The Eastern Mediterranean is at a crossroads, and the EastMed Pipeline – linking Greece, Cyprus, and Israel in a defiant energy pact – stands as a promise and a test. This isn’t just a pipeline. It is a battle cry for sovereignty, a chance to redraw the energy and geopolitical map, and a slap to the face of timidity.
The United States, under a newly emboldened administration, is dangling the prospect of reviving this 1.900-kilometre lifeline, a project that could pump 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually into Europe’s veins. Yet it is courage, not just cash, that will decide if it lives or dies. Greece, Cyprus, and Israel must force it through, and Europe must wake up to why it matters.
The Greece-Cyprus-Israel alliance is forged in adversity. Greece offers its strategic spine. Cyprus, unbowed by Turkish threats, brings its gas-rich waters. Israel, a warrior-state, endows it with Leviathan’s bounty. Together, they are a middle finger to Ankara’s neo-Ottoman delusions and Moscow’s energy stranglehold.
The EastMed Pipeline is a means to break Europe’s reliance on Russian gas, side-line Turkey’s tantrums and make Greece the EU’s southern energy hub. This must happen, because the alternative is servitude.
It almost did, until cowardice killed it. In 2020, Athens, Nicosia, and Jerusalem signed the deal, backed by the EU as a Project of Common Interest. Then came 2022: the Biden administration, trembling at Turkey’s barks, pulled support under the excuse of “environmental concerns”.
Worse, Greece’s own government – led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, poster boy of spineless liberalism – abandoned ship. Where was the fight? Where was the roar of a nation that respects its millennia of history? Instead of challenging Erdogan’s gunboats, Mitsotakis mumbled platitudes about green agendas and “dialogue”, letting a €6 billion dream rot. Turkey won and Greece retreated. Shameful.
Now the US offers a second chance and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Europe is shivering through energy crises. Russia and Ukraine alike turn the gas tap into a weapon and LNG tankers from Qatar or America can’t fully plug the gap.
The EastMed’s gas is not just fuel. It is freedom – cleaner than coal, reliable, and from democracies, not despots. For the US, it is a chance to cement influence in the East Med, countering Russia and China while binding NATO’s south.
But will it materialise? The odds are 50-50 -and that might be generous. Costs could spiral past €10 billion, the seabed is a technical nightmare and Turkey is itching to sabotage it with drills or warships. Green fanatics in Brussels might choke it with red tape, too. It is a brutal fight.
Yet it must happen, because the cost of failure is existential. Without the EastMed, Europe stays an energy hostage, Turkey’s blackmail intensifies and Greece fades into irrelevance.
This pipeline redraws the map. It bypasses Ankara’s coastline, isolates its aggression, and forges a Greece-Cyprus-Israel axis that could pull Egypt and others into a bloc strong enough to resist Erdogan. Greece becomes a gateway, not a doormat. Cyprus thrives, not just survives. Israel’s gas fuels a continent. This is geopolitical muscle Europe and America cannot afford to pass on.
So why the hesitation? Enter the Athens timid elite. Mitsotakis and his crew treat Turkey’s threats like sacred edicts, not the pomp of a bully. When Turkish frigates prowl European waters or Erdogan disrespects borderlines, Greece’s response is diplomatic murmur, not defiance.
This pipeline demands a backbone. Athens must rally Europe, convince investors it has the resolve to pull through and look Turkey in the eye. The US can nudge, the EU can fund, Israel can provide security guarantees, but Greece must lead – or it is complicit in its own decline.
The clock is ticking. EastMed could be operational by 2030, but only if the will outmuscles the whining. Technical hurdles? Solve them. Costs? Pay them. Turkey? Face it with ships and sanctions, not handshakes.
Europe needs this gas, America needs this win, and Greece needs this historic comeback. The Greece-Cyprus-Israel triad has the vision. Now it demands the guts. Let’s not mince words: if EastMed dies again, it will not be fate, but failure. And history will not forgive the faint-hearted.
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