Greece and Cyprus quietly back Israel

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The Mare Med III Conference is an annual, invitation-only business event organized by Benny Moran Productions with participation from the Israel-Greece Chamber of Commerce. The meeting is presented as a forum to expand Israel’s political, military, and economic links with Greece.

The third Mare Med III convened on May 12–13 at the Brown Acropol Hotel in Athens. The program included officials and executives such as Israel’s deputy minister of foreign affairs Sharren Haskel; former Israeli Navy and Air Force officers now working for Israel Aerospace Industries; the CEO of Israel Shipyards; Greece’s minister of tourism; the general secretary of the Greek Ministry of Defense; and senior economic staff from BDO Israel.

The conference received little mainstream coverage. Independent journalist Dimitri Lascaris obtained a ticket, attended the sessions, and recorded the presentations and discussions.

Lascaris said he paid to enter because it was the only way to access the closed sessions and observe what participants discussed. He described the experience as informative but disturbing.

In his summary of the first day, Lascaris reported several notable findings from the sessions he recorded:

He observed that speakers — roughly twenty people, including Greek ministers and deputy ministers — did not mention “Palestine” or “Palestinians” during the presentations. According to his account, there was no explicit criticism of Israel’s actions during the discussions he attended.

He also described an exchange in which a Cypriot politician, speaking to the Israeli ambassador who was seated nearby, acknowledged anticipated suffering but urged Israel to “finish the job.” Lascaris characterized that remark as advocating continued aggressive military action.

Lascaris’s footage and reports are posted on the Reason2Resist YouTube channel, where viewers can watch the recordings of the conference sessions and his commentary.