Israeli Overtures a Dilemma for Arab Leaders : Mideast: Some say Rabin’s bid for visits skirts issues. Others consider concessions to keep dialogue alive.

Arab leaders are skeptical about the notion of groundbreaking visits to Jerusalem, but some Arabs privately say they may be ready to consider ending the boycott of Israel or downgrading the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories as their way of opening a dialogue with the new government of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin’s overtures, in which he recognized the suffering of the Palestinians and offered both official and informal talks with the Arabs, have led to a new dilemma in the Arab camp, which complains that Rabin’s offers have skirted the real controversies and left the Arabs once again in the position of having to offer concessions.

More than ever before, the Israeli government threatens to divide the Arabs, who fear the prospect of a speedy Palestinian accord on self-government that could leave Syria, Egypt and possibly even Jordan in the wings.

Also, many Arabs fear that quick meetings between Rabin and Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip could lead the way for other Arab leaders to normalize relations with Israel before a comprehensive peace accord is reached.

Arab officials, in interviews and public statements this week, said they are reluctant to make new conciliatory offers when Rabin’s own overtures have failed to mention U.N. resolutions calling for the exchange of land for peace, a precise definition of how Jewish settlement-building would be ended or the idea of self-determination for the Palestinians.

“You cannot say, ‘Now it’s your turn,’ ” Jordanian Information Minister Mahmoud Sherif said in an interview. “What have they done? OK, they have a government with a more acceptable face, they have promised to stop some of the settlements, but in practice, what have they done? Mr. Rabin has not committed himself to withdrawal. . . . If they say, ‘We accept the principle of withdrawal from Arab land,’ then the Arabs will have to give something in return.”

“What can we offer them? The victim, how can he reward the victor?” added Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel abu Jaber.

Abu Jaber said that a state of “peace” is the only condition upon which Jordan would agree to an exchange of visits with Israel. “If you have the frame, the principles, the framework, then everything falls in place. Then you end the state of belligerency, then you have a just division of water rights. . . . Let us agree on the principles--the basics--then everything falls into place.”

Syria, clearly worried that the issue of the occupied Golan Heights could remain unresolved after a quick autonomy settlement with the Palestinians, was skeptical about Rabin’s pledge to halt “political” settlement-building in the territories.

“Seeking to keep land under any formula--security or political--and calling for an end to resistance while occupation and settlements are continuing will not push the peace process in the right direction,” said Syria’s official daily newspaper, Tishrin.

“The aggressive and expansionist policy of the Likud (the party of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir) did not disappear with its defeat. It is coming once again, but in different forms and formulas,” the newspaper said.

But some Arab officials said they expect that U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, during his visit to the region next week, will demand new “confidence-building measures” on the part of the Arabs in addition to substantive talking points for the next round of negotiations, likely to begin in Rome in September.

Assad Abdul Rahman, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s governing Central Council, said in an interview that the Arabs might be prepared to consider such measures as an end to the Arab boycott of Israel, an end to strikes in the occupied territories or a six-month freeze on armed struggle from across the borders of Israel and the territories.

In exchange, he said, he would expect the Israelis to take steps like halting construction of settlements, freeing some Palestinian prisoners and lifting curfews in the occupied territories. “These are confidence-building measures,” he said. “But all of these things are cosmetic. The issue is land. The issue is, ‘What is self-determination?’ ”

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat initially responded frostily to Rabin’s new government, accusing the prime minister of changing his “political language” since the elections. “I don’t see Rabin as different from Shamir,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of our Arab brothers have slipped and welcomed him.”

Several Arab analysts and PLO officials expressed annoyance at Rabin’s invitation to all Arab leaders except Arafat, although Rabin did offer to meet with Faisal Husseini, the overall head of the Palestinian delegation from the occupied territories.

“Talking to Faisal Husseini, so what?” said Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi. “Six hundred Israelis have talked to Faisal Husseini so far. Had (Rabin) said, ‘We’re ready to talk to the PLO Executive Committee,’ that would have been a concession.”

So far, only Egypt, which has already signed a peace treaty with Israel, has responded positively to Rabin’s overtures.

Abdul Rahman said much of the motivation for Arafat’s remarks was a bitter conflict being waged in the West Bank and Gaza between supporters of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah faction and the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas, which opposes peace talks with Israel.

But he said the Palestinian leader is calculating that to “create an atmosphere of rosy optimism” going into the talks “doesn’t help those who would like to apply pressure” against Israel.

Indeed, many Arab leaders are fearful that Rabin’s conciliatory statements are designed to quickly mend relations with the United States and end any U.S. pressure against Israel without the need for making territorial concessions.

“It is a game of the wolf and the fox. Now the politics of the fox have started,” Abdul Rahman said. “He doesn’t make our job easy the way Mr. Shamir made our job easy. We have to start showing that on the basic issues, we haven’t seen the sort of changes we want to see.”

The PLO has scheduled a strategy-building session Tuesday at its headquarters in Tunisia. Arab leaders from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the PLO are scheduled to hold a similar session this week in Damascus, and Jordan’s King Hussein flew Thursday to Damascus to begin strategy talks.