What was going on when I was born?

-ZARQA, Israel, July 4 - Shimon Peres scans the eyes of the Arab voters in this tiny village, a grave look comes over his face and he asks the crowd in his somber baritone: ''Is there anyone here who wants the Likud?'' ''Nooooooooo,'' the Israeli Arab audience anssers in unison. It is campaign day in Jisr al-Zarqa, a poor Arab village north of Tel Aviv, and several hundred of its Arab inhabitants have turned up in the central square to hear the Labor Party leader, speaking in Hebrew, try to win their votes. More than ever before, Jewish politicians are looking to Israel's 250,000 Arab, Druse and Bedouin voters to get them elected to the next Parliament. Arab voters in Israel have the strength to elect roughly 12 of the 120 members of the Israeli Parliament and in a close election, as this one is expected to be, their choices could be decisive.

Moslems determined to learn the fate of missing relatives thwarted Government plans today to open more crossing points between the predominantly Moslem and Christian sectors of this city. Only one crossing point between Moslem West Beirut and Christian East Beirut had been open since February. The Government's plan was to open three additional crossings today to help restore normal travel and activity as this capital city recovers from civil war. The three routes were opened this morning to traffic but within two hours all had been obstructed. The protesters also closed the one route that had been open - known as the museum crossing.

With major Wall Street firms poised to report dismal second-quarter earnings, analysts are looking to the last six months of 1984 for a boost in securities industry profits. According to Perrin H. Long Jr., an industry analyst with Lipper Analytical Services Inc., pretax profits for the industry in the second quarter will total about $150 million, a serious decline from $497 million in the first quarter, and $1.46 billion in 1983's second quarter. Albert L. Simon, of Mabon, Nugent & Company, has estimated second- quarter losses of 40 cents a share for Merrill Lynch & Company, 10 cents a share for E. F. Hutton Group Inc. and 20 cents a share for Paine Webber Inc. All had profits last year. ''The second quarter of 1984 was probably the worst quarter in years,'' said Jeffrey M. Schaefer, research director for the Securities Industry Association, the major trade group. ''What it would take to turn it around is a downward trend in interest rates. It's clear that's been the principal problem in the first half of this year.''

The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries who will meet beginning tomorrow in Vienna are split into uneasy factions amid an oversupply of oil and increased fighting in the Persian Gulf. Some members have violated price and production levels set by the cartel and there are questions whether OPEC can maintain its official price of $29 a barrel. Few analysts believe major official changes will be announced at the regular meeting, the first since December. Most, however, suggest that, unofficially, some of the poorer OPEC nations will be allowed to increase their oil production - and thus their export revenues - at the expense of richer members such as Saudi Arabia. And there will be a renewed commitment to limit total OPEC production enough so that oil prices do not tumble, analysts say.

A picture caption in The Home Section on Thursday incorrectly described the availability of the Satoki talking wristwatch. Ohrbach's will sell it beginning July 16.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany left here today after a four-day visit in which he was friendly but firm in telling Argentines that they must settle with the International Monetary Fund before industrial nations will help the country solve its debt crisis. The German leader's statements appear to have all but ended Argentine hopes that they could force a wedge between Europe and the United States on the debt issue. The Argentines wanted European aid to soften international conditions over repaying the country's $45 billion foreign debt. The Europeans have generally been more sympathetic than the Reagan Administration about long-term changes in the international monetary system to help developing nations repay their debts. But Western bankers and diplomats said the Argentines had failed to realize that the Europeans, who hold nearly a third of Argentina's total debt, have been tougher than the Americans in requiring a short-term I.M.F. agreement.