April 3, 1986

The United States and Israel have begun discussion of a multibillion-dollar ''Marshall Plan'' for the Middle East to foster a better climate for peace in the region, a senior State Department official said today. Israeli Government sources said that the idea had been discussed with Egyptian officials and that President Hosni Mubarak had shown interest in it. The Israelis have also raised it with West German officials, and American officials said priority was being given to interesting Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany and Japanese leaders in the plan. The project will be discussed intensively in coming weeks with allied leaders in advance of next month's summit meeting in Tokyo of industrial nations.

Americans may soon pay more for white wine from France, Italy and West Germany, Perrier from France, pork and canned hams from Denmark and the Netherlands, Scotch whisky and cookies from Britain, and olives from Spain and Portugal as a result a trade war that is about to break out with the European Common Market. These and other products appeared on a retaliation list that the Office of the United States Trade Representative released today. It will be published Thursday in the Federal Register.

A senior Honduran official has asserted that the Government never felt its security was threatened by a Nicaraguan border raid last week and sought to resist pressure from the Reagan Administration to treat the episode as a major crisis. ''The United States interest was that this situation have the connotation of an international incident,'' the official said of the Sandinista drive against Nicaraguan guerrilla bases in Honduras. ''We had no interest in this.'' He added that Honduras wanted to avoid direct military confrontation with Nicaragua and was willing to negotiate with the Sandinistas on the presence of the guerrillas here.

With all the fanfare of a circus opening, the Polaroid Corporation introduced a new camera today that it hopes will recast its image and its prospects. Hurt in recent years by a shrinking market for instant cameras and film, Polaroid is betting that consumers will spend up to $225 for an instant camera that takes sharper and more vivid photos than its predecessors. The bet on the new Spectra camera - and on a reorientation of the company toward a more affluent and sophisticated market - is hugely important for a company that depends on consumer instant cameras and films for 60 percent of its sales. Some 160 reporters and 90 investment analysts were on hand as Polaroid introduced the Spectra camera and film at the Century Plaza Hotel here. As music blared and dancers twirled, Polaroid revealed a two-story walk-through mock-up of the new camera. Later, cameras were passed out, allowing reporters and analysts to snap photos of models hired for the occasion.

The International Business Machines Corporation introduced its long-awaited lap-top computer yesterday, a 12-pound battery-operated model built for traveling executives, writers and sales representatives. The $2,000 machine, which was greeted cautiously by dealers and analysts, marks I.B.M.'s entry into a market that only two years ago its own executives said seemed risky and perhaps unprofitable. But yesterday they expressed confidence that the quickly maturing personal computer market was now ready for a lightweight I.B.M. computer, compatible with its desktop line, that could be used in the office, then unplugged and carried aboard an airplane or a car. ''It has the virtue of being a desktop machine that you can also travel with,'' William C. Lowe, the president of I.B.M.'s Entry Systems division, said yesterday. ''For the first time, we make a computer small enough that my wife lets me keep upstairs, not down in the room off the basement.''