A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

 in the final status talks . A government-assisted exodus of settlers would also

 send the clearest possible signal to the Palestinians that the Israeli governme

nt is serious about ultimately withdrawing from the West Bank . This would great

ly strengthen the position of Palestinian moderates who have been negotiating wi

th the Israelis . Moreover , a major return of Israeli settlers from the territo

ries would help limit violence in coming years . With respect to extremists on t

he Israeli side , it would demonstrate that the effort to create permanent facts

 on the ground has failed and that Israelis were leaving the territories regardl

ess of attempts by extremists to disrupt negotiations . An exodus of settlers fr

om the territories would also refute the claim of Palestinian extremists that th

e only way to end the occupation is to mount violent attacks on Israelis . The p

recedent of ample compensation paid to settlers who left the Sinai when peace wa

s achieved with Egypt has created an expectation of compensation among Israeli s

ettlers . They will not leave without it , and the real choice is whether the pr

ocess begins now or in five years . Logic says do it now . Khalil Jahshan is exe

cutive director of the National Association of Arab Americans . William Quandt i

s a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution . Jerome Segal , president of the

 Jewish Peace Lobby , is a research scholar at the University of Maryland .

 WASHINGTON She is a web of contradictions a woman whose name is almost synonymo

us with loyalty to Bill Clinton but who has a way of giving him bouquets laced w

ith stinkweed . Betsey Wright , President Clinton 's longtime chief of staff dur

ing his Arkansas governor days and now a Washington lobbyist , is widely regarde

d as smart and politically savvy . But for some reason , she says things on occa

sion that make other Clinton advisers cringe . She coined the phrase `` bimbo er

uptions '' in an interview during the presidential campaign on the spur of the m

oment , she later said , because she couldn't bring the term `` gold digger '' t

o mind . It was meant to be snide , putting down the women who claimed past liai

sons with Clinton , but quickly took on its own life among Republicans and the m

edia . `` Nobody ever told her to say anything about it , '' says a former Clint

on campaign aide . `` She just came out with this quote . '' Most recently , she

 has been at the center of a small controversy over her statement , as quoted in

 a novella-size article about Hillary Rodham Clinton in The New Yorker , that ``

 a great many people ( are ) talking very seriously '' about a potential Hillary

 run for the presidency . Such comments come at a bad time , when polls are show

ing renewed suspicion of the first lady 's power after she 'd attempted to put t

hose concerns to rest . Wright denies making those remarks . But opinion in Clin

ton circles is split . `` Sure she said it , '' says one White House staffer . `

` She wants to be the center of attention . And she becomes the center of attent

ion and realizes that it doesn't help her , so she backs off . '' `` I have neve

r heard her in public or private utter anything that was not in support of Bill 

and Hillary , '' says Bev Lindsey , executive director of the Department of Arka

nsas Heritage and wife of White House senior adviser Bruce Lindsey . `` I know B

etsey wasn't out there saying some of those things that were quoted in the artic

le . '' Bev Lindsey adds that she also was misquoted in the piece . Clinton camp

aign strategist James Carville , who has often clashed with Wright , is giving h

er a sort of backhanded benefit of the doubt . He suspects that Connie Bruck , a

uthor of the New Yorker piece , `` set out to get somebody to say that '' and pe

rsisted until someone did . It was `` the journalistic equivalent of a forced co

nfession , '' he says . The normally talkative Wright wasn't returning calls las

t week . But Bruck is standing by her quote and she says she didn't browbeat Wri

ght to get it . `` You couldn't browbeat Betsey that 's my sense of it , '' she 

says . `` I didn't feel that she intended to harm Hillary and Bill . Was I a lit

tle surprised that she would say something that I realized when printed could be

 startling ? Yes , I was surprised . '' If Bruck was surprised , others weren't 

. Some speculate that Wright is seeking a subtle form of revenge because , after

 years of devoted service to Clinton , she wasn't given a leading role in the pr

esidential campaign . Others speculate that if Wright 's performance is sabotage

 , it isn't conscious . Either way , some Clintonites have been asking themselve

s : With friends like Wright , who needs Rush Limbaugh ? The Texas-born Wright h

as been a lifelong political player . She met Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1972 ,

 when all three worked on George McGovern 's presidential campaign in Wright 's 

home state . After Clinton became governor of Arkansas , then lost his re-electi

on bid in 1981 , Wright relocated to Little Rock . That 's when she began a rela

tionship with Clinton that she would subsequently describe as `` almost symbioti

c . '' Wright was happy to be Clinton 's lightning rod , associates say , and to

 absorb the bolts that otherwise would have struck her boss . In exchange , howe

ver , she demanded control no scrap of paper passed through the office without h

er involvement . She was a renowned workaholic who virtually never took time off

 showing up between 5 and 6 a.m. each day and staying late . So when she abruptl

y departed for a rare vacation in August 1989 , Arkansans noticed . `` I am told

 that Bill and Betsey have been at each other 's throats lately , but that this 

is not particularly unusual , '' Arkansas Democrat-Gazette political columnist J

ohn Brummett wrote then . `` Their relationship apparently is volatile , love-ha

te . '' Clinton blamed Wright for a political initiative that had put him into u

ncomfortable conflict with state legislators , Brummett continued . `` Her abras

iveness used to get on my nerves and I considered her too protective of the boss

 . But now I realize that Bill needs protection sometimes , and Betsey has kept 

him out of a lot of trouble . '' Wright 's vacation turned out to be permanent ,

 and the transition was handled none too smoothly . If Wright felt that Clinton 

had pushed her toward the door or at least failed to support her adequately she 

never said so publicly . She served at Clinton 's request as head of the state D

emocratic Party , throwing herself into an ambitious and relatively expensive pr

ogram of organizing the machine . In September 1991 , with the party more than $

 25,000 in debt , she resigned . She had `` spent far too much '' on 1990 electi

ons , she acknowledged . Wright herself hadn't been paid for months . In 1992 , 

she contacted the presidential campaign after Gennifer Flowers surfaced with her

 allegations about an affair with Clinton . She knew the real dish on Flowers , 

Wright said later , and others in the campaign didn't . In her view , these newc

omers James Carville , George Stephanopoulos and the others permitted the Flower

s story to get bigger than it should have . Wright joined the campaign team but 

she never fit in very comfortably . With her sense of proprietorship , Wright wa

s not fated to get along with the campaign 's `` white boys , '' as some insider

s dubbed them . `` Can you imagine what happened when Carville started screaming

 and yelling and Betsey didn't shut up and started screaming and yelling back at

 him ? '' one campaign aide says . But Wright wasn't someone to be dismissed lig

htly . She knew Clinton very well . Everyone assumed she had nuclear capabilitie

s . Those who are loyal to Wright and they tend to be longtime Clinton allies wi

th Arkansas roots maintain that the `` War Room '' crowd was harder on Wright th

an they should have been . Brummett says Wright recounted to him a meeting with 

Carville and Stephanopoulos in which they criticized her because some of Clinton

 's potential liabilities had not been resolved in the past . `` One said , ` Ho

w could you let Bill Clinton be governor for 10 years and not answer the marijua

na question ? ' And she began to cry . '' But Wright also maintained that she ha

d tried that on some points , Clinton was hard to manage . `` And what did Carvi

lle and Stephanopoulos get him to do ? '' Brummett asks . `` He stood up and sai

d he didn't inhale . '' Wright acknowledged some of the stress she felt during t

he campaign in tearful comments that she made at a post-election forum of campai

gn players at Harvard . She complained bitterly about attacks on Arkansas and Cl

inton 's record as governor , including some that came from within the campaign 

. But at the same forum , Wright continued with remarks that didn't necessarily 

favor Clinton . A reporter asked Carville why Clinton never denied having an aff

air with Gennifer Flowers . `` He certainly did , '' Carville replied . `` He sa

id it any number of times . '' `` Now , what he said , James , was .. . ' ' Wrig

ht interjected . `` Let 's not do a slick Willie here . '' He had said that Flow

ers was lying , Wright explained . `` And she was , and she has been lying since

 she was 3 years old . '' A defense of Clinton , perhaps but one that raised the

 very possibilities that Carville had been attempting to dispel . After the elec

tion , Wright came to Washington . She never had a job in the administration and

 said she didn't want one . After years of service , she said , she was broke . 

It was time for her to earn some money and , pushing 50 , time to prepare for he

r retirement . She joined the Wexler Group , lobbying with some success on behal

f of the American Dietetic Association and the American Forest and Paper Associa

tion . Wright has demonstrated that she can tap straight into Bill or Hillary 's

 office at least to get her clients a hearing , even if their wishes aren't alwa

ys granted . The relationship `` has been a good thing for her , for us , for ou

r clients , '' says Anne Wexler . Arkansans are much warmer to Wright than the c

rowd that gathered around Clinton during and after the presidential campaign . T

hey know she is complicated and volatile , but she also is one of them certainly

 more so than the boys in the War Room . They recognize her past loyalty to Clin

ton and offer their own support . `` Arkansans have an appreciation of the histo

ry , '' says Skip Rutherford , a Little Rock attorney who formerly chaired the s

tate Democratic Party and worked in the Clinton campaign . `` The truth of the m

atter is , she came in and helped Bill Clinton after a stunning defeat . She hel

ped position him for a '92 victory . '' The Carville crowd `` got Bill Clinton a

s he was a national candidate , '' he says . `` We saw Bill Clinton coming out o

f the ruins of an upset defeat . And what we saw was Betsey Wright rebuilding th

e tower . ''

 Retirees are increasingly finding themselves on their own when it comes to heal

th-care coverage . A new survey shows that most companies in the United States c

ut employees off from all coverage the moment they retire , and those that conti

nue to provide coverage shift most of the cost onto the retiree . The nationwide

 study of 2,395 employers by A . Foster Higgins & Co. , a New York-based benefit

s consulting firm , shows that among large companies those with 500 or more empl

oyees workers who take early retirement are somewhat more apt to get continued c

overage than those who have reached age 65 and are eligible to receive governmen

t health insurance under Medicare . Among large companies , 46 percent provide s

ome form of coverage for early retirees , while only 39 percent provide insuranc

e for Medicare-eligible retirees . But fewer than one in five large employers is

 willing to pay the entire cost of health care for retirees , while 40 percent o

f the companies that do offer some form of health-care coverage require the reti

ree to pay all the costs . Even at full cost , however , it may be cheaper for a

 retiree to buy coverage from his or her ex-employer than to buy an individual i

nsurance policy . Stephne Behrend , the managing consultant who conducted the su

rvey , one of the larger of its kind in the United States , said it showed a con

tinuing `` gradual erosion '' in employer health-care benefits for retirees . ``

 Each year we 've seen a significant number of companies that say they 've termi

nated their benefits for retirees , '' Behrend said . A new Census Bureau study 

shows a similar decline in employer health-care coverage for active workers . Th

e overall percentage of workers covered by employer health plans , it concludes 

, dropped from 66 percent in 1979 to 61 percent in 1993 . Labor Secretary Robert

 B . Reich said the Census report shows a drop in coverage in every category of 

workers and employers . Behrend said that this year Foster Higgins revised its s

urvey methods to gauge better what 's taking place among smaller companies . `` 

What we get is a much better picture of smaller companies and just how limited p

ost-retirement benefits are from smaller companies , '' she said . The survey , 

she said , shows there is not a great difference between large and small compani

es when it comes to health care benefits for active employees . `` The differenc

e really happens in the smaller companies when you get to the post-retirement ar

ea , '' she said . According to the survey report , `` small employers are much 

less likely to offer retiree coverage ; only 8 percent offer coverage to retiree

s under age 65 and 9 percent offer it to Medicare-eligible retirees , '' general

ly people age 65 or older . Benefit consultants have long maintained that the av

ailability of health care benefits is often a major factor in retirement decisio

ns by employees . The Foster Higgins survey underscores that . `` Whether or not

 an employer offers retiree coverage appears to have some effect on employees ' 

retirement decisions , since most employees are not eligible for Medicare until 

they reach age 65. .. . Two-thirds of those retiring were under age 65 , '' acco

rding to the survey . Among small companies , people tend to hang on longer so t

hat they can move straight to Medicare . At companies with fewer than 500 employ

ees , the survey showed , 70 percent of those retiring were over age 65 . The su

rvey also said that 73 percent of small employers required both early retirees a

nd Medicare-eligible retirees to pay the full cost of any company-provided insur

ance benefits . Behrend said that even with the retiree paying the full cost , h

owever , it provided some advantage for the retiree because it often guaranteed 

the continuation of coverage regardless of preexisting medical problems . The Fo

ster Higgins survey showed that the cost of providing health care benefits to re

tirees rose an average of 7.9 percent last year . The average cost per retiree w

as $ 2,735 in 1993 , compared with $ 2,534 the year before . When the age of ret

irees is considered , there is a dramatic shift in costs to the company . The su

rvey shows that the average cost for early retirees , those under age 65 , was $

 5,216 per employee . The cost for people 65 and older , who can tap Medicare , 

averaged $ 1,786 . This is particularly relevant in today 's work force as major

 corporations , often those with the most expensive health-care plans , continue

 to reduce the size of their work force and turn to new technology to become mor

e competitive . During the first three months of the year , an average of more t

han 3,000 jobs was lost each day as the result of corporate downsizing . That nu

mber began to slow slightly to fewer than 2,000 jobs a day in the second quarter

 of the year . Many companies have used retiree health benefits to lure older em

ployees to leave .

 WASHINGTON Paul Green Houston , a longtime Washington correspondent for the Los

 Angeles Times and author of its popular weekly `` Washington Insight '' column 

, died late Sunday after a two-year battle with colon cancer . He was 52 . Houst

on joined the Los Angeles Times in 1965 as a staff writer in Los Angeles and was

 assigned to its Washington bureau in 1972 . He first covered the California con

gressional delegation before his beat was expanded to include all of Congress . 

He served a term as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents , the o

rganization of news reporters assigned to Congress . Houston played a prominent 

role in The Times ' coverage of the Watergate affair , including the impeachment

 proceedings against former President Nixon , and later the Iran Contra scandal 

. Several years ago , drawing on his experience and contacts , he took over the 

newspaper 's Washington Insight column , which features behind-the-scenes glimps

es of the capital 's processes of power . `` He had the best sources of anyone o

n the Hill , '' said Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson . `` I covered im

peachment with him , and he had better sources than I did . He was extremely wel

l-liked . '' Said House Speaker Thomas J. Foley , D-Wash. , `` Congress had a go

od many journalists covering the Hill in recent years , but Paul Houston was in 

the handful of the best . Few had covered it longer or better . '' Houston , who

 was named after the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and family friend Paul Gr

een , was born into a writing family in Chapel Hill , N.C. . His father , Noel H

ouston , was a prize-winning journalist and novelist who authored the best-selli

ng 1946 novel `` The Great Promise . '' His mother , Kay Replogle Houston , was 

a noted gardener and cook . Houston demonstrated an early interest in journalism

 in his high school years and then as an English major at the University of Nort

h Carolina at Chapel Hill where he wrote for the Daily Tar Heel and was assistan

t sports publicity director for the university . He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa

 in 1963 . After graduation , he moved to Houston where he worked as a reporter 

for the Houston Chronicle for a year , and then joined the San Francisco Examine

r , where he worked for another year . In 1968 , at 25 , he became the youngest 

recipient of the Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard University . He wa

s an avid sportsman who enthusiastically pursued tennis , golf and body surfing 

, and , in fact , scored 81 , with two birdies , in a golf match four days befor

e entering the hospital for the last time this month . He was also a devoted coo

k , reader , trombonist and punster . He is survived by his widow , Virginia ; t

wo daughters , Katherine and Susanna ; and a sister , Diana Houston , all of the

 Washington area .

 WASHINGTON What 's approximately 48,000 years old , has 1,394 legs , is steady 

, generally healthy and likes to work ? Those are the combined stats more or les

s of the 697 men and women who have been in federal government service here 50 o

r more years . Most were in their 20s , or teen-agers , when they came to work b

efore D-Day . They have been on the job longer than the average American has bee

n alive . At a time when the federal government is pushing early retirement and 

paying workers $ 25,000 bonues to leave , people who stick around for 50 years s

tick out ! Some are the institutional memory of their agency . All the club memb

ers were on the job before President Clinton was born , before TV or CDs or PCs 

, and when the outcome of World War II was still in doubt . Their Washington was

 a boom town where movies were run night and day to accommodate shift workers , 

and where women vastly outnumbered men in most government offices . Most walked 

or took the trolley ( 10 cents ) to work . About that time The Washington Post l

aunched a `` Government Girl Plane Drive . '' The idea was to get $ 1 from G-gir

ls ( that was a legal term in those days ) to buy a warplane for both the Army A

ir Corps and the Navy . The White House supported the drive . Each aircraft was 

to be named GOVERNMENT GIRL and each would carry a logbook with the names of all

 donors . Donors names were posted in front of the Post building . It was a diff

erent town and time . One who remebers is Bernice Watson . She 's with the Feder

al Mediation and Conciliation Service . Mid-June marks her 50th year in governme

nt . Like thousands of other G-girls ( including my mother ) she was recruited f

rom small towns to come to Washington . Many planned to work for the duration of

 the war , then go home . A lot of them are still here . Watson and the late Mur

iel Fortenberry Freeman , came fresh from high school to be civilian clerk-typis

ts in the brand-new Pentagon building . The young ladies , from Magnolia , Miss.

 , took the 26-hour train from New Orleans to Washington 's Union Station . Afte

r signing forms , they were taken to their government-approved rooming house at 

No. 2 Logan Circle . A vigilant landlady insured that no men patriotic locals an

d Nazi spies were equally suspect ever got above the first floor lounge area . W

atson giggled when she remembered the lounge `` dance band '' a nickelodian that

 supplied tunes for not-too-close dancing . Working a 5 and a half day week for 

$ 38 left little time or money for exotic entertainment . Like many of the warti

me temps , Watson stayed and added to the city . Her son , Lawrence Thomas , is 

now a lieutenant in the Metropolitan Police Department . She still lives in town

 . Why has she worked so long ? `` Well , I had a good reason , I needed the mon

ey , '' she said . Now she works because otherwise `` I 'd go crazy. .. . You ha

ve to get out of the house . '' She likes the FMCS , and it likes her . If you c

an't be at her June 15 luncheon party , raise a glass from wherever for that han

g-tight , hang-tough 50-year bunch .

 NEW DELHI , India Nine-year-old Raju and his big brother , Mantu , had a carefu