Middle East Mistake

The process of peace will be made no easier by Israel’s deportation of Akram Haniye, the editor of Al Shaab, an Arabic-language newspaper.

Haniye has been depicted as a moderate, committed to a peaceful solution of the Arab-Israel dispute. The Israel Supreme Court upheld the government decision that denied him an opportunity to see the evidence of his alleged anti-state activity. The army said it had evidence that Haniye was an activist in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Access to the evidence would have compromised intelligence sources, it was argued.

Great Britain, speaking for the European Community, has challenged the action as a violation of international law, and so it would seem to be. The legal dispute aside, the action is another setback in the process of engaging negotiations. A major barrier to peace has been the continuing unwillingness of the PLO to accept openly and unequivocally the existence of Israel. Moderation within the PLO has too often brought assassination. To the extent that Haniye represented one of those voices of moderation, his deportation makes less likely concessions from the PLO.

In the tension of the Middle East, excesses come easily, but that makes them no more acceptable. The use of lethal force by the occupying Israeli troops on the West Bank in the face of recent riots is as deplorable as the earlier killing in cold blood of a Jewish seminarian in Jerusalem. Israel is now faced with an international investigation of possible violations of international law in the way it took captive Mordechai Vanunu, the former nuclear technician who is accused of selling secrets concerning nuclear-weapons development.

Israel’s strength in no small measure grows with its strict adherence to principle and the rule of law, a respect that has set the nation apart from some who have sought to destroy it. The weakening of that commitment would be unwise and dangerous.