O.C. Jews Guardedly Optimistic About Mideast Talks : Conference: Local leaders express hope that peace will emerge from a long, confrontational process to begin in Madrid on Wednesday.

On the eve of the historic Middle East peace conference, Jews in Orange County expressed guarded optimism about the long-awaited talks scheduled to get under way Wednesday in Madrid.

“I think people are hopeful that something positive will come out of this, and it’s certainly better than people not talking,” said Ed Cushman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Orange County in Tustin. “There is new hope that the peace conference will bring about a real chance for peace.”

Doris Goldman, executive director for the American Jewish Committee in Irvine, said she is “extremely supportive” of the upcoming talks.

“It will be a long and confrontational process, but we are hoping that there will be peace in the end,” Goldman said. “Everybody is keyed in on what’s going on and realizes that Israel’s security is in the balance.”

However, conservative supporters of Israel who oppose the return of any portion of the West Bank as a condition for peace disagreed.

“There’s tremendous skepticism about Madrid and tremendous fear in the Jewish community that the world will gang up on Israel,” said Rabbi David Eliezrie of the North Orange County Chabad Center in Yorba Linda. “We are showing our support for the Jews that are pioneering Jewish settlement in the ancient homeland of Israel.”

On Monday, a coalition of conservative Jews in Orange County played host to a fund-raiser for a visiting Israeli mayor from the occupied West Bank and held a press conference to voice their skepticism about the peace conference. Jewish militants have come out strongly against the conference.

“We’re extremely concerned with the outcome of these peace talks and with the demands that are being made on Israel,” said Howard Garber, president of the Anaheim chapter for Americans for a Safe Israel, a national lobbying organization for Israel. “We as an organization are merely in favor of Israel defending its defensible borders.”

Ron Nachman, the visiting mayor of Ariel, a city of 10,000 residents 40 miles north of Jerusalem, said he too is ambivalent about the talks.

“In spite of the fact that I am the mayor of the biggest town in the (West Bank) and the peace talks will directly affect my way of life because I live there, I beg Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Shamir to go into the peace process under his conditions,” Nachman said. “If the Arabs want peace, they will get peace.”

The historic talks will mark the first time Israeli and Palestinian representatives have sat down at the negotiating table--a major achievement given the reluctance on both sides to even recognize one another’s existence.

The Palestinians are seeking an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israelis are offering the Palestinians limited self-government, while retaining the right to rule the territory as part of their biblical birthright.