On the eve of the Green Party’s national convention, which begins today at Milwaukee, the American Conservative magazine carries an interview of presidential candidate Ralph Nader by Patrick Buchanan, the erstwhile candidate for the Republican nomination who shares with Mr. Nader an aversion to both free trade and Israel. The magazine quotes Mr. Nader as saying, “The subservience of our congressional and White House puppets to Israeli military policy has been consistent.” Mr. Buchanan asks, “Why do both sets of puppets, support the Sharon/Likud policies in the Middle East rather than the peace movement candidates and leaders in Israel?” Mr. Nader responds, “That is a good question.”

Meanwhile, in what appears to be a bid for the Green Party’s nomination and the ballot access that comes with it, Mr. Nader this week named as his running mate Peter Miguel Camejo, who was the Green Party candidate for governor of California. The draft Green Party plat form calls for an end to all American aid to Israel, affirms “the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel,” and supports “a U.S. foreign policy which promotes serious reconsideration of the creation of one, secular, democratic state, for Palestinians and Israelis, on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.”

In other words, it is a politely phrased call for the destruction of the Jewish state. If there is a healthy aspect to this, it is that Messrs. Buchanan and Nader and their views are for the most part absent from the mainstream of the major parties, that is, the Republicans and the Democrats.

Yet one lesson of the 20th century is that these fringe political movements of the left and the right need to be monitored carefully. There is plenty of precedent for a coalition between the far right and the far left. And all too often this kind of mix had blossomed into a malignant politics that has ended up with tragic results.