Israel's new ambassador to Greece, Pninat Yanai, spent her family vacation on Mykonos this summer and turned it into a d...

Israel's new ambassador to Greece, Pninat Yanai, spent her family vacation on Mykonos this summer and turned it into a diplomatic statement. Nearly 30 members of her family joined her on the island, and she shared photos of Aegean sunsets, boat trips, and a family table at a Greek taverna, including a moment where plate-smashing ended up in the post. Yanai wrote that her 82-year-old father, a retired school principal she described as normally a very serious man, ended up dancing with children and grandchildren on the island. "Maybe that says something about the magic of Greece," she added. Her personal post carries real weight on the diplomatic side. Israeli arrivals to Greece hit a record 743,841 in 2025, up from 620,805 in 2024, a jump of nearly 20 percent. That figure was already up sharply from 479,163 in 2023, meaning more than 264,000 additional Israeli visitors arrived over just two years. The data comes from the annual report of the Greek embassy's Economic and Commercial Affairs Office in Tel Aviv. Yanai said she wants to strengthen tourism flows in both directions during her tenure, describing it not as a commercial priority but as a way to build personal ties between people. Her summary of the Greece-Israel relationship was blunt: "Israelis don't come here simply as tourists. They fall in love with Greece." She added that the connection between the two countries already feels like family. "Sometimes diplomacy starts around a table, on a boat, or even with the breaking of plates in a Greek taverna," she wrote. #Greece #Israel #Mykonos