Israel’s Arens Visits Bush, Tells of Nation’s War Losses : Diplomacy: A second Cabinet member prepares to call as a survey indicates that American public has warmed toward Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens visited top American officials Monday in an effort to raise Israel’s profile in Persian Gulf strategy discussions at a moment when Israeli prestige in the United States is rising. Another Cabinet minister from Israel is due in Washington later this week.

Calling on President Bush, Arens described “the casualties and damage that have affected the Israeli civilian population” since the Gulf War began Jan. 17, mainly destruction caused by Iraqi Scud-missile assaults on Israeli territory.

“It was really dramatic that during our meeting I received a notice that there was a (Scud) alarm in Israel at that very moment,” Arens told reporters as he left the White House. The alarm signaled Iraq’s 32nd missile firing at Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, after stopping in Miami on a private mission, will travel to Washington for a meeting with Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and he almost certainly will also see President Bush, officials here said.

The visits occur as a new survey was released indicating that the American public has warmed substantially toward Israel since the Gulf War began.

A poll conducted by the Democratic consulting firm Marttila & Kiley for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith cited nearly two-thirds of those surveyed as saying that Israel’s restraint in the Gulf War--withholding instant retaliation for the Scud attacks--has raised their opinion of the Jewish state.

Now nearly three-fifths of Americans hold a positive view of the Israeli government--up from only one-fourth in December, the survey showed. And, by a margin of 60% to 17%, Americans sympathize more with Israel than with its Arab neighbors in longstanding Arab-Israeli disputes.

On the eve of his departure for the United States, Levy spoke Monday night in Jerusalem to World Jewish Congress leaders, declaring that Israel must “be at the forefront of the campaign for peace” and take advantage of political shifts brought on by the Gulf War to begin a new diplomatic initiative in the Middle East.

There has been speculation in the region that Syria, one of the Arab nations allied with the United States in Operation Desert Storm, may show a new willingness to negotiate a peace accord with Israel, and while Levy, in his speech, did not mention Syria specifically, he proclaimed:

“If there are Arab nations that want peace with Israel, they will find Israel willing, with its hand stretched out.”

A reporter later pressed Levy about whether he would be willing, in any peace agreement with Syria, to give up the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Damascus in 1967’s Six-Day War and later annexed. Levy avoided rejecting outright the possibility of territorial compromise, repeating only: “I want negotiations--with no preconditions.”

Arens is the highest-ranking Israeli to visit Washington since the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, and a White House official said that he emphasized to Bush the pressure that the Israeli government is under to respond to the Scud attacks.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arens stressed that Israel has been patient but that “there is a breaking point” and that he hoped Bush appreciated the restraint Israel has shown.

After seeing the President, Arens called on Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

Israel is reported to be seeking about $13 billion in new U.S. assistance for its defense and security systems, although Arens said after his meeting with Bush that he did not discuss U.S. aid with the President.

He did tell reporters that damage already done in residential areas hit by Iraqi missiles is “very significant.”

“We see sites of destruction in Israel that have not been seen in a Western country since World War II,” he said.

The new glow of approval of Israel reflected in the poll by Marttila & Kiley is reinforced by the conviction of a majority of those polled that the Palestinian people are supporting Iraq, and this has eclipsed concerns about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in territories occupied by Israel.

Only one-third of those polled said Israel’s handling of the Palestinian uprising on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has been too harsh, fewer than in earlier surveys on the same topic. And less than one-fifth of those surveyed said they believed that a resolution of the Palestinian problem would eliminate tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

But the poll indicated that Americans, by a ratio of nearly 3-1, believe that Palestinians eventually should be given their own homeland on the West Bank. And a narrow plurality of those surveyed voiced the belief that the United States should agree to an international peace conference to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and other issues, if doing so would avert a ground war with Iraq in the Persian Gulf.

Gerstenzang reported from Washington and Goldberg reported from Israel. Staff writer Ronald Brownstein, in Los Angeles, contributed to this story.