Christopher Kicks Off Mideast Shuttle : Diplomacy: Expectations are low for weeklong trip. Secretary of state meets with Rabin, rebuffs PLO appeal to restart talks.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher made a low-key start to a weeklong Middle East shuttle Saturday by discussing the unraveling Arab-Israeli peace process with Yitzhak Rabin over dinner at the Israeli prime minister’s residence.

Christopher, who handed Rabin a letter from President Clinton, expressed sympathy for the Israeli public’s growing concern about the nearly deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over limited Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“I think I fully understand the great sense of anticipation and anxiety that the Israeli people feel,” Christopher said as he and his top aides left for Rabin’s home.

Christopher rebuffed a Palestine Liberation Organization appeal for his direct involvement in trying to restart the talks, which have been hung up over conditions under which Israel will withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. Under the Israel-PLO peace accords signed in Washington Sept. 13, Israel is supposed to begin the redeployment by Dec. 13.

“I don’t know that there is an appropriate role for me,” Christopher said of the PLO request for mediation.

A senior U.S. official was even more direct. He said Christopher simply does not want to take part in the nuts-and-bolts talks. Nevertheless, one of the primary purposes of Christopher’s trip to the Middle East is to get Israeli-Palestinian peace back on track. His other main goal is to restart the long-stalled Israel-Syria negotiations over the Golan Heights.

Christopher plans a short meeting this morning with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres before leaving for Damascus and talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad. At least one meeting between Christopher and PLO chief Yasser Arafat is expected before Christopher heads home Saturday.

In comments to reporters on his way to the region, Christopher sought to lower expectations. He said he does not expect to register a breakthrough.

Judging from press commentary both in Israel and the Arab world, expectations could hardly be lower.

With the target date for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho fast approaching, the territories have been convulsed in violence, most of it apparently calculated to derail peace efforts.

Israel’s influential Haaretz newspaper said earlier this week that the Israeli public is turning against the peace agreement because of continuing attacks on Israelis.

“The silent majority is beginning to lose patience, to say nothing about its enthusiasm for the PLO agreement,” Haaretz said.

In Amman, the Jordanian newspaper Al Dustur said recent events show that “the Middle East is as far away from peace as could be. We are not referring to the usual Israeli intransigence in negotiations, but to the continued Israeli terrorist measures against the people in the occupied territories.”

The situation Christopher faces in trying to mediate between Israel and Syria is even more difficult than the near-impasse between Israel and the PLO. Israeli and Syrian negotiators agreed on four articles of a five-article draft peace agreement more than a year ago, but they have been stalled on the fifth article, which contains the key issues in dispute--Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the nature of future relations between Jerusalem and Damascus.

U.S. officials say Christopher may try to sweeten the deal for Syria by holding out the possibility of a meeting between Assad and Clinton in Europe next month. Clinton is scheduled to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels Jan. 10-11, then meet Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin in Moscow.