Concluding 5 years in Greece – Farewell Party- 25th June 2019
From Jerusalem to Athens and Back- a journey not to be forgotten
Fili Mou,
I am delighted having you all here my dear friends and sadly I have to say goodbye after five years. Ena megalo efcharisto, to all of you for being my dear colleagues and such close friends. From the first moment I landed in this wonderful country, I felt the warmth and friendship that has no comparison anywhere else. After 5 years here, I can truly testify that filoxenia is a word that has no translation in any other language since there is nothing comparable to the Greek filoxenia.
I would like to thank the amazing staff of the embassy, the diplomats, the current ones and those who worked with me in the past 5 years as well as the local staff, which is so devoted to pushing forward our bilateral relations. You are outstanding and deserved the awards we received twice in the past 5 years from the Israeli MFA as the best embassy worldwide.
I am honored to thank the two most kind and admirable ladies, Esther and Lilia, the 2 marvelous women that made sure everything in my life was in order, elegant and hospitable.
I wish to also thank Panos, my devoted driver, who is the most amazing person I have met. His kindness and personal care to do everything for my safety and comfort in any way possible will never be forgotten. My thanks go to the Greek VIP security unit, the 12 wonderful policemen who were my shadow for the past 5 years. I apologize for making you visit all possible exhibitions in Greece, for making you listen to all possible classical music concerts and especially Greek music, for watching theatrical plays, dance performances -for making you walk in all the streets of Athens and climb the mountains surrounding it. You were amazing and I thank you for your endless patience, kindness and warm hearts. And to all the devoted policemen who guarded my residence day and night I convey my heartfelt thanks.
I am returning to Israel in mid -August, after 5 very enriching years, and will be back at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I still do not know what my next position will be but one thing I can say, and Cavafy coined it so beautifully:
As you set out bound for ITHACA
Hope that the journey is a long one
Full of adventures full of learning
Greece was a unique experience both professionally and personally. It is a place that enriches your mind, spirit and intellect. It stimulates all your five senses of Aristotelis, every day and every hour. Athens is like Tel Aviv that I grew up in, with the markizas and the balconi and the portokali trees everywhere. I grew to like Athens by continuously walking in its various neighborhoods. I learned to love the nature surrounding it by constantly climbing the mountains around it, and I adore the countryside, which I travelled through quite extensively. To know this great country of yours, one has to travel to its countryside to all the villages, to the remotest islands -to sit in the local cafenions and in the local platias under the huge Platania trees. I will miss these scenes of Greece, the special smells of the flowers of the orange trees, of the Jasmine, the lavender, the hundreds of varieties of herbs one can smell all around. I will miss the authentic Greek music in the clubs that I visited quite often as well, the fascinating modern and contemporary artwork by Greek artists whom I grew to love. And I will mostly miss the wonderful warm people with a huge heart of this beautiful land. But luckily Greece is near and I promise to visit you often.
These were an extremely important 5 years in Israel-Greece relations. I arrived during the heyday of the Samaras Government. The first few months of my tenure under Nea Demokratia were a manifestation of the change in our relations that took place 4 years earlier. I found a very warm government, close ties, a positive general attitude to Israel, and a great will to see this change being pushed forward. When Syriza came into power in January 2015, there was great concern in Jerusalem, not knowing what the intentions of the Tsipras Government were. When I met PM Tsipras a few days after the January elections, I conveyed a message of a great wish in Jerusalem to see our relations pushed forward even more. I found PM Tsipras confident in his will to maintain good relations with Israel.
The first half of that year was tough for Greece. Nevertheless, the doors were opened for me at every Minister’s office, and at the military and defence authorities as well. In those 6 months we managed to do the almost impossible-to expose Israel to the new political leadership of this country, a political party which officially did not have relations with Israel until then.
During these 6 months, we laid the foundations for the trilateral cooperation between Israel, Cyprus and Greece and the strong strategic bilateral relations with Greece that we enjoy until today.
Our relations are of strategic nature. We have learned to put aside our differences of opinion on issues related to the Palestinian conflict and to highlight the commonalities. We have solidified our relations in common areas of interest and emphasized the fields in which we can work together rather than our disagreements.
Being here in my current capacity since the initiation of the trilateral process and now the 3+1 with the United States, I followed the extremely interesting rapprochement between our leaders, which became very close personal affiliation, despite the extreme political differences. I also had a chance to observe the strengthening of the dialogue between our various ministers on all issues that the trilateral dialogue covers like energy, environment, anti- terror, diaspora, health, public security, defence and security, etc. It is a fascinating process to follow and I am privileged to have taken part in formalizing it and following it very closely.
We have come a long way in our bilateral relations with Greece. We have institutionalized our relations in such a way that Greece will always remain a strong and strategic ally of Israel. And this is the most important change that has occurred in our bilateral scene in the last few years. These relations are now well rooted in our political narrative.
Israel and Greece are so close geographically. We are neighbors in the East Mediterranean which never ceases to challenge us and the whole world. It is only natural for us to be allies and good friends. We have certainly left past times of tense bilateral relations behind us.
We should highlight more our historical past, when Jews from the Land of Israel, settled down in Greece, Yavan as we call it in Hebrew, in the 1st century BC in places like Ioannina, Delos and Sparta, where archaeological excavations were found with Hebrew scripts and Jewish symbols. We should study the close contacts between Hellenism and Judaism in biblical times and beyond, the admiration of the Jewish philosophers for Greek philosophers, the influence of the Greek language on the Hebrew language, which is significant, and more. The word Judaism, to define the people of the bible, was first used by the Greeks during Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Land of Israel. Greek was the first language that the bible was translated into. We can dive into the histories of Athens and Jerusalem, both political and spiritual important centers in history, that were neglected at times and won their importance and glory back later in history. Our common heritage has to be learned and discussed more and can serve as a valuable contribution to our strengthened bilateral relations.
We Israelis are different from you Greeks. This has been my constant discourse in all our weekly staff meetings at the embassy and it can be a title of a nice book on cultural differences. I appreciate your kindness and hospitality, your insights into the intellectual history of Greece, your pride in your past and your pride in your valuable contribution to democracy and western civilization. Being both ancient civilizations, we can appreciate the impact of ancient languages and religions on our national identities.
Before I conclude, a word about the Greek Jewish community. It may be small in size, due to its tragic history, but carries the heavy legacy of its ancient heritage. The Jews of Greece played a major role in Greece’s history. They contributed to the political, social and intellectual history of Greece and the Jewish world. Thessaloniki was the jewel of Sephardic Jewry. From there major Jewish philosophical work emerged, beautiful Sephardic poetry was versed, and Ladino theatre invented. And today, as proud children of this magnificent Jerusalem of the Balkans, and other Jewish important centers all over Greece, the Jews of Greece being long time citizens of this wonderful country, are an important asset in the new era of Greece-Israel bilateral relations.
I thank you all my dear friends from all Jewish communities of Greece, for your friendship and I am proud of you, our Greek Jewish diaspora.
To my colleagues in the diplomatic corps, politicians from all parties, military officers, businesspeople, academics, artists, authors and many others, I thank wholeheartedly for your kindness and for your filoxenia that made my stay in Greece unforgettable.
To my successor, Ambassador Yossi Amrani, currently our ambassador in Budapest, I wish a very successful tenure in Athens.
May peace prevail in our hearts and our lands.