Greek complicity in Gaza blockade driven by economic desperation and prospect of gas pipeline

It has been widely reported and speculated that the reason for Greece's participation in the suppression of Freedom Flotilla Two may be found in its own economic situation - that the government of Prime Minister George Papandreou, pushing a devastating IMF/EU austerity plan on the Greek people against their will, is so desperate for international financial and economic support that it is willing to serve as the enforcement arm for Israel's illegal siege on Gaza.

Yesterday, in Vancouver, Canada, a Greek consular official, Georgios Ayfantis, confirmed that this is indeed the case.

In a conversation with a delegation of activists supporting the Tahrir, the Canadian Boat to Gaza, who entered the consulate demanding a meeting about the Freedom Flotilla, Ayfantis asserted that Greece's economic interests were at stake in stopping the Flotilla, saying that an undersea natural gas pipeline and a natural gas liquidizing plant in Crete were at stake.

The offer Netanyahu made followed on Papandreou's visit to Israel in July 2010 - the first visit of a Greek Prime Minister in decades - and is sharply at odds with both the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions from Israel, and Greek public opinion, which even the World Jewish Congress concedes is "clearly pro-Palestinian."

Ayfantis further asserted that the Papandreou government's enforcement of the Israeli siege was about "interests," that Greece was afraid of Israel, and that the U.S. - and the Canadian government of Stephen Harper - is backing Israel completely.

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