America must guarantee an active involvement in any international conference on a Middle East peace settlement, speakers who addressed a forum on the proposed Geneva Conference said last night.

Yair L. Evron and Edward R. F. Sheehan, research fellows at the Center for International Affairs, and Stanley H. Hoffman and Michael L. Walzer. professors of Government, spoke to a capacity audience in Science Center D, in a discussion sponsored by the H-R Hillel Israel Committee.

Evron said that security is the central issue for Israel, and that he does "not see the disappearance of Arab ideology and emotional animosity toward Israel."

Domesticated PLO

Sheehan said he believes "domestication of the Palestinian Liberation Organization by the Arab governments" should be one of the principal issues at a future conference.

Walzer said President Carter "has moved America's position much closer to Israel's than it has been for many years," referring to Carter's press conference yesterday.

Walzer added that he thought Israel will withdraw to its pre-1967 borders if it receives normalized relations with the Arab states, and American guarantees of security.

Walzer Optimistic

Walzer was more optimistic about a peace settlement than Sheehan, who said the parties "won't agree to basic elements of a final peace" without foreign mediation.

Hoffman said the "Israeli form of excess legalism" is a stumbling block in establishing peace. The negotiators cannot "leave loopholes through which whole armies can march," he added.

In reference to American mediation, Hoffman said, "Everybody knows that the American eagle moves with the speed of a dinosaur after a change in administration."

Like Kissinger?

"The last good conference was the Congress of Vienna, and even that has had its critics," Hoffman said.