Israel Should Beware Algeria

To the editors:

I must admit that when I read "An Unfinished Venture" by Adam J. Levitin (Opinion, April 29), I was moved.

Levitin's historical comparisons of contemporary Israel to ancient Sparta and Athens was especially remarkable, simply because they ring so true. Like the ancient Athenian democracy, Israel is an armed citizen-state that must remain continually wary of its neighbors. And while we sitting comfortably here in the West might see an Israel at peace with Egypt and Jordan, our "reality" may well turn out to be an illusion. If either of these countries were to ever fall to the forces of Islamic-fundamentalism, the "situation on the ground" would be dramatically transformed. Israel would most certainly find itself in mortal danger.

While many eyes will be on the parades in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv this spring and summer to mark Israel's five decades of statehood, there is an equally important nation to monitor: Algeria. As this letter is being written Algeria is teetering on the verge of disaster. Its civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and we could very well be looking at an Iranian-like fundamentalist regime in that part of the region within two or three years.

If Algeria could fall, so could Egypt, and so could Jordan, and so could Saudi Arabia. The menace of Islamic fundamentalism requires Israel to maintain one foot in "Sparta" and the other in "Athens." DANIEL B. KURZ   Rutgers University   April 30, 1998