THE DECISION by Israel's Supreme Court to refuse extradition of Samuel Sheinbein to stand trial for murder in Maryland violates Israel's treaty of extradition with the United States.
It mocks the proud and law-abiding dual citizenship of some 50,000 U.S.-Israeli citizens by making Israel a haven for other accused criminals fleeing justice. It compromises Israel's friendly relations with the United States.
The decision also is the rule of law. Israel's Supreme Court found that a domestic law of 1978 takes precedence over the 1963 treaty obligation. It ruled 3-2 that Samuel Sheinbein -- a U.S. citizen born here who entered Israel on a U.S. passport -- is an Israeli citizen by family connection. His father, a U.S. citizen for nearly a half-century, is an Israeli citizen by virtue of birth in pre-independence Palestine.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government wanted to extradite Samuel Sheinbein to Maryland, but lost the case. Yesterday, Israel's attorney general, Elyakim Rubinstein, wisely asked the Supreme Court to reconsider.
It is Israel's law, not the government or the court, that is wrong. A favorable court ruling or a change in the law by Israel's parliament can make it right. Without that, Israel must live with the criticism. Since the highly unpopular ruling last week, most Israelis probably hope to see the law changed. They demand that Israel be a haven for Jews who are persecuted for being Jewish, not a sanctuary for criminals fleeing justice.
Samuel Sheinbein and Aaron Needle were charged with the ghoulish murder of Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr., whose dismembered and charred body was found in Montgomery County in September 1997. Aaron Needle hanged himself in the Montgomery County jail a day before his trial was to begin last April. Young Sheinbein, 17 at the time of the crime, faced possible life in prison without parole.
If Israel's Supreme Court does not change its mind, the Montgomery County state's attorney should cooperate fully with Israel's good-faith intent to prosecute Samuel Sheinbein there.
It would be a strange proceeding. The witnesses and defendant speak no Hebrew, the language of the trial. Instead of a possible sentence of life without chance of parole in Maryland, a guilty verdict might produce a dozen years or more in an Israeli prison.
While assisting that prosecution, Montgomery County authorities might also consider the possibility of prosecuting whoever helped the defendant escape for obstruction of justice.
Samuel Sheinbein should be tried in Maryland under Maryland law for a crime in Maryland. Anything else would be, at best, a partial miscarriage of justice.
