Land For Peace

Washington -- IF THE world had not changed in the Middle East, the extraordinary peace conference in Madrid would be just another exercise in rancor and hopelessness. We would dismiss it outright as another Halloween prank.But it is the deeper realities of the conference that should engage us at this fragile time, and even give us some hope. For behind the ceremonies, the bigger truth is that the "earth has moved" in the Middle East during the last 10 years.The first and biggest change that can be seen is in the position of the United States in the quagmire.

Conventional wisdom holds that it's a miracle that the international conference on the Middle East even opened at all, and that any resolution of the region's intractable problems is months or even years away.It is vital to understand that time is not on the side of peace, especially in light of the stated determination of the present Israeli government to continue to build settlements on the West Bank.Every American president since Lyndon Johnson has maintained that the settlements are either illegal or are obstacles to peace, for the simple reason that settlements amount to the incremental annexation of the West Bank into Israel proper.

The meeting of Arabs and Israelis in Madrid next Wednesday will symbolize what they share as much as what separates them.Spain is gearing up to celebrate next year the 500th anniversary of more than Columbus' discovery of America for Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. It is also the 500th anniversary of their conquest of Granada, the last Arab kingdom on the Iberian peninsula, which unified Spain. And it is equally the 500th anniversary of their expulsion of the Jews, which established Spain's character as a militantly Catholic superstate.

The Israeli Cabinet yesterday approved that country's participation in the Mideast peace conference by a 16-3 vote. The government maintains it will not trade land for peace, as Palestinians and the United Nations demand.The Evening Sun wants to know if you think the United States should maintain pressure on Israel to stay at the peace table and to negotiate until a plan has been reached.Call SUNDIAL, the Baltimore Sun's telephone information system, on a Touch-Tone phone. The call is local, and answers will be registered between 10 a.m. and midnight.

The Soviet-American invitations to a Middle East peace conference in Madrid on Oct. 30 is a triumph for the brilliant, tactful, dogged and tireless diplomacy of Secretary of State James A. Baker III. To bring all parties this far, he achieved the improbable. From here on, it gets more difficult.There was sufficient Israeli trust in American tentative approval of a last-minute Palestinian list of delegates to allow Israeli-Soviet diplomatic relations to be resuscitated. This was needed for Israeli acceptance of a Soviet-sponsored invitation.

IF THE gulf war reminded Israelis of the threat to their existence from an Arab state, it did the same to many Arab states. To Arab states in the coalition, the monster was proved to be, not the old bugbear, Israel, but the enemy within, Iraq.For Israelis, the war was yet another indication of the fundamental fact that, for good or bad, they are part of the Middle East and will have to live with Arabs. Once their separate realizations coalesce, Arab and Jew may be more willing to give peace a chance, the former by accepting that Israel is real, and the latter by trading land for peace.