Israel and Turkey are on a collision course, and Greece is now a central piece of the strategy. A newly finalized milita...

Israel and Turkey are on a collision course, and Greece is now a central piece of the strategy. A newly finalized military agreement called "Achilles' Shield" will see Israel supply Greece with a multi-layered missile defense system, including anti-drone capabilities, going beyond what most European NATO members currently possess. The deal also extends to Cyprus, and Israeli defense company IAI is expected to subcontract some components to Greek manufacturers. The backdrop is a dramatic reversal of what was once a close alliance. Between 1999 and 2015, IAI signed over 30 cooperation agreements with Turkish firms, and the two countries even explored a shared water pipeline project from the Tigris-Euphrates basin to Israel's Negev desert. That era is over. Erdogan has made the Palestinian cause a central pillar of his politics, while Turkey has repositioned itself in both Syria and Iraq, leaving Israel increasingly concerned about strategic encirclement. Israel's answer has been to lean into its partnership with Greece. The two governments see aligned interests in containing Turkish reach across the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Achilles' Shield agreement formalizes that alignment in concrete defense terms. Greece is also in the middle of its largest military modernization in modern history, with a plan presented to parliament in April 2025 that projects around 28 billion euros in defense spending through 2035, including 40 F-35s purchased from the US and new frigates from France and Italy. The agreement will take years to be fully operational, and geopolitics in the region can shift quickly. But analysts see this as a deliberate act of geopolitical engineering, one that could meaningfully limit Ankara's influence in the Eastern Mediterranean if it holds. Turkey's growing presence in Syria and its burial of the Kurdish question in Iraq have already altered the regional balance considerably. #Greece #Israel #Turkey