Have we become a satellite state without knowing it?
Source: in-cyprus.com
I was reading readers’ comments on what I wrote yesterday about the well-known Israeli intervention and the equally well-known Cypriot servility and wondered what on earth my fellow citizens are thinking.
Do they think at all? Do they read before commenting on what they supposedly read? Do they engage their minds to reflect before expressing themselves as know-it-alls? But this is a general issue—let it be swept away.
What impressed me was the willingness of many to accept as logical that Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs should send a letter instructing the Cypriot government to erase anti-Israeli slogans from walls.
And they find it even more logical that the Cypriot government responded without delay and assigned the task to local authorities.
The issue here is not which side you support in the slaughter taking place in Gaza but whether we as a state now have such dependence on Israel that we owe obedience to directives from its ministers.
It appears from the reactions that many consider this our obligation. Because Israel is an ally! And the government apparently believes the same. They say it with such simplicity that it is striking.
A few days before the Israeli’s letter, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou, whilst in Tel Aviv, gave an interview to Kostis Konstantinou for Nea of Athens.
Asked whether there was a possibility of seeing Cyprus connected first to Israel via the electricity cable (GSI), should problems arise with the connection to Greece, he replied that there is great interest in Israel to connect to a larger unified network, but “naturally they are interested in interconnection with Cyprus because they know that Cyprus is like a satellite to Israel”.
Even if you ask Wikipedia what a satellite state is, it will tell you plainly that it is the political term that “describes a country that is nominally independent but is under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country“. So the Israelis know this. Are we proud of it?
Naturally, our close cooperation with Israel was a major step; the powerful Jewish lobby in the US has helped us enormously at many levels (even in lifting the arms embargo), just as we help them by opening doors to Europe.
But if we are to be a satellite state, at least let us exchange it for a stronger price. The liberation of Cyprus, for example. Or at least the development of deposits that remain on the seabed. Not simply erasing slogans from walls! And unilaterally.
When President Christodoulides visited Israel in April, the streets he travelled were decorated with posters placed by the family of Simon Aycoult, who stands trial for embezzlement in the occupied areas.
It was a photograph of Nikos Christodoulides with Hebrew text reading: “Cyprus is dangerous for Israelis”. Beside it was Aycoult’s photograph with the text: “Simon is imprisoned. A 75-year-old with cancer. Without trial.”
Did any of our ministers send a letter asking the Israeli government to remove these posters? Or did the Netanyahu government take it upon itself to remove them?
They did not, yet today they have the audacity to ask the Cypriot government to erase slogans. Precisely because “they know that Cyprus is like a satellite to Israel”. The problem is that many in Cyprus—ministers, citizens, parties—actually enjoy it.
Personally, I have written many times in this column and supported (expressing merely my opinion, naturally) developing relations with Israel, which began under Anastasiades and were strengthened further under Christodoulides, as a counterbalance to Turkish aggression.
But this does not mean we will turn a blind eye to Israel’s two-year slaughter of a people, nor that we will applaud interventions in our internal affairs as satellites. Let us learn to distinguish certain issues—we have become a mill.
The original article: belongs to in-cyprus.com .
