Newsweek

## Playing Budget Games in the Bush League

After 20 months of building a presidential image, George Bush suddenly reverted to caricature. Repeatedly flip-flopping on the budget bill, placating his enemies, shouting incomprehensible wisecracks and taking no stand on principle, he looked goofy—and the whole government, unable to perform its most important task, seemed like a bunch of stumblebums. Nobody could say how the budget fight would come out, but the spectacle of chaos in Washington rocked the financial markets and dismayed both voters at home and allies abroad. Republicans feared they had lost a lot of political ground. **National Affairs: Page 20**

The latest presidential message: 'Read my hips'

A Palestinian under an Israeli gun

## Israel's Bloody Monday

Israeli forces killed 21 Palestinians and accomplished something that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had been trying to do: link the crisis in the Persian Gulf to the Israeli conflict. In an interview, Henry Kissinger argues that Washington must solve the gulf crisis quickly, before it is swallowed up by other, unmanageable issues. **International: Page 34**

A devastating family decision

## Giving Up 'Imperfect' Babies

Sometimes parents of babies born with physical or mental disabilities simply don't have the emotional or financial resources to raise them. But other families are eager to adopt “imperfect” babies; some placement agencies even have waiting lists. Still, says one birthparent, it's not easy to accept that “someone out there could love your child more than you do.” **Lifestyle: Page 77**

Letters to the Editor should be sent to NEWSWEEK, 444 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022, and subscription inquiries to NEWSWEEK, The NEWSWEEK Building, Livingston, N.J. 07039. NEWSWEEK (ISSN 0028-9604), October 22, 1990, Volume CXVI, No. 17, is published weekly except for two additional issues during the months of June and September, $41.08 a year, by NEWSWEEK, Inc. 444 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. Second Class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTERS: Send address changes to NEWSWEEK, The NEWSWEEK Building, Livingston, N.J. 07039.

## National Affairs

<table><tr><td>Bush League budget (the cover)</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>The "fairness" issue</td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>There's got to be a better way</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>The "Carterization" of Bush</td><td>28</td></tr><tr><td>Helms tries to hang on</td><td>32</td></tr><tr><td>Buying senator futures</td><td>32</td></tr><tr><td>The shoot-out over Ruby's gun</td><td>33</td></tr><tr><td>Selling fear to L.A.'s poor</td><td>33</td></tr></table>

## International

<table><tr><td>Israel's bloody Monday</td><td>34</td></tr><tr><td>What really happened</td><td>36</td></tr><tr><td>Why Jerusalem matters</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>Kissinger on the crisis</td><td>40</td></tr><tr><td>The Palestinians and the gulf</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Mole hunt in Germany</td><td>46</td></tr><tr><td>"Heil, Honey, I'm home"</td><td>46</td></tr><tr><td>Labyrinth for a laureate</td><td>48</td></tr><tr><td>Bhutto fights back</td><td>48</td></tr></table>

## Business

<table><tr><td>GM aims for the fast lane</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>How crooked was Milken?</td><td>52</td></tr><tr><td>United Airlines: not for sale</td><td>52</td></tr><tr><td>Apple's third revolution</td><td>53</td></tr><tr><td>Calling Mr. Crisis Control</td><td>54</td></tr><tr><td>Horreur! No nouveau beau?</td><td>54</td></tr><tr><td>Jane Bryant Quinn</td><td>56</td></tr></table>

## Society

<table><tr><td>Environment: The greening of the Golden State</td><td>62</td></tr><tr><td>Justice: The executioner's handyman</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>Education: Private public school</td><td>67</td></tr><tr><td>We'll do better or we'll quit</td><td>67</td></tr><tr><td>Science: Rats die for our sins</td><td>68</td></tr><tr><td>Fashion: The politics of bath oil</td><td>69</td></tr></table>

## The Arts

<table><tr><td>Entertainment: Randy Travis, the voice of country music</td><td>70</td></tr><tr><td>Movies: Sex, love, hamburgers</td><td>74</td></tr><tr><td>Miller shocks the world</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Deep in a time warp</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Danny Glover dazzles</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Terror over Bremen</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Books: The bad at heart</td><td>75</td></tr><tr><td>"Surrender the Pink"</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Music: Kissin at the keyboard</td><td>76</td></tr></table>

## Lifestyle

<table><tr><td>Family: The long goodbye</td><td>77</td></tr><tr><td>Health: An alternative to hysterectomy</td><td>80</td></tr><tr><td>Television: Klingon to a dream</td><td>82</td></tr></table>

## Departments

<table><tr><td>Periscope</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>My Turn</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>Letters</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>Perspectives</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>Newsmakers</td><td>60</td></tr><tr><td>Transition</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>George F. Will</td><td>84</td></tr></table>

Cover: Illustration by Randy Jones.

© 1990 NEWSWEEK, INC.: 444 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

NEWSWEEK: OCTOBER 22, 1990 3

B Y L I N E S

Covering the Mideast

There was violent upheaval again in the Mid-
east last week. This time, the scene was Jerusa-
lem, where Israeli policemen killed 21 Pales-
tinians in the Temple Mount area after the
Palestinians stoned Israelis praying at the
Western Wall (page 34). On scene for NEWSWEEK
was Jerusalem bureau chief Ted Stanger, a veter-
an Mideast correspondent who is pulling his
second tour in Jerusalem, a city divided between Jews, Arabs
and Christians. "Getting details from eyewit-
nesses is often no easy matter in the Old City,"
said Stanger. "The Muslim Quarter tends to
shut down totally after incidents like Temple
Mount. But this time, it was relatively simple to
locate the victims' families: they had black
flags outside. "Joining Stanger was Rome bu-
reau chief Rod Nordland, another veteran foreign
correspondent, fresh from 11 days inside Iraq.

The situation in Jerusalem was grim, but Nordland finds
Israel easier to cover than Iraq. "I've been in communist coun-
tries before they got religion and in fly-blown little African
dictatorships and places ravaged by death squads, but none of

them even begins to compare with Iraq for lack of freedom. You
never hear a contrary voice in Iraq . . . because the dissidents are
either afraid or long gone." Nordland is part of a gulf team that
has reported six consecutive covers, the most since the fall of
Richard Nixon. The point man in Saudi Arabia was Cairo

bureau chief **Ray Wilkinson**, a Marine veteran who covered the Vietnam War and other conflicts around the world, including the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. "It may sound corny, but covering the Marines in Saudi Arabia convinced me of the old adage: 'Once a Marine, always a Marine'." Wilkinson, who shared a George Polk award with Nordland for a NEWSWEEK cover package on terrorism, was

surprised by the attention given the grousing by U.S. troops.
"Bitching is a venerable tradition in any army," he said. Photog-
rapher **Bill Gentile** was dispatched to Saudi Arabia early in the

crisis. It was his first assignment in the Mideast
after seven years of covering upheavals in Cen-
tral America. "Everything is on a grander
scale—the firepower, the dimension of U.S.
interest," he said. Just how grand the scale is
could be seen in a dramatic Gentile photo of an
M1 tank in the desert that led the Sept. 17
magazine.

STANGER

NORDLAND

WILKINSON

GENTILE

In some circles "turkey"
is the highest praise you
can bestow

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INTERNATIONAL

territories, and they said it would be paid for by non-American funds. Although it was not technically a violation of their agreement, U.S. officials interpreted that maneuver as "Shamir's thumb in our eye," as one American put it.

Washington is not about to abandon Israel; it is not even likely to threaten extreme measures, such as cutting off U.S. aid. But pressure is building on Shamir. The latest Security Council resolution is stinging; it "condemns especially the acts of violence

committed by the Israeli security forces.” A side letter from the president of the council, currently Britain’s Sir David Hannay, says U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar will send a fact-finding mission to Israel to suggest “ways and means for ensuring the safety and protection of the Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation.” The U.S. delegate, Thomas Pickering, insisted that the resolution “does not address in any way the status of the Middle East peace process, nor does it change in

any way the role of the United Nations in that regard.” But something important had changed, whether Washington cared to acknowledge it or not. Expectations had been raised among America’s allies, and among the Palestinians, that any settlement of the gulf crisis will contain at least the seed of a solution to the Israeli problem.

RUSSELL WATSON with MARGARET GARRARD
WARNER in Washington, THEODORE STANGER
in Jerusalem, MELINDA LIU in Baghdad and
ANNE UNDERWOOD at the United Nations

Kissinger: 'We Have to Find an Exit'

"The statesman must weigh the rewards of success against the penalties of failure," Henry Kissinger once wrote of an earlier Mideast crisis in which he played a central role. "And he is permitted only one guess." That is no less true today. In a conversation with NEWSWEEK'S Margaret Garrard Warner, the former secretary of State reflected on the current perils:

No one should be surprised by the violence on the Temple Mount. And whether the initial confrontation was planned by the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Iraqis or not, it is clear that both have an interest in pushing the Mideast focus back to the Arab-Israeli issue. For the PLO, the issue of the West Bank and Jerusalem is a much higher priority than Kuwait. For the Iraqis, of course, it helps them link their aggression against Kuwait with Israeli control of the occupied territories.

But above all, what the incident shows is that the idea of constructing a permanent coalition in this part of the world, focused on a single immediate problem, is unsustainable. There are too many other problems existing simultaneously, and too many people with their own priorities, for the United States to be able to sustain a focus on one problem in such a wide coalition for an extended period. It isn't just the Arab-Israeli conflict. There are many

other problems within the Arab world: the Syria-Iraq conflict; the Lebanese civil war; terrorism, as in last week's assassination in Cairo of the speaker of the Egyptian Parliament. Such problems can generate their own momentum, independent of American priorities and essentially unaffected by them.

**Shifting sands:** Practically speaking, what does this mean for the United States and the coalition it now leads in the Persian Gulf? It means the Iraq issue has to be brought to a conclusion within the next few months. I am not beating the drums for war here. I do not want to put the issue in terms of war versus peace. I would prefer for the sanctions to work but I doubt

that they can in the time available. And if our enterprise in the desert fails, ultimately a more calamitous, regionwide war would be highly probable. After the United States deploys 200,000 troops, it cannot run the risk of being forced to leave as it left Lebanon after the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in 1983. We are sitting on the shifting political sands of Arabia with 200,000 men in the face of conflicts we cannot control.

We have to find an exit: it would be very dangerous to tie ourselves to a policy assuming the status quo is sustainable over the long term, or that containment is realistic.

There is another sense in which the status quo is unsustainable. Even before the

invasion of Kuwait, Israel faced increasing pressure to resolve the Palestinian issue. The gulf crisis appeared to buy Israel a little time, but when it ends the pressure will be even heavier. U.S. support for the U.N. resolution condemning Israel over the Temple Mount incident only accentuates the point. Of course if the gulf crisis is resolved constructively, it would be entirely appropriate for the United States to demonstrate to the moderate Arabs that cooperation with us brings progress on Arab concerns. If we fail, we lose any ability to play a constructive role. On the assumption of a favorable outcome, the United States should pursue a major initiative after the crisis. This will probably require, however, a concept of "progress" more limited than the ones pursued recently, which have exhausted us in procedural debate with both Israel and the PLO. Perhaps the trade of peace for final frontiers tempts both sides to exaggerate their terms. It might be better to seek an interim agreement that returns Arab populations to Arab control in rapid return for security arrangements for a fixed period. If those are successful, then it will be possible to move to a more comprehensive formula for peace. Even then, we have to be realistic: Israel is in a complex and even tragic situation that transcends any particular government. It will be searing to reconcile Israel's security requirements with Arab self-respect.

DOMINIQUE AUBERT-SYGMA

Women grieve at bloody handprints on the Temple Mount

NEWSWEEK : OCTOBER 22, 1990

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