The Greek position on Lebanon

With Greece being the closest mainland EU country to the middle east, and Cyprus bearing the brunt of the influx of refugees, the current situation in the Lebanon has been big news over here. From a political point of view the Greek government is anxious to be seen as important and to make the most of the current seat they have on the UN Security Council. That means a lot of the talk has been about the need for diplomacy, for a ceasefire, and for concessions from both sides of the conflict in the south of Lebanon.

The press, the opposition parties, the students and the unions here have been less equivocal about criticising Israel's actions. This cartoon by Yannis Dermetzogiou in the Eleftheros Typos is typical - drawing an implicit comparison between the events of today and the events of the German occupation of Greece, here particularly referencing the atrocities that were carried out in Crete following the kidnapping of General Kreipe in 1944.