CAMBRIDGE -- In these bleakest of days for Middle East peace-making, Afif Safieh, the Palestine Liberation Organization's representative in Washington, is crisscrossing the United States with a message that the solution is not that difficult. [the heart bleeds for the PLO]

...``We Palestinians are the key for America's lovability around the world," he told leaders of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom -- Hebrew for Covenant of Justice and Peace -- a pro-Israel group that favors creation of a Palestinian state on territory Israel occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967...

But, Safieh said, US politicians will never be convinced of that approach unless the Palestinians are joined by like-minded Jews such as the members of Brit Tzedek.

``For an American administration to have a truly open attitude toward us, it must have an American Jewish fig leaf -- respectable, if not representative, Jewish-American voices who say this is kosher," he told the Brit Tzedek group over bagels and coffee in the home of one of its members. ``I am happy there is an alternative Jewish voice that is not AIPAC" -- a reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobbying group that usually supports Israeli government positions...

...at both sessions yesterday, Safieh rejected what he called attempts in Israel and the United States to demonize Hezbollah.

``Hezbollah compared with Israel is an amateur in terrorism," Safieh said in an interview. ``The way Israel responded in the Lebanese conflagration was horrible." He also said that no one who fails to condemn Israeli bombings that kill Palestinian civilians is morally qualified to condemn suicide attacks.