Officials in Jerusalem are anxiously anticipating the United Nations' upcoming appointment of a new human rights commissioner to replace Louise Arbour, the Canadian jurist and former Supreme Court judge who stepped down earlier this week.

As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon interviews prospective candidates, Israeli officials are attempting to exert their influence in the hopes the world body taps a figure whom Jerusalem perceives as non-hostile.

Two candidates in particular are worrisome from Israel's standpoint - Luis Alfonso de Alba, a Mexican diplomat who has expressed anti-Israel views in years past; and the Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who aroused Jerusalem's ire after paying an official visit to Iran earlier this year.

Despite past differences of opinion on a host of issues, Israeli officials have conducted an open, continuous dialogue with Arbour during the last three years of her tenure. The high point of the …