At the end of 1947, while the Greek Civil War was in full swing, Greece was the only country in the Western world to vote at the UN against the creation of a Jewish state in the region of Palestine. Over the next four decades, up to the de jure recognition of Israel by the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis in 1990, Greek-Israeli relations went through a period of prolonged crisis. During the same period, Greece's relations with the Arab states developed in exactly the opposite direction, as Athens made striking “openings” toward the Arab world.

The aim of this book is to offer a general overview of Greek policy in the Middle East from the end of World War II until the early 1980s and to highlight the factors that “pushed” Greek diplomacy to adopt a pro-Arab stance: the need to protect the Greek community of Egypt and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria; the effort to secure the support of the Arab states at the UN, especially on the Cyprus issue; the perception of Israel's position in the international system; the sense that Greece's strategic importance would be strengthened if it played the role of a “bridgehead” between the Western world and the Arabs; and the promotion of Greek economic interests in the Middle East.