Many Israelis Skeptical About Talks, Suspicious of U.S. : Mideast: Only 37% in poll expect good results. The downbeat outlook is traced to daily conflict, tragedy.

A few days ago, the programmers of Israel’s state-controlled radio got a special call-in request from their top administrators: Don’t play music with the theme of peace. It might cause joy and expectation in the population.

The diligent overseers probably need not have worried. It will take more than a few bouncy songs to create excitement about the Madrid peace conference among everyday Israelis, many of whom view talks with intense skepticism.

In the event that agreements are hammered out, the question on the minds of many in Herzliya, a neat seaside town north of Tel Aviv, is whether the Arab governments and Palestinians will hold to them. The mistrust seems based on an uncomfortable tangle of defense fears and racial stereotyping.

Suspicion also shadows attitudes toward Washington, Israel’s chief global benefactor. The overall lack of confidence seems to be the fruit of the government’s own campaign to lower expectations.

“I don’t trust the Americans. They act for their own interests,” said Moshe Shilian, a psychologist. “The Arabs have no concept of respect for agreements; this is a Western concept. They have the law of the desert--you do what is good for you at the moment. But if they have too much to lose, maybe they won’t break agreements.”

“No, there will be no agreements,” predicted Hannah Weingarten, a caterer. “The distance between the sides is too great, and I can’t see either side compromising. But it is good that we’re trying anyway, because even if there is only a 10% hope of success, it’s worth it.”

A poll published by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper said that 91% of Israelis favor going to talks. However, only 37% thought the conference would bear fruit.

“The Israeli public is divided into two groups--skeptics and pessimists,” wrote a columnist in the Haaretz newspaper.

On Sunday, leftist peace groups held a rally in downtown Tel Aviv and drew a larger crowd than expected--about 35,000. But even this gathering was imbued more with anxiety than enthusiasm. “People are very mistrustful,” said A. B. Yehoshusa, a novelist and speaker at the rally.

The downbeat outlook is undoubtedly nourished by the day-to-day pace of conflict and tragedy. Among the examples are news headlines from the past few days: Israeli soldiers are blown up in Lebanon; Israeli jets strike back at Lebanese villages; Palestinian youths stone buses; Israeli soldiers shoot a woman in the foot; terror squads unmasked; Molotov cocktail hits truck; officer removed from his post for fatal shooting of a 10-year-old boy.

The grinding litany has bred a kind of hair-trigger nervousness. The other day, as a public bus meandered through Jerusalem, the Arab driver suddenly jammed his foot on the brake to avoid hitting pedestrians at a bus stop just ahead. As the vehicle slammed to a halt, a woman in the rear of the bus was elbowed by an Arab passenger and screamed, “Knife, knife!” As one, the passengers started pummeling the Arab, who in fact was unarmed. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. No arrests were made.

The enemy seems to be everywhere. A woman in Haifa telephoned police with alarming news: Someone had driven a nail into a cucumber she bought at a local market. The police launched an investigation into possible “terrorist motives,” newspapers reported.

Sometimes, the enemy appears to be within. Geula Cohen, a right-wing member of Parliament who supported the recent late-night armed takeover of Palestinian homes by militant nationalists, was recovering in a hospital from a broken leg she suffered when she fell from a ladder while holding a vigil at one of the houses.

In the hospital, one of her bodyguards claimed to have spied a poisonous liquid in her food. Arab cooks were rounded up and interrogated. The poison turned out to be a remnant of a harmless detergent. Later, police investigated the bodyguard to see if he himself had tainted the food and set a suspicious fire in the hospital.

Against this immediate background, it would take some encouraging words to raise hopes, and the words are missing. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, his closest advisers and Cabinet members give the impression that Israel is going to the Madrid talks against its will and only in response to pressure from the United States.

Washington, in their view, is no longer to be trusted as an “honest broker.” Arabs are interested only in taking land from Israel, and the country will be in mortal danger if it compromises on its borders, according to the officials.

“Relinquishing this area is an invitation to war,” Shamir warned in a speech to the European Parliament.

Opinions vary widely in Israel on the wisdom of giving away any or all the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the Yediot Aharonot survey, 12% said Israel should “pay no price” for peace, 37% said the Palestinians should have self-rule, 26% favored giving up some land and 16% said the Palestinians should get their own independent state.

In random conversations, surrender of the Gaza Strip, the impoverished community of 600,000 Palestinians on a sandy Mediterranean beachfront, frequently gets support.

“No to giving back any part of Jerusalem. No to giving back the Golan Heights,” said a bank clerk who gave his name as Boaz. “The area in the West Bank from the Jordan River to the mountain ridge can be returned. But we need to control the mountains above the Jordan Valley. Gaza can be returned, no doubt.”

Yoni Shirian, a secretary, was much in favor of giving up land for peace but was uneasy about the implications of the formula. “I think that peace will be great, but at what price?” she asked. “If we have real peace, we can allow ourselves to return territory for peace, but if the territory is returned and it turns out we don’t have a real peace and we suffer, then it’s not worth it. We have no security. For the Arabs, the real solution is for us not to exist.”