ARE WE LOOKING FOR CAESAR'S WIFE? :

In defense of a Mideast moderate (ADAM B. KUSHNER, July 12, 2002, Miami Herald)

[T]he closing of Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh's office by Israeli Public Security Minister and leading Likudnik Uzi Landau did mark a regrettable moment in the Middle East conflict. Nusseibeh is president of the Palestinian Al Quds University in East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and easily the most outspoken moderate Palestinian leader. [...]

Notwithstanding [a] minor infraction, Nusseibeh's credentials as a friend of peace are impeccable. The Harvard-educated Jerusalemite has long extolled liberalism and tolerance; he openly criticized Yasser Arafat's rejection of the generous Camp David offer, calling it ''a major missed opportunity''; he condemned the immorality of suicide bombings and beseeched Palestinians to abandon them as counterproductive; and he repudiated the right of return as a painful delusion. With enemies like Nusseibeh, who needs friends?

He is, in short, everything the Israelis and Americans hope for in a successor to Arafat. Nusseibeh is the kind of leader President Bush had in mind when he called for ''leaders not compromised by terror.'' That's why the closure drew criticism from center and left ministers and the White House, which said that the ``action does not contribute to the fight against terror.''

I'm with Mr. Kushner on this one, for a change. As he points out, some have speculated that the Israeli action is really intended to make Mr. Nusseibeh appear less suspect in the eyes of Palestinians, one hopes that's what's going on. If, instead, they are cracking down on one of the few voices of moderation for a relatively minor, even if troubling, breach of the interim peace accords, which are nearly a dead letter anyway, then they seem to be making a significant mistake.

Though we'd welcome a revolution or a reformation, we have to expect that progress towards peace and democracy in the Middle East will be fairly haphazard and frequently no more than incremental. The leaders who may be able to move the Arab world in that direction will not be 99 & 44/100ths% pure. Just as the movement towards markets and democracy in other parts of the world has necessitated our acceptance of imperfect folks like Franco, Pinochet, etc., so will we have to accept some dubious characters in the Middle East. Mr. Nusseibeh sounds at least like the best of a bad lot and maybe better than that. If we (the Israelis and Americans) remove the best options that the Palestinians have, then we leave them no other choices but the current wretched leadership of Arafat or the even more heinous option of Hamas.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 12, 2002 10:39 AM