Mouzelis the magnificent

Below is an article I’ve translated by Professor Nikos Mouzelis on the Greece-Israel rapprochement. Mouzelis is a well-known and influential sociologist who’s taught at the prestigious London School of Economics and writes regularly for the left-wing Greek newspaper To Vima. He gives four reasons why Greece should not develop strategic relations with Israel, each reason as stupid as the other, revealing a complete lack of seriousness among a dominant strand of Greek thinkers, stuck with a vision of Greece as a country more Third World than First World, a Greece which, apparently, is in the forefront of a fight against Nato, Zionism, America, capitalism, imperialism and God knows what else. (Read Mouzelis’ appalling article in Greek here).

Greece’s military co-operation with Israel is unacceptable
I think at this moment in time co-operation with Israel in the field of military exercises is unacceptable for four reasons:

First, from a moral point of view, close co-operation will strengthen a government which through the imposition of an embargo has degraded and impoverished a large section of the Palestinian population.

Second, with the encouragement of the continuing oppression and the settling of Palestinian territories, the Netanyahu government is making it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for an agreement between Israel and Palestine.

Third, co-operation at a military level between Greece and Israel does not advance the national interests of our country. Our national interest is to have good relations with Turkey and the Arab world rather than with a country that is trying to impose an apartheid, colonial system on Palestine.

Fourth, if Israel tries to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will need free passage through Greece’s airspace. Perhaps this is the reason why the Israeli prime minister wants to have close military co-operation with our country?

It’s hard to believe intelligent Greeks could make such absurd arguments, and here’s a quick repudiation.

What has the depredations being suffered by the Palestinians got to do with Greece? The plight of the Palestinians might be sad, tragic and all the rest; but since when has a country’s foreign relations been conducted on the basis of sentiment? If Greece were to base its foreign relations using human rights criteria, then Greece would have relations with very few countries, and certainly not with any of the Arab countries – Libya, Egypt, Syria and so on – Mouzelis wants Greece to cosy up to, and certainly not with Turkey, another country Mouzelis thinks Greece should befriend, which is trying to impose an apartheid and colonial system on the Greek island of Cyprus – but this doesn’t seem to bother Mouzelis, doesn't seem to arouse his sensitivities for human rights or his concerns for Greek national interests.