At Israeli Rally, PLO Flag and Star of David Coexist : Mideast: Thousands mass in a show of support for peace accord. But their joy is tempered by caution.

Tens of thousands of Israelis packed Tel Aviv’s sprawling Square of the Kings of Israel on Saturday night with a sea of posters, tears of joy and chants of “Give peace a chance” in a show of support for the tentative peace accord with the Palestinians.

The rally, organized by Israel’s ruling Labor Party and its leftist supporters, set the stage for the coming weeks of bitter debate among extremist and moderate factions, both in Israel and the occupied territories. The plan would grant Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho as a first step toward Israel’s phased withdrawal from territory it has occupied for 26 years.

As Cabinet ministers and prominent left-wing activists proclaimed a new era of peace and praised Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Arab supporters of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat took to the streets in the West Bank, flashing victory signs and portraits of a leader who is struggling to win approval for the plan from fellow Palestinians.

Declaring the “Gaza-Jericho first” plan the dawning of a new age, Faisal Husseini, a key Palestinian leader, told a rally near the West Bank town of Bethlehem that it is a first step that would lead to the return of 800,000 Palestinian refugees to villages they have not seen in decades.

But, he conceded, “now the real political struggle begins.”

Radical and religious fundamentalist Palestinian factions have rejected the plan as too little, too late, accusing Arafat of collaborating with the Arabs’ worst enemy and threatening to kill him.

Similarly, leaders of Israel’s political right have assailed the agreement as a sellout by Rabin to a man they have likened to Adolf Hitler. “There is no one since the time of the Nazis who has spilled as much blood of Jewish civilians as Arafat,” Ariel Sharon, a key leader of the opposition Likud Party, said on Israel army radio.

But Saturday night in Tel Aviv’s largest downtown square, traditionally the scene of political protest, there were posters of the PLO flag beside the Star of David above words of praise for both. There were thousands of bumper stickers and T-shirts declaring, “Yes to Peace” and “Security and Peace: It’s Not a Dream,” and renditions of “Give Peace a Chance.” Police said it was the largest crowd they had seen in years--perhaps half as many as the 100,000 claimed by its organizers.

“It’s not done yet,” said Yael Dayan, a prominent leftist member of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in explaining why the crowd was not even larger. “I would be unhappy if, before the agreement is even signed, people were dancing in the streets. We can smile now and the dancing will come later.”

Dayan, the daughter of former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, has met twice with Arafat this year, and security around the PLO leader was beefed up in Tunisia after she warned Arafat on Friday that Israeli intelligence had learned of a plot to assassinate him.

“The extremes are there on both sides,” she said. “They are a natural product of a democratic society, and the fact that the Palestinians have to fight their own extreme is a sign they’re moving in a democratic direction. So I’m not worried.”

Neither was Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a retired Israeli general and a former political hawk who is now a key aide to Rabin.

“There are people talking about ‘staying in Gaza,’ ” Ben-Eliezer shouted through the towering wall of loudspeakers, answering right-wing critics who charge that the impoverished hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism will be a dagger pointed at Tel Aviv if Israel withdraws its forces from the Gaza Strip. “We have nothing to do in Gaza. The sooner we leave, the better our security will be.”

In an interview later, Ben-Eliezer, who served for four years as military governor on the West Bank, added: “Land without people may be security. But land with 2 million people with the potential of terrorism is the worst thing for your security. The fact that 2 million people are there, frustrated and with no hope, those areas become factories producing terror every day.”

Ben-Eliezer said that the Israeli government is ready to speak directly with the PLO anytime, calling the process initiated by the plan “a historic chance.” And he insisted that the task facing Arafat is far more difficult than that of Rabin’s government, which must win approval for the plan in the Knesset that it rules by a narrow margin in coalition with several other parties.

Although the crowd packed shoulder to shoulder in the Square of Kings shared the speakers’ excitement, few showed such confidence. Most said their support is tempered by fear of the volatile extremes inside and outside Israel.

“It’s the beginning of a very long process,” said Lisa Bloom, a native of Ireland who lived in Israel for four years, left and just returned three months ago. “I came here tonight to be happy. But of course, one of the things that scares me is the enormous conflict within on both sides.

“Things aren’t going to change overnight. There’s a lot of feeling that it all looks good on paper but how is it going to work? This isn’t one great, conclusive moment.

“But it is an environment right now where people are talking about peace in a realistic way. And the fact is, it’s moving in a direction I can believe in.”

Elsewhere in a crowd well-stocked with Peace Now activists, veterans of leftist protests and groups that for years opposed the Likud governments that preceded Rabin’s election last year, there was less qualified celebration.

“This is the first time in a long, long time that I came to this square to support the government and not to fight against it,” said Sharon Dolev, a member of the “Gaza Team” that has documented and protested Israeli human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip. “I have come happy and not angry--and not afraid. Most of the people who are afraid are the people from the right, the people who made us occupiers in the first place.”

A less partisan view came from button seller Michael Krasmoi.

His “Peace” buttons were selling well at the rally, he said, but he also has the contract to make and sell buttons for the Likud rally scheduled for this week.

“I’m excited about what’s happening, but I think we’re playing with the unknown,” he said, stressing that he does not belong to a political party. “There could be an increase in terrorism. If there’s a civil war among the Palestinians, things are going to be a lot worse than they are now. . . .

“But the risk is worth taking, because the alternative is just years and years of more of the same thing--escalating violence, terror and more deaths.”

Besides, he added, Saturday’s job was easy. He has yet to figure out what to put on the Likud buttons. “I thought of ‘War!’ But that doesn’t really work. They’re against the peace plan, but it’s hard to tell what they’re actually for.”