November 8, 1983

NewsAnalysis BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 7 - The rebellion in the Palestine Liberation Organization against its chairman, Yasir Arafat, is setting the stage for vast changes in the leadership and direction of the Palestinian guerrilla movement. In the view of Arab analysts in Beirut, three things are certain as events unfold in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. First, regardless of whether Mr. Arafat survives the onslaught against him, he is effectively finished as the leader of a unified Palestinian guerrilla movement. Second, Mr. Arafat's loss of power would throw the P.L.O. and the entire Palestinian nationalist movement into prolonged and probably violent disarray. Third, if Mr. Arafat is removed entirely from Palestinian politics, some important West Bank leaders are believed to be ready to step forward and join with King Hussein in negotiating a settlement with Israel along the general lines of President Reagan's Middle East peace initiative.

Hundreds of European banks will start linking their automatic cash dispenser systems next summer in a move that will eventually enable travelers carrying small blue plastic cards marked Eurocheque to draw cash from money machines 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout Europe. Already, the plastic card is being used by Eurocheque's 26 million card holders to guarantee personal checks in any of the organization's 19 member countries, including Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union. Under the new system, in addition to guaranteeing personal checks, the card will combine the functions of a cash-dispenser card and credit card. Control of Field Sought The new system, announced at a meeting in Lisbon in October to coincide with Eurocheque's 15th anniversary, represents a new effort by the powerful group of European banks to retain a dominant position in the provision of financial services to its customers. Specifically, the banks say, they want to pre-empt the field before any proliferation of nonbank credit cards and other payment and financial devices can take place, as has happened in the United States.

The chief United States Government spokesman on Grenada today denied reports that more than 100 bodies had been discovered in a mass grave on the island. The initial report came from a high State Department official Sunday night in Barbados and was confirmed in the State Department's noon briefing in Washington today by John Hughes, the department spokesman. But this evening the State Department said it was ''deferring to United States representatives'' in Grenada, who said the existence of such a grave site could not be confirmed. Grenadian police officials and officers of the Caribbean defense force allied with the United States forces similarly discounted the reports of the discovery of a mass grave.

For at least three well-known off- price clothing merchandisers, the time was right for taking their family-owned businesses public over the last six months. But that window on Wall Street may be closing, analysts say, as the retailing industry moves into a recovery. Last May the 66-unit Dress Barn went public, raising $17 million for the Jaffe family. In June, the 31-unit Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation went public, rising $66 million for the Milstein family. And a month ago, in a leap from garment district obscurity to publicly owned company, Sy Syms Merns sold about three million newly issued shares of stock in the Syms Corporation, making himself about $44 million. It is not merely a coincidence that Syms and other family companies chose this particular time to cash in. According to the National Retailing Merchants Association, the off-price business is ''hurtling toward maturity at a record pace.''

Governor Cuomo, acting as if he himself were running, ended the campaign for the $1.25 billion transportation bond issue yesterday at a traditional pre-election rally in the garment center. The statewide vote on the bond issue is the highlight of what are largely local elections today in New York. In New Jersey the entire 120- member Legislature will be elected, and in Connecticut voters will elect mayors and first selectmen. Elsewhere in the country, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston and San Francisco will elect mayors, Washington State will elect a senator, and Kentucky and Mississippi will choose governors. (Page A26.)