B’Nai-B’rith chief's interview: Greece and Israel ‘making up for lost time’

“We have turned a page in Greek-Israeli relations and there’s no going back,” notes Dan Mariaschin, executive vice president and chief executive of B’Nai-B’rith, one of the two biggest American-Israeli organizations in the United States, ekathimerini.com reports.

Kathimerini newspaper met up with Mariaschin in Jerusalem on the sidelines of the Israel-Hellenic Forum, an initiative that included the participation of academics and journalists and is aimed at strengthening ties between Greece, Israel and Cyprus at the civil society level as well. The forum’s next meeting will take place in Greece, followed by Cyprus and the US. Coordinated on the Israeli side by the director of B’nai-B’rith’s World Center in Jerusalem, Alan Schneider, and on the Greek side by the researcher and academic George Tzogopoulos, the event covered topics ranging from security and the geopolitical dimension of the relationship between the three Eastern Mediterranean countries to cultural and economic cooperation. It was attended, among others, by Cyprus’ former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, Cyprus Ambassador in Tel Aviv Thessalia Salina Shambos and former Israeli ambassador to Greece Irit Ben-Abba.

Mariaschin underlines the need to further expand the relationship between the three countries, noting that the Jewish and Greek diasporas in the United States can – and want to – play an important role to this end, and concluding that even if ties between Israel and Turkey were to improve, this would not affect the “natural affinity” between the Israelis and the Greeks.

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