HOME-FRONT WATCH : Bigotry Potential

In the United States, of all places, patriotism and bigotry belong high on any list of emotions with absolutely nothing in common.

But according to the Associated Press, an Arab-American professor in San Francisco got death threats for saying publicly that he thinks the Middle East crisis should be settled by negotiations.

And 2.5 million Arab-Americans, who have seen that sort of thing before in the wake of terrorist assaults abroad, worry that the scattered incidents to date are only the beginning of something nasty.

Is such bigotry mindless? Of course.

Consider that one target was an Egyptian-American in Cleveland; Egypt is the linchpin of Arab opposition to Saddam Hussein’s sending Iraqi troops swaggering into neighboring Kuwait.

Consider that Jawad F. George, executive director of the National Assn. of Arab-Americans, calls Hussein “an international renegade.”

Vilifying Americans because of skin color or lilt of speech will not improve the American position in the Middle East by a single grain of desert sand.

The nation will come out ahead in the first post-Cold War test of international codes of conduct by thinking clearly about its next moves and then sending patriots to make them.

Nobody knows whether the fears of Arab-Americans are valid. But the potential is there, particularly if Hussein harms his American hostages.

It’s a potential so heinous to contemplate that President Bush should condemn it at the earliest opportunity.