For Diners at Israeli Inn, a Smorgasbord of Ideas on Peace Talks : Mideast: Customers show a casual confidence in contrast with the government’s nervous maneuvering.

At the Samson Inn truck stop at a busy intersection near this working-class community, talk among a score of patrons about Middle East peace prospects the other day was as plain as the homespun dishes served from behind a glassed-in counter.

No one seemed to worry much about precious procedural issues, who sits where at the negotiating table or whether the location of the talks or the name of the conference is a coded giveaway of an important principle.

And though the opinions on solutions to Israel’s conflicts with Arab states and Palestinians were as varied as the plates on the Inn’s menu (Wiener schnitzel and Turkish salad), there appeared to be agreement on one point: Israel has nothing to fear by sitting down with either the Arab governments or the Palestinians.

“There must be some sort of beginning to peace, so we might as well start now,” said Johnny Yacoov, who owns a welding business.

Added Samson Inn owner Shlomo Malka: “We’ve got to get rid of these headaches. We are strong. We have an organized army. We don’t have to worry about who we talk to.”

This casual confidence stands in sharp contrast to the nervous maneuvering of the government, which fears that it will be pressed to make territorial concessions in return for peace with the Arabs.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir met this week with his defense and foreign ministers to prepare for a return visit to Jerusalem by Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who is trying to organize a peace conference. Baker’s efforts have bogged down in questions of format and disagreements over the goals of projected talks.

In an interview with a French newspaper this week, Shamir said that as long as he is in power, Israel will not give up occupied land; he conceded, however, that perhaps a successor might do it.

Key Arab governments have already dropped out of the proposed talks. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states won’t attend. Syria is holding back. Only Egypt, which already has signed a peace treaty with Israel, and Jordan, with direct interest in resolving the Palestinian dispute, are ready to show up at the negotiating table.

The Arabs are demanding that talks lead to Israel’s withdrawal from at least parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; all of the Golan Heights, which is strategic high ground bordering Syria, and Arab sections of Jerusalem.

Palestinians are eager for negotiations. International isolation and the flagging energy of the uprising in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem have made Palestinians willing to attend talks even in tandem with a delegation from Jordan--so long as the framework of the talks is eventual Israeli withdrawal from the occupied land and independence.

It is the Palestinians whom Shamir most wants to avoid, insisting that the first issue of business must be peace with Arab states. The crowd at the Samson Inn, on the other hand, viewed the Palestinian conflict as a priority and perhaps less difficult to solve.

“The relations with the Arab states are important, but they are distant from us,” said Arcady Lurie, a businessman from Eilat. “The Palestinians are right here.”

“We only have problems with the Palestinians when they want to take our right to live here away from us. Otherwise, we are willing to compromise,” said a traveler who gave his name only as Rafi.

At least on this sultry afternoon, several customers were willing to consider a range of scenarios for withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. Some were ready to cede the Palestinians an independent state. “They have to get something. They may even be ready for a state,” mused Yossi Jacoby, a deliveryman from Ashdod.

Details brought on major disagreements: Give the Palestinians the crowded Gaza Strip right away, said one. Let them have a state, but if there’s any trouble, drive them out, declared another. Free the area town by town until they are used to ruling themselves. Do it all at once. Let them have everything but an army.

A few backed the government’s scheme for self-rule. One customer said Palestinians should be shipped to Jordan, an idea rejected by everyone else (Even this idea should be taken up in talks, the customer concluded.).

Among those who believe that Israeli withdrawal is inevitable, there was little worry about the fate of Israeli settlers stakes in the West Bank and Gaza.

“There will be some arrangement for them,” predicted Johnny Yaacov. “They can come back or they can stay. We have plenty of Arabs living in this country. Why shouldn’t some Jews live over there?”

Jerusalem seemed to be the main sticking point; no one could imagine splitting the capital in half and sharing it on an official basis with the Palestinians. A diner who described himself as a religious Zionist said that perhaps some Palestinian government offices could be located there. “Perhaps someone to take care of the business of Palestinians in the city,” he said. “A few more bureaucrats won’t hurt.”