As Eastern Europe preens for NATO

As Eastern Europe preens for NATO,
Jews seen as canary in a coal mine

By
Adam B. Ellick

Rabbi Andrew Baker, foreground, of the American Jewish Committee, addresses the NATO Aspirant Summit in Bucharest

BUCHAREST— At first glance, it appeared a bit odd: An American Jewish leader addressing 10 Eastern European prime ministers at a military summit.

So odd that when Rabbi Andrew Baker, international director of the American Jewish Committee, entered the NATO Aspirant Summit in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday, he asked himself, Why am I here?

"We sometimes suggest Jews are the proverbial ‘canary in the cage,´ a litmus test of what’s going on in society," Baker said. "They play that role in this region, with their ability here to revive, function and be accepted in society.

It’s useful for people sitting in judgment of NATO enlargement if Jews feel comfortable. That says something about the society. If Jews feel anxious, insecure and have problems, that says something of those communities, too."

The NATO military alliance expects to add seven new member states in November. Among the criteria for candidate countries is a free market economy and various defense stipulations, but also a "high standard in treatment of national ethnic and religious minorities" and "shared values," according to NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel.

Enlargement is a political decision and requires approval by the parliaments of all 19 NATO member states, including two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.

The AJ Committee organized a roundtable discussion with Jewish leaders from NATO aspirant nations this week, in the shadow of the summit. The purpose, Baker said, was to put pressing Jewish issues — such as anti-Semitism, Holocaust restitution, education and commemoration — on the radar screen of political leaders who may be especially responsive while their bids for NATO entry are under consideration.

"I really think the fact that Jewish leaders were included in the summit with prime ministers indicates the seriousness of Holocaust issues," said Bruce Jackson, president of the U.S. Committee for NATO, a watchdog organization that monitors Jewish affairs among NATO hopefuls. "If you don´t get the past right, you aren’t going to get the future right."

Jewish issues are among the top five areas the U.S. State Department checks when examining NATO aspirants, said Heather Conley, deputy assistant secretary for European affairs.

"To say these countries will reach a state of perfection before November is not realistic, but we can expect a commitment on educational work, and restitution," she said.

Jewish leaders from aspirant nations Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Romania issued status reports on their governments´ performance, as did leaders from the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, which entered NATO in 1999.

No country stood out clearly as the best. Instead, Jackson said, each country is like a teenager, maturing at its own pace.

Lithuania´s lagging record on communal property restitution is the most outstanding NATO issue in the Baltics, Jackson said, but he praised its ambitious Holocaust education program.

Estonia, meanwhile, restituted Jewish property, but its textbooks contain just three sentences on the Holocaust.

If recent history is any guide, action on issues of Jewish interest may constitute more rhetoric than action. Promises by the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary to return certain properties have gone unfilled since the countries joined NATO.

"When we were joining NATO there were important Jewish declarations, but after they joined it was negligence in restitution," said Ferenc Olti, vice president of the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities. "Practically nothing happened in the last two years."

Tomas Kraus, from the Czech Republic, warned his colleagues to "make appeals as quickly as possible, because in a couple of years it won’t be there."

Despite some unresolved issues, Hungary’s cooperation is relatively good, and "the problems there might be worse without them being under this NATO umbrella," Baker said.

Nicholas Lane, chairman of the AJCommittee´s international committee, took a more skeptical view.

"It’s a game of bluff," he said. "Americans insist NATO requires shared values and they’re right. The difficulty is that once you’re in NATO, there isn’t a police force that goes around checking if you still have the values. So we work on principle and argue for what we want, and see if they’re anxious enough or conscientious enough to take action."

Perhaps expectations of NATO’s effectiveness are a bit too high. The alliance is not a police force, after all, and cannot be "the solution to cultural, religious problems in Europe," Jackson said.

Still, "it does provide a hell of a lot of leverage," he noted. "The question for NATO is, are these societies committed to the first step? Eradicating anti-Semitism will take the better part of the coming century, but NATO can give it a stab."

A baby step occurred on March 15 in the Latvian capital of Riga, when the Latvian National Soldiers´ Association decided to cancel its annual procession commemorating Latvian legionnaires who fought alongside Nazi troops against the Soviets in 1943. The group said it feared any commotion would damage Latvia’s bid to enter NATO.

In neighboring Lithuania, controversy over the Holocaust has raged for years. In January the government ended a six-year debate by handing over more than 300 Torah scrolls to world Jewry, a move that Jackson says helped Lithuania’s NATO bid.

The Torah exchange even was discussed when Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus visited U.S. President George Bush in January.

European leaders, for their part, often take offense when their cooperation on Jewish matters is portrayed as appeasement to Western leaders.

"All human rights and democratic issues, we are not doing for NATO. We are doing them for ourselves," said Giedrius Cekuolis, Lithuania’s chief negotiator for NATO and vice foreign minister. "I see human rights and Holocaust issues" as important "not because they are asking us, but because it’s a part of Lithuania’s history."

Still, the importance of joining NATO cannot be overstated in Eastern Europe. The alliance offers a virtual insurance of security — a precious gift to countries like Lithuania, which saw German, Polish and Russian forces occupy its territory during the 20th century.