Does NATO Affect Israel In Any Way?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

NATO has kept the peace in Europe

The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, said in 1949 that the goal was "to.keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.  It's creation can be seen as the primary school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation against an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America.  It would be an attack against all.   

At present, NATO (North Atlantic Alliance) has 28 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (2004), and Albania and Croatia (2009).

• Dialogue and cooperation with Ukraine started after the end of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (1991) and the Partnership for Peace programme (1994).

NATO is presently weighing the job of sending  4 battalions in Eastern States to deter Russia.  Donald Trump would like to get rid of NATO because the USA pays most of its expenses and he thinks its rather outdated, now.  Trump's timing of getting rid of NATO is bad because Russia has been displaying "increasingly aggressive behavior that is challenging the international norms.  They are often in violation of international law.

The Baltic state of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004.  They have asked for greater presence of the NATO Alliance because they fear a threat from Russia after it annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.  Maybe they saw something brewing back in 2004.
                                                                                 

The Connected Forces Initiative (CFI) aims to enhance the high level of interconnectedness and interoperability Allied forces have achieved on operations and with partners. CFI combines a comprehensive education, training, exercise and evaluation programme with the use of cutting-edge technology to ensure that Allied forces remain prepared to engage cooperatively in the future.NATO Naval Drills Began in Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean in 2014. 

NATO is weighing the decision to rotate 4 battalions of NATO  troops through the Eastern member states  which means 4,000 troops. They will come from the USA and its allies and will be sent to the Baltic states and to Poland.   It's their latest proposal to guard against the aggressive behavior of Russia.

This information came from the testifying of US Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 28, 2016.  He was there testifying on operations against the ISIS.  Carter is now on a 3 day trip to Germany.
                                                                             

Deputy Commanding General, US Army Europe and Commander, US Army NATO General Richard C Longo, right, shakes hands with Polish general Adam Joks, left, ...

The USA budgeted to boost military training and exercises and announced last month about deploying continuous rotations of US based armored brigade combat teams to Europe.

Army General Curtis Scaparrotti will take over as the next NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.  He will be succeeding US Air Force General Philip Breedlove.

NATO  is based on the North Atlantic Treaty signed back on April 4, 1949.  The member states have agreed to a mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.  The headquarters of NATO is in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander lives.  Belgium is one of 28 member states across North America and Europe.  Albania and Croatia are the newest who joined in April 2009.  22 more countries participate in their NATO's Paretnership for Peace program.  15 other countries are involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes.  The combined military spending of all NATO members is over 70% of the global total.  Members' defense spending is supposed to amount to 2% of the GDP (Gross domestic product (GDP) is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period).  Since the USA's GDP is probably the highest, they have been carrying the highest amount that goes into their treasury.                                                
                                                                  

Afghan security forces are dying at five times the rate of NATO soldiers as Taliban insurgents step up attacks ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014, the latest figures show.

Here's a problem.  Only 5 member states of the 28 meet the defense spending goal.  They are Poland, USA, Great Britain, Greece and Estonia.  Overall, six countries are raising and six are cutting their military spending as a proportion GDP this year when compared with 2014, and the rest are staying the same.   Russia invaded and annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization spending is set to decrease by 1.5%, to roughly $893 billion.Some of these countries, including Latvia and Lithuania, are among those that increased their spending this year.  With USA officials, the military has for a long time found this financing problem a sore spot, so it hasn't been that Trump thought this one up all by himself out of the blue.  He got it from those he spoke to.  

U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James was in Brussels last week to confer with NATO officials, and she urged America’s allies to reverse the trend.
                                                                                

Israel is not a member of NATO.  "Israel might become a NATO member-state if its neighbours also joined.   Alternatively, Israel might become a NATO member-state if NATO somehow became an alliance aimed against the Arab and/or Muslim world. Failing those scenarios, Israeli membership is a non-starter.  There is no alliance group except the USA for Israel.  She stands pretty much alone against a large Arab alliance.  However, she is a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue of 7 States .  I'm glad to see her close neighbors of Egypt and Jordan standing with her.  
                                                                                 

NEGEV DESERT, Israel — U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau chief, meets Israeli Soldiers who were training in urban warfare techniques at the Israeli Defense Force’s National Center for Ground Training here Nov. 21, 2005. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell)

" Among NATO's partners are the Mediterranean Dialogue states, consisting of 7 countries:
Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Mauritania and Morocco. There is constant and ongoing connection between Israel and NATO, and Israel is regarded a Major non NATO ally, alongside Australia, South Korea and Japan."

Once upon a time, there was another force that was supposed to be protecting Israel.  "After the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Nations Emergency Force deployed in the Sinai Peninsula in order to serve as a buffer between Israel and Egypt.   But in 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded that the U.N. forces leave - which they did immediately. Nasser then threatened Israel with annihilation. The Six-Day War followed soon after."   So you can't put 100% of your faith in these outside forces.  Sadly, the NATO forces didn't help  Crimea.  

By May 13, 2015, "NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg added: "We are deeply concerned by statements of possible future stationing of nuclear weapons and development systems in Crimea."  Russia  had annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that was widely condemned by the international community but was greeted as a great patriotic victory at home.

NATO also warned President Vladimir Putin to waste no time in implementing a fragile peace deal to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, after the Russian strongman's meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday raised hopes of a slackening in tensions. 

The latest news in April 2016 is that  "NATO has moved to bolster its forces in its east European member states as a result of the Crimea-Russian fiasco.  Russia is widely accused of covertly backing the rebels who now control much of eastern Ukraine after a bloody armed conflict with the government in Kiev, "  and Ukraine is a NATO member.  "A national security paper was updated to say that NATO's recent build-up of military potential around Russia's borders constituted "violations of norms of international law".

"Tension between NATO and Russia, which both possess huge nuclear arsenals dating back to the Cold War, has clouded international relations since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine following the peninsula's disputed referendum on self-determination." 

  
This thing is too big.  Trump will not be able to give it up.  It's standing for peace, even though they failed already when bucking Russia.  The problem is money.  Other's have to shell out their fair share.  Some are already shook up and are doing it.  The right words may have been enough already  spoken by Trump in thinking that the biggest pockets are thinking of pulling out. 

On the other hand, can or will NATO do anything more about Russia's handling of Crimea and Ukraine?  Is it their role to do so?  If not, what are they paying for?  Can a WWIII start right here? 

Resource: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_52044.htm
 http://www.jewishjournal.com/world/article/nato_weighs_four_battalions_in_eastern_states_to_deter_russia
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28972878
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-calls-for-rise-in-defence-spending-by-alliance-members-1434978193
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-calls-for-rise-in-defence-spending-by-alliance-members-1434978193#:rwD_SInY51KWwA
http://jcpa.org/why-israel-opposes-international-forces-in-the-jordan-valley/
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/02/donald-trump-tells-crowd-hed-be-fine-if-nato-broke-up/?_r=0
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_37750.htm
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/europe/2015/05/13/nato-worried-by-russia-crimea-build-up/27272341/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35999657

Khazarians, Karaites, Tatars and The Jews of Crimea

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                             

Crimea has been a Russian peninsula in the Black Sea for years and years.  Way back in the 5th century BCE, there were Greek colonies here.  Jews settled there from the 1st Century BCE  before  the fall of Jerusalem from the Roman invasion but during their Occupation.  Roman soldiers had entered Crimea in 47 BCE and stayed until 330 CE.  Many were taken as slaves to work for the Roman army  in dirty work.   Inscriptions have been found dating this evidence.
                                                                                   

Along came the 7th century and eastern Crimea was controlled by the prevailing Khazars which lasted until 1117.  Khazaria's ruling party had converted to Judaism, but did not make it a forced decision on their population.  It was a choice.  The royal family had converted, that we know.
                                                                             

Karaites Dance 

By the 12th century, with Khazaria swallowed up by Russia, a large Karaite population lived in Crimea, centered at Eupatoria, Crimea.  Karaites were a Jewish sect that had rejected the Oral Law the rest of the Jewish family followed.  They had developed in the 8th century in and around Persia where the Jewish community was not long established and did not accept the discipline of the Babylonian gaonate (leadership).  They had been exposed to the Messianic hopes that came to them from the local  people.  There had been the Arab conquest of Persia in 640; the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, and the urge toward social justice and asceticism which they had inhaled from the local population.  An ancient document from the 760s was written by the new Karaite, Anan Ben David who had interpreted the Tanakh (Bible) literally and tried to deduce a code of life without reference to the Oral law.
                                                                             

The decendants of the khazars are most like the crimean karaites who 1) look "eastern" 2) speak turkic 3) are from the General area of the khazar empire

During the next few centuries, there were others who rejected the ancient Oral Law in this area. There were Karaites who traveled as far as to Egypt to make converts to their particular doctrine of Judaism.  They presented themselves as an austere asceticism that didn't go over very well.  Rabbis just avoided controversy with them until Saadyah Gaon, who died in 942, attacked them violently and tried to exclude them from the Jewish family.  Educated scholars emerged among the Karaites inaugurating the Golden Age of Karaite literature in  both Arabic and Hebrew.  Intermarriage between the 2 groups was common.  Karaite scholars studied along with rabbis and were influenced by them.
                                                                             

Karaites are Jews who take their shoes off before entering their shul.  

During the 10th century, Karaite communities sprang up in the Byzantine Empire of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Damascus, Syria, Cyprus, Toledo Spain which had gone Moslem, etc.  The Palestinian and Egyptian centers surpassed those of Persia and Babylonia which dwindled and degenerated.  The Palestinian Karaites were most austere, and had settled in Jerusalem and mourned for the Temple and prayed continually for redemption.  Karaism spread to the Crimea by the 12th Century, to Troki, Lithuania in the 13th century, and Volhynia (Luck), after the Russian Karaites received from the Czars privileges and rights denied the Rabbanites.  The question begs, why did the Russians accept Karaites and not mainstream Judaism?  Probably because they saw them as having broken away from the mainstream Judaism like Christianity had, and Judaism had been so slandered.  They saw Jesus as having broken away.  They just didn't know what they had broken from, and it WAS NOT THE TORAH.  IN FACT, THEY WERE STRONG KEEPERS OF THE TORAH.
                                                                               

At ancient Theodosia,today's (Kaffa), the Jewish community preserved the Byzantine rite of prayer, published finally in 1793 and is now extinct.  .  Many Jews converted to Islam under Tatar rule which was from the end of the 13th century.  In 1346, the bodies of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Kaffa (ancient Feodosiya). It has been speculated that this operation may have been responsible for the advent of the Black Death in Europe.  Kaffa had a synagogue there already in 909 CE, and a strong Jewish community was reported during the 13th to 15th centuries.  After the 18th century, the Jewish population declined and before WWII, numbered about 2,000.  
                                                                               

These Crimean Tatars planned on boycotting elections last year in September. "More than 99%of Crimean Tatars boycotted the Moscow-orchestrated referendum on transferring Crimea to Russian control, Mustafa Cemilev said. Now, as a result of enormous Russian pressure, 98% of them will not participate in Sunday’s election in their occupied homeland."

Crimean Tatars were a Turkic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula from the 13th to 17th centuries from Turkic tribes that moved to the land from the Asian steppes beginning in the 10th century and mixed in with the pre-Cuman population of Crimea.  The Tatars were led by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan in 1223 and they went into Kiev, Ukraine.  They constituted the majority of Crimea's population from the time of its ethnogenesis until the mid 19th century.  "Crimean Tatars are not Turkic but a mixture of many settlements from Europe to Asia."  When Tatars entered the area, they managed to cause the blending of Greeks, Armenians, Italians and Ottoman Turks on the southern coastline, Goths of the central mountains and Turkic-speaking Kipchaks and Cumans of the steppe which formed the Crimean Tatar ethnic group.  This Golden Horde of Tatars mixed with populations which had settled in Eastern Europe and Crimea since the 7th century; the  Tatars, Mongols, Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans and Kipchacks.  They took slaves from the eastern Europeans that they invaded, such as Polish, Lithuanians, Russians, etc.  
They emerged as a nation when the Crimean Khanate, which was an Ottoman Empire vassal state from the 15th to 18th centuries and was one of the great centers of slave trade for the Ottoman Empire.  Crimea had mostly adopted Islam in the 14th century following the conversion of Ozbeg Khan.  Note Khazaria went from pagan to Judaism, now Crimea switched to Islam.

The first Russian invasion of Crimea was in 1736. The Russian Empire annexed the territory of Crimea in the last quarter of the 18th century, after a number of bloody wars with the Ottoman Empire. The city of Simferopol had piped water, sewerage and a theatre where Moliere was performed in French.  Their port of Gozleve could be compared with Rotterdam. Bahcesarai, the capital,  was described as Europe's cleanest and greenest city.  "However, in the Crimea’s largest city of Sevastopol, which is considered a separate region of Crimea, there are very few Crimean Tatars and around 22 percent of Ukrainians, with over 70 percent of the population being Russians."
                                                                                

Crimean Tatars in traditional costume in traditional dance.

On the negative side, beginning in the 18th century, Crimean Tatars were known for annual and devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia.  The Crimean Khanate kept a huge slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East which was the basis of their economy.  Kefe was one of the most important trading ports and slave markets.  Slaves and freedmen formed about 75% of the Crimean population.

May 1944, the USSR ordered the removal of a majority of the Tatar population from Crimea, including the families of Crimean Tatars serving in the soviet Army-in trains and boxcars to Central Asia, mainly to Uzbekistan.  In 1967, some were allowed to return to Crimea.  In 1989, the USSR condemned the removal of Crimean Tatars from their motherland as inhumane and lawless.  Today the Tatars make up 12% of the population in Crimea.  A large group still lives in Turkey and Uzbekistan.  

The Genoese ruled southern Crimea in the 15th century and they prohibited interference with internal Jewish affairs.

From 1475 to 1783, the Turks ruled as the Ottoman Empire.  Chafut-Kale was the Jewish center then.  Many Jewish captives from the Ukraine next door were sent to Crimea after 1648.

Then the Russian conquest occurred in 1783 and many Ashkenazi Jews settled in Crimea.

In 1863, the Russian authorities granted the Karaites equal rights, but other Jews continued to suffer from disabilities until the 1917 Russian Revolution.

In the late 1920s, thousands of Jews were settled in Crimea under a plan to establish an autonomous Jewish agricultural center.  By 1939, the peak of Nazi takeover in Germany and disaster for the Jews, the Jewish population in Crimea numbered 50,000 including 40,000 Ashkenazim and 6,000 Krimchaks and 4,000 Karaites.

Almost everyone was wiped out by the Germans by 1941 and only a few, including some 300 Karaites, survived.
                                                                                 

Karaites Praying 

By   1980 the Jewish population was up to 25,614 from nothing.  Post WWII European Jews had made their way there for some unknown reasons; most likely common language and cultural reasons along with lack of finances.  They could have opted for Israel but didn't, no doubt because of the attacks previously happening there.  However, 1980 was a good year to make Aliyah.  I did.  Many Russians from the Motherland also did.  Why didn't the Crimean Jews?   Since 1948, the Karaites in Egypt moved to Israel, next door, settling in Matzliah and elsewhere.

 By 1990 there were 25,000 Karaites living in Israel.
                                                                     

When you come right down to it, Karaite doctrine is conservative and more stringent than rabbinical Jewish teachings.  It forbids levirate marriage (marriage with a brother's childless widow.  Such a marriage is commanded where the brother has left no offspring; ) see Deut 25:5, 25:7-10, and Lev 18:16.  and all  Sabbath lighting and is stricter on laws of purity.  They have differences in laws of ritual slaughter that prevent social intercourse with the Rabbanites.  They do not celebrate Hanukkah as it is post-biblical.  They do not use tephillin or mezuzot in prayers.  The surprise is that they have evolved with their own Oral Law, showing that through time, this is something necessary that takes place.  Sometimes theirs even overlaps rabbinical traditiion.  They just don't sanctify our Oral Law.  They rarely discuss ethics and metaphysics.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Jews of Khazaria, 2nd Edition by Kevin Alan Brook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-24/crimea-is-now-putin-s-problem-child
http://www.rt.com/news/crimea-facts-protests-politics-945/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_and_Tatar_states_in_Europe
http://www.forumbiodiversity.com/misc.php?do=vsarules
http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-features/50660/the-jews-who-take-their-shoes-shul