Syria tries to oust Israel from UN

Syria is expected to submit for a vote this week a potentially explosive resolution calling for the UN General Assembly to ''review Israel's status in the United Nations in the light of its fulfillment of UN Charter obligations,'' Monitor correspondent Louis Wiznitzer reports.

The document declares that Israel is not a peace-loving country and that it persistently violates the principles of the United Nations charter. It would pave the way procedurally and politically for a vote next fall to suspend or expel Israel from the world body under Chapter 7 of the UN charter.

Moderate Arab countries have disassociated themselves from Syria's initiative. The West and Latin American countries are expected to vote against it. Most Africans are expected to abstain.

Even so, it is expected to be adopted by a slim majority.

A third-world diplomat says some countries opposed to Israel's expulsion from the UN nevertheless will vote in favor of the resolution, which he says would serve as a warning to Israel for its ''arrogant'' and ''contemptuous'' behavior in the UN, and put political pressure on the United States, which is seen as having tilted too far toward Israel in recent weeks.

This source and other nonaligned diplomats say 70 or 80 countries are willing to ''dress Israel's ear'' by voting for the resolution, but there is nomajority in favor of actually expelling Israel.

Others worry that Syria and its friends may be throwing the baby out with the bath water. The US has threatened to pull out of the organization and suspend its financial support if Israel is booted out. Sources here say Syria's President Assad, faced with growing isolation and severe internal problems, is trying to provoke a major crisis as a diversionary move.