The State of Israel, so small and with so many deadly adversaries, impresses with its military strength. It is widely recognized for maintaining a highly powerful military, despite its small geographic size and population. That military strength and nuclear ability is characterized by a "Qualitative Military Edge", focusing on superior technology, intelligence, and training to counter numerical disadvantages.
The former Portuguese Empire had Jewish soldiers and individuals who served in various military and administrative capacities. During the centuries of the Reconquista and the Discoveries, Portugal had extremely valuable Jewish military factions in its army, far beyond the science and funding provided by the Jewish community to the nation's kings.
The experienced warrior Yaish ben Yahia - close friend of the King Afonso Henriques - was invested as Chief Rabbi of Portugal in the 12th century to authorize the Jewish population of military age to go to the battlefield even on Shabbat.
Historically, Jews were recognized as cultured men who worked in various trades and professions, including as financiers, medics, but also a large number of dedicated soldiers who served the Portuguese court.
In the 20th century, Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, a Portuguese army captain known as the "Portuguese Dreyfus" and the "Portuguese Schindler," was a pivotal Jewish figure who fostered a military and Jewish cultural revival in Porto. At a time when Portugal still owned a large part of its Empire, with the exception of Brazil, Basto was gassed in Flanders, survived years on the front lines, and still faced all the powers of the State alone, at a time when the State of Israel did not yet exist to tell him how to proceed.
