Symbolic Israeli Concessions Sought as Baker Resumes Quest for Mideast Peace : Diplomacy: If Jerusalem is unyielding, he will have difficulty getting the antagonists to the bargaining table. Shamir is bracing for a showdown.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III arrived in Israel on Thursday for what could be the make-or-break phase of his Middle East peace initiative.

Baker is seeking at least a few symbolic concessions from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s nationalist government. After three visits to the region in six weeks, if Baker can’t get them, he will be hard pressed to maintain his effort to bring Israel and its Arab antagonists to the negotiating table.

Shamir appeared to be bracing for a showdown. “I hope very much we don’t talk about pressure,” Shamir said. “Anybody who knows Israel knows that pressure doesn’t influence us. It does entirely the opposite. I could tell anybody who is thinking about it not to even try to change our stance.”

Baker’s plane landed as sundown was ending the celebration of Israel’s Independence Day. Although Baker and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy shared an automobile on the 45-minute drive from the airport to Jerusalem, there were no formal meetings Thursday.

That left just a few hours for talks today before the Israeli government closes down in preparation for the Jewish Sabbath.

The Israeli government urged Baker to put off his visit until next week, after his stops in Arab capitals, to avoid the necessity of conducting business during a short break in what otherwise would be a long holiday weekend. But Baker insisted on making Israel his first stop, apparently because he is convinced that if he does not obtain some relaxation in the Israeli position, there will be little to talk about with the Arabs.

On the flight from Luxembourg to Israel, Baker was unusually circumspect. He refused to talk to reporters aboard his Air Force jetliner because, an aide explained, the situation was too delicate. The aide said Baker did not want to say anything--even inadvertently--that might affect the talks.

But while Baker held his tongue, some of the factions in Israel’s fractious political scene delivered sharply pointed messages--most of them apparently intended to let the secretary of state know that he was wasting his time.

The hard-line Gush Emunim movement inaugurated a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. A spokeswoman said the 14 house trailers were intended as a warning to Baker that the United States will be unable to stop settlement activity, which Washington has long regarded as an obstacle to peace.

A State Department official said that no one in the Baker entourage would respond to any of the messages “because we don’t want to be baited--we’re holding our fire.”

But when Baker meets Shamir and Levy today, the official said, the issue of the settlements “will be raised privately--and in spades.”

In Israel, attention turned to the enigma of just what Shamir really thinks about Baker’s proposal for a Middle East regional conference and its costs and benefits for Israel.

No one seems quite sure what’s on Shamir’s mind.

His meetings with Baker have been one-on-one, so leaks--used as a common tool of communication in both Israeli and American politics--have been suppressed. Shamir’s public statements reveal little; it has been, rather, underlings in his Cabinet who have declared a wide range of views and interpretations of the talks.

“I must say, I don’t know what the prime minister really thinks,” said a senior official in the Foreign Ministry who has been active in moving the meetings with Baker forward. “He keeps his enthusiasm, if there is some, to himself.”

The aging Shamir, in the seventh year as head of a series of fractious governments, has made secrecy and silence a trademark and more frequently lets it be known what he rejects than what he wants, earning him the nickname “Mr. No.”

In the time in which Baker has barnstormed through Middle Eastern capitals trying to discover common ground for peace talks, Shamir has said no to a variety of options: no U.N. supervision, no involvement of European countries, no role for the Palestine Liberation Organization, no framework of trading land for peace, no halt in building settlements in the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He has said yes to the general outline of a regional conference under American and Soviet auspices, but only if it quickly gives way to one-on-one talks with Arab governments. The regional format under U.S.-Soviet supervision would never be reconvened and could not be used as a court of appeal in case of deadlocks.

The only clear concession on Shamir’s part, so far, is a willingness to talk to a Palestinian delegation, although he has been fighting for a virtual Israeli veto on the participants.

The question of who will represent the Palestinians, and under which organization’s umbrella, are expected to be main topics of talks when Baker sees Shamir today. Shamir is opposed to any member of the Palestinian delegation affiliated with the PLO, which is demanding an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.

A senior Foreign Ministry official listed the benefits Israel might glean merely from attending a regional conference: de facto recognition from a variety of Arab states; diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union; improved relations with the United States, its chief aid benefactor; a reduction of tensions with the Palestinians, and an improved global image.

And the risks? Since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza during 1967’s Middle East War, the issue has centered on land: whether it’s wise to give it up or not.

“There are forces in Israel that believe holding the territories is paramount. They think any agreement that involves territory for peace compromises security. For them, any peace conference is a trap,” said the senior Foreign Ministry official.

Shamir’s own history strongly suggests that he will opt to hold onto the land at all costs. Meanwhile, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler announced that Baker would add Kuwait to his schedule, which already includes Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. He plans to go to the emirate Monday.