JERRY OOr POLITICALLY IGNORANT in ounce of Clinton health What fresh hell hath wrought President Clinton? Talk of health-care reform and universal coverage has spawned a thousand and one prospective plans whose collective range could fuel a hypochondriac's fantasies for at least as many years. 0 Who has time to shift through all the gobbledygook of the myriad plans out there anyway? You could say that the committee- bound caretakers (politicians) of this country are slowly (or quickly, depending on your attention span) dulling us with this protracted struggle over health care; it's local anesthetic gone national. I, myself, have had enough of this headache that won't go away. Why should I worry? I'm *ng. I don't get sick; and I drive fast enough so that if I did get in an accident, I would die immediately. Besides, everyone knows that Congress is controlled by special-interest lobbying groups, which leaves little old individual me with no voice (legislative larvneitis) Of course, I can dream. For instance, I've been kicking around an idea for a health plan that would feature bare-bones cost containment. I call it the flesh-eating strep virus plan. But getting back to special interest, just where does the medical establishment fit into all of this? Some of them have taken a decidedly conservative stance: Government intervention into health care equals "socialized medicine." Yep, the benevolent keepers of the public health don't need anyone to tell them how to treat a festering wound. After all, they are the ones who spent their best years slaving through medical school (government grants and loans notwithstanding). They're not about to let those bureaucrats bleed their hard-earned millions. Just keep the probing fingers of that meddling country doctor Clinton out of their cavities, unless, of course, he's inserting research grants. Yep, the medical establishment is keeping right in character with its mistrust of govern- ment. Its members have never been comfortable Can peace exist in the Midd By Sam Goodstein enemies and that she does not want her son JERUSALEM - "I dream of driving to die fighting these enemies. She knows my son to Europe," Tala Appel tells me. Ms. that if accord is reached, and if it works, the Appel knows how Israeli Prime Minister peace, tenuous though it may be, will benefit Yitzhak Rabin should deal with the Golan the life of every Israeli. She knows that if Heights: He should return it to Syria, the accord does not work out, there will 9ning diplomatic relations with Israel's eventually be war again. But without the nighbor to the north. "I do not want my son accord there will eventually be war again. "I to die in another war. I cannot take another will take the risk of peace," she mulls. war," she says with a look of gloom in her Ms. Appel sits firmly on one side of eyes. "We must do whatever is needed to Israel's long political spectrum. Far on the achieve peace." other side - very far - sits Tzvikah Caspi, I want to tell her that it is not so simple. a 70-year-old man who fought the British Why should Israel negotiate with Syrian for Israeli independence in the underground, President Hafez al-Assad when he will not terrorist Yirgun organization nearly 50 years even recognize Israel's right to exist? ago. Mr. Caspi also knows what Yitzhak hermore, there is strong reason to Rabin should do with the Golan Heights: He believe that the 64-year-old Assad, whose should ensure that Israel never loses control Alawite minority is only 10 percent of the of it. "If we give up the Golan, and we have predominantly Sunni Muslim population, already ceded Gaza and the West Bank, will not be in power much longer. If he can there will surely be another war... today they survive political opposition, he cannot live take Gaza and Jericho, tomorrow the Golan, forever. If Israel returns the Golan now, and next week Jaffa and Haifa and next month Assad is replaced by somebody who refuses Tel Aviv and Jerusalem." Mr. Caspi clearly to recognize any peace agreement with views Arabs as aggressors and Israelis as Israel, there is sure to be another conflict. defenders, and while Israel's sketchy Surely, I want to say, you remember activities during the 1980s clouded that view when the Syrians shelled Israeli villages for many, his position is understandable. below the Golan endlessly, before Israel "1948, '56, '67 and '73 (not to mention annexed the land in 1967. Surely, you know countless terrorist operations) have all that even if the Golan is returned and proven that we cannot have peace, they will becomes a demilitarized zone, it could not allow it. If we cannot have peace, why become re-militarized and the shelling could should we give away our land?" begin again. Surely, Assad is so bent on Once again, I want to point out a few getting the Golan back because he so things to my friend, but I cannot. Mr. Caspi ssionately wants to erase the shame he fully knows that this is a golden opportunity Is for losing it to his mortal enemies. for Israel to secure peace with its neighbor Tala Appel knows all of these things. to the north - essentially locking up peace She knows them far better than I do. She with all neighbors, and ending the security also knows that accord was reached with threat posed by the nationalist Arab world Egypt and it can be done again. She knows (with the exception of far-off Iraq and Iran). that she is tired of being surrounded by He knows that Rabin agreeing to negotiate careie mall society W hen I was home over Christmas, my mother decided that with arbitrary FDA regulations that refuse to she would take a day off work so we could go on a family legitimize wholistic medicine and that severely outing. Then she announced her plan: We would drive 50 miles limit nutritional supplements. Of course, these each way to go to an outlet mall in Hillsboro, Texas. restrictions allow them to continue their health- "It'll be fun," she told me. "It's something to do as a family care cartel, but that's beside the point. -we can talk on the way and then go to the mall." "No, it won't The medical establishment, being the civic- be fun," I said. "Dad will turn the football game on the radio. minded sort, are truly worried that this "social- When we protest, he'll say 'the driver always controls the radio,' ized medicine" could insidiously lead to further so Dan and Iwill take out our CD players we brought because we government domination. An ounce of Clinton knew this would happen and will put our headphones on, riding health-care prevention, in this case, is worth a the rest of the way in silence except when we tell Grandpa to pound of Big Brother cure. please not spit his chewing tobacco out the window, even though Let's pretend that this threat really exists, and we don't particularly want to see the styrofoam cup with the while we're at it, let's pretend that the majority soaked brown napkin that he uses for a spittoon. And why would of Americans are like me: too ambivalent, too you want to take a day off from work to shop? If we're going to nearsighted, too self-absorbed (too busy, if drivef50miles, can we at least see something other than the inside anyone asks) to take politics seriously. of a mall?" Stretch your imagination a little (or a lot), Well, maybe I didn't say all of that, but I do remember that and you could say that we are mindless idiots when I started to go on about the American obsession with that have everything done for us, and who materialism she only looked confused. (She knew I was right believe everything our government says, about the football game and the tobacco.) My mom's a smart Yeah, that's it. We're little brother. And if woman, but somehow I just couldn't get across the irony of Clinton is Big Brother, I think we've just had a taking a day off to go shopping. singing and acting career thrown into our laps. My parents are not unusual -they're part of the supposedly silent majority of Americans, the "normal" people who live their lives like we're all "supposed to", the vast army of workers, parents and taxpayers who live by "the rules." In aword, the anti- slackers. These tacit rules of what is normal - the way we are fe "supposed to" live our lives - surround us like the air we breathe, emerging only in the plots of TV sitcoms, the heads shaking when the local kid drops out of college, the concerned over the Golan puts Israel in the position of tone in our parents' voices when we tell them we want to major conciliatory neighbor trying to make peace in philosophy instead of business. I'm not sure I've ever really - a position which improves its world seen them laid out as they should be, like dancing diagrams that reputation (which the Israelis do care about). show us where to put our feet and how to move through the dance He knows that peace could end literally of our confusing lives. So here goes. thousands of years of Jewish-Syrian conflict, U Keep a regular schedule. A 9to05 job is a must; dinner is at least for the short term. These facts, always at 6just like Archie Bunker wanted it. It is essential to go however, are all overshadowed by the anger, to bed, as my parents do, immediately after the weather report on hatred and fear of his long-time enemies. the localnews: 11:20EST. Stayingup any later is dangerous, and Jews, he explains to me, have always been sleeping in later is a sure sign that you're lazy. victims. In Israel, however, they are not U You must of course have an office job to go to every day; victims, they rule themselves. Any threat to this is to ensure that you have enough money to attain the ever- this autonomy and safety must be sup- growing material standard: a large TV, a VCR, a nice car, your pressed at any cost, and returning the Golan own apartment or house, designer clothes, dinner out at exclu- for an ephemeral peace deal is a threat. "We sive restaurants. No one ever tells you that you can live fairly won it fair and square, and had they won it well on a limited budget, that if you're willing to give up a few from us, do you think they would ever material goodies you can exist on the edge and free up your time consider returning it? I think not." to read, write, converse and use the mind you usually won't in an In between Ms. Appel and Mr. Caspi sits office job. The point of making money is now simply making Israel's "silent majority." Everyday men and money - it used to be that money freed you to pursue leisure women who desperately want peace - activities, but shopping has now become one of the most popular desperately - but are afraid of Arab leisure activities in America. aggression. Men and women who would Especially if you are male, your world mustbe completely gladly return the occupied territories and ruled by the outcome of games in the NFL, NBA and MLB. This even the Golan, if they were sure that a ensures that you and the other men at the office party or the long-lasting peace could be reached. But family reunion willhave somethinglto talk about (you don't want they are not sure. Caught between wanting to just stand there and stare at each other, do you?) to trust Yassir Arafat and Hafez al-Assad Having kids is also essential to being a "normal" Ameri- and the deeply ingrained, and well-founded, can. Commercials promise that "your family" will love Super fear and hatred of these men, they sit the Sugar Os or threaten that your kids won't love you unless you fence, hoping for peace and the security of buy them Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. In short, do your their homeland. "What can I do?" Shaptai duty for God and your country: Produce lots of little consumers. Peres, a 50-year-old truck driver and veteran Money, marriage and kids also mean that Christmas must of three wars, asks. "Everyday I fear for the be a big deal. Christmas is the hardest season for the unconven- life of my son (who is a soldier in the West tional - it seems like one big red and green advertisement for Bank town of Ramallah). After the peace the life of security, materialism and saccharine sentiment. with Arafat, it is even more dangerous for Since I'm a grad student and not a true slacker, I'm not him, because Hamas' bullets hurt more than exactly qualified to criticize the sickening details of the normal Arafat's stones. I would love peace, but is it American life. But like much of my generation, I view the really possible?" "normal" life as a hollow shell, not worth the veneration and Goodstein is an editor on leave and foreign endorsement it has received. And I attribute my excesscynicism correspondent for the opinion staff to bad '70s television, MTV and the evil influence of Kiss.