intervenes on the side of terrorist organizations, such as HAMAS, and not to foster peace and prosperity, but racism, anti-Semetism, terrorism, violence and bigotry.
Besides, we recently witnessed the complete inability of the UN to come to a decision regarding the blatant Turkish attack on Northern Syria. It seems that the only thing that the UN is worried about is defending the completely idiotic resolution 181 of 1946 on the non-issue of the division of Jerusalem, a decision which should be summarily be assigned to History’s trashbasket. Actually, as Republicans Overseas Greece Chapter we have tried to convince the Greek Government to immediately recognize Jerusalem as the one, only and UNDIVIDED capital of Israel, but unfortunately European Union pressure and the very strong German as well as Russian influence prevent the Greek government from moving ahead in Greek-Israeli relations.
The recent Turkish attack on the Kurdish-held provinces of Northern Syria is just another example of how international politics foster either peace or misery. States which form defensive alliances between themselves are much harder targets than isolated nations or deeply divided ethnic minorities such as the Kurds. Through years of constant bickering the Kurds never managed to formulate a common voice and policy, and most important, they never managed to form alliances between themselves and their possible allies in the region. They relied on the short term on US support, but failed to realize that this support had an expiration date, and time will show which that will be.
In the same way, countries such as Israel and Greece, must set aside, both their internal bickering and indecisiveness, as their arch enemies are waiting out there to pick on both countries and their assets, especially their energy reserves, as well as their lack (especially on the part of Greece) of resolve to finally close the most necessary defense treaty we propose.
When we say defense treaty we mean that if attacked, Israel will receive the full military support of Greece and vice versa. Without getting into much detail, which will be analyzed in a few days in our conference in Athens, Israel, if such a treaty were signed, would receive immediately the support of the heavy units of the Hellenic Navy which should be patrolling the seas between Rhodes and Haifa, and Greece will equally receive assistance in terms of missile batteries in the dense islands of the Aegean archipelago, while at the same time the combined air-forces of the two nations will dominate the Eastern Mediterranean skies.
First strike defensive capability will belong to these two countries, as even if the US wanted to intervene on their behalf in case they were attacked, there would be a great time lag, between the tactical decision and its execution. Obviously, the prime suspect for such attacks lies in the crescent between Hamas, Hezbollah, Turkey and Iran, and we Republicans in Greece realize that these proxy powers are the main cause of discord in the Middle East Region.
For this reason, we feel that the future lies in the EastMed Project, which should arise above merely a energy consortium and become a stable and solid defense partnership. This project not only secures the East Med from neighbouring aggression, but can also provide safety for the oil-rich areas of the Persian Gulf, whom we are calling upon to build gas and oil pipelines to the Sinai peninsula, and avoid the Iranian extortion ever-present with their standing threat to close down the Straights of Hormuz. Actually, this is a policy we call De-Hormuzification, and will be fully presented for the first time in the world in our upcoming conference in Athens.
President Trump calls for nations to make deals not wars, and we think that Israel together with Greece and the other two countries Egypt and Cyprus CAN become game-changers in the immediate future for our children and grandchildren, for peace and prosperity, for the survival of our countries in this extremely hostile region of the world.
We want a democratic world, and not a world guided by mullahs, bigotry, lesser human rights for minorities such as women, Jews or gentiles, we want and deserve a world free of fanatical persecution and the only way to achieve that is through peace, but peace can be achieved UNIQUELY with the backing of an extremely powerful military force, a force which we envisage will be comprised by Israeli and Greek forces together with those of their allies.
Thank you and God bless you Israel and all of you who are reading this.
Jerusalem, 26 October, 2019