Yitzhak Shamir

JERUSALEM -- Israel's governing Labor Party nominated as its candidate for president yesterday Ezer Weizman, a former air force commander and defense minister who became a "super dove" while helping to make peace with Egypt.Mr. Weizman, 68, won 52 percent of the votes from 1,186 members of the Labor Party's central committee, easily defeating another liberal, Arie "Lova" Eliav, and a center-right candidate, Shlomo Hillel.Dismissed from the "national unity government" of Yitzhak Shamir, then prime minister, three years ago for talking with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mr. Weizman symbolizes to many Israelis their quest for peace with the country's Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians.

WASHINGTON -- Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was scheduled to meet Clinton administration officials today in an attempt to revive Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.But Israeli diplomats here expressed concern that the administration may expect Mr. Rabin to arrive with bold new plans for advancing stalled talks between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as ideas for moving talks forward between Israel and Syria.In fact, they said, Mr. Rabin hopes to spend much of his time here mapping out a new security relationship between Israel and the United States that will reflect the realities of a post-Cold War world, as well as a Middle East where the prospects of a multistate Arab war against Israel have faded.

Nothing illustrated Israel's breakout from isolation by the Arab world better than what happened the day after Israel and the PLO signed agreements to recognize each other. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stopped off to see King Hassan of Morocco. Israel and Jordan signed an agenda for negotiations, which is the equivalent of the agreement on principles with the PLO.As a breakthrough, each of these is more apparent than real. Morocco tacitly accepted Israel for years. The king met foreign minister (former prime minister)

WASHINGTON -- Struggling to bridge a gap between Israel and Syria on procedures for a peace conference, the United States has proposed allowing United Nations and European Community observers to participate and given Israel effective veto on reconvening the full conference.The United States also has proposed that documents resulting from any negotiations be turned over to the United Nations, diplomatic sources said yesterday.In an effort to restore momentum to the process, President Bush sent letters last weekend to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Syrian President Hafez el Assad, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

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.

JERUSALEM -- Israel is worried that the latest diplomatic flurry to solve the Persian Gulf crisis may succeed but will leave it facing the consequences.Its leaders are particularly wary that a European-led negotiating effort might tie a settlement to Palestinian independence."Obviously, any American diplomatic leadership is preferable to European leadership," said Dore Gold, an analyst at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv.Israel is concerned that a negotiated settlement might get Iraq out of Kuwait but nothing more.

JERUSALEM -- Immigration of Jews from the Soviet Union reached a total of almost 15,000 last month and will climb to 25,000 this month, according to the head of the agency that organizes immigrants' preparation and transport."

Lebanon no longer stands between them. The PLO is suddenly if temporarily negligible. Iraq is reduced and out of the way. Jordan is a docile follower of the wind. Israel and Syria have drawn much closer together. Whether in peace or in war is for them to work out.Syria looms larger in Arab counsels after the gulf war, becoming the single Arab state that can make peace talks occur or not. Syria and Israel both agree to negotiations, each on terms that it is assured the other will refuse. They share a common understanding that the United Nations is stacked against Israel and would add weight leaning on Israel for concessions.

JERUSALEM - Rabbi Eliezer Menachem Schach, a Lithuanian-born spiritual leader whose Talmudic interpretations were capable of making or breaking Israeli governments, died yesterday of heart and kidney failure. Schach, who was at least 103, was buried in the religious enclave B'nei Brak, near Tel Aviv, before the sunset start of the Jewish Sabbath in a funeral attended by hundreds of thousands of his ultra-Orthodox followers. Schach, head of B'nei Brak's Ponevich Yeshiva, was a curious influence in Israeli politics.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli negotiators headed yesterday night for another round of Middle East peace talks as senior officials here predicted that Arab delegations would also journey to Washington before long despite having delayed their travels to protest Israel's planned expulsion of 12 Palestinians from its occupied territories."