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

, Smajic said , accounting for the visible signs that religious expression is on

 the rise . The main influence of a more visible Islam has been to instill confu

sion among those who have long described themselves as Muslims but had little me

ans of expressing that identity during the last century when they were ruled by 

Catholic Austrians , Orthodox Serbs and atheistic Communists by turns . Ajla is 

one of many young Bosnian Muslims who seem to be following Islamic doctrine more

 out of fashion than conviction . It is not unusual to see young women on the st

reets with gauzy white scarves draped far enough back on their lacquered hairdos

 to expose dangling earrings and a colorful facial palette of cosmetics . `` We 

laid in a big stock of beer for Bajram , '' said cafe waitress Dina Hasanagic . 

`` We are aware of the irony , but this is our way of doing things . Whether it 

's Bajram or Easter , it 's a holiday , and we just want to drink and have a goo

d time . ''

 In politics as in war , it is more difficult to execute a retreat than to go on

 the offensive . President Clinton 's retreat from ill-conceived attempts to bas

e U.S. trade policy with China on the human rights record of the hardline Beijin

g regime is one of the most difficult calls he has made since taking office . Bu

t his decision was correct and courageous . It shores up the U.S. position in As

ia and actually promotes a trend toward individual liberty in China that is link

ed to a booming economy . That Clinton is taking catcalls from the likes of Sena

te Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt sa

ys more about what is wrong with the president 's party than about the president

 . The Democrats continue to be tugged into untenable positions by protectionist

s , Big Labor and self-appointed moralists and causists . As a candidate for the

 White House , Clinton went along with their get-tough tactics toward China and 

even accused George Bush of `` coddling '' the Beijing masterminds of the Tianan

men Square massacre . As president , he has felt the need to echo Bush 's admoni

tion that the United States must `` avoid isolating China . '' The reasons are c

lear enough . China is a nuclear power with veto authority in the U.N. . Securit

y Council . It is the world 's most populous nation with the world 's fastest-gr

owing economy . It has more influence than any other country over a North Korean

 regime suspected of building a nuclear weapons arsenal . It will take possessio

n of Hong Kong later in this decade , a step with enormous ramifications in Asia

 . Just before the Clinton decision , China eliminated 195 quota and license reg

ulations in preparation for joining the World Trade Organization a step toward d

rawing closer to the international community in other productive ways . Mitchell

 and Gephardt have announced their intention to introduce legislation to overtur

n Clinton 's order preserving `` most favored nation '' ( i.e. normal ) trading 

status with China . President Bush had to veto such legislation three times . In

 the event the Democratic majority enacts a similar measure once again , Clinton

 can count on Republican support if he casts another veto . The ironies are larg

e . In his executive order , the president took one punitive step by banning the

 import of guns and ammunition made by factories affiliated with the People 's L

iberation Army . This will eliminate only a $ 100 million sliver of $ 31 billion

 in Chinese exports to the United States . It can be regarded more as a gun-cont

rol measure than a trade sanction , and welcomed as such . Henry Wadsworth Longf

ellow once wrote that `` a masterly retreat is itself a victory . '' It is too e

arly to determine that Clinton 's retreat is masterly . But because facts and re

ality and a clear appreciation of U.S. national interests are on his side , he s

hould in the end come out all right on this issue . Had he opted the other way ,

 he would have had a foreign policy disaster on his hands .

 JERUSALEM What do Israeli President Ezer Weizman , Tel Aviv Mayor Ronni Milo , 

the editors and publishers of the country 's best-selling newspapers , two bank 

managers , the manager of the Maccabees soccer team , several big building contr

actors and the owner of high-fashion clothing stores have in common ? The answer

 is that they were all on a list of 231 Israelis many politically prominent , so

me financially powerful but a few relatively obscure whose cellular telephones w

ere methodically tapped for eight months by two Tel Aviv private investigators .

 But the real riddle why ? so far has no answer . The two investigators , arrest

ed in April and facing charges of illegal wiretapping , are refusing to tell pol

ice who hired them or what they overheard . Rafi Friedan , one of the investigat

ors , initially told police that he had been asked `` to gather data '' and that

 he was confident that his clients ' reasons were `` personal and family related

 , '' according to court records . But Friedan has said nothing further , on his

 lawyers ' advice . The list of those whose calls were regularly monitored , acc

ording to preliminary evidence given Tel Aviv courts , is a veritable Who 's Who

 of Israel 's movers and shakers and a warning to a security-conscious country o

f the risks many of its leaders are running in unguarded conversations on their 

always-in-use cellular phones . `` The police have found records of some convers

ations of some of our people that are , well , rather embarrassing in their cont

ent , '' a senior Israeli official commented , asking not to be quoted by name .

 `` Things were said that should not have been said on open lines , and then thi

ngs were said that were professionally indiscreet . '' Among the phones that wer

e monitored , according to police , were some belonging to the Israeli Defense M

inistry , senior officials of the country 's security services , two members of 

the opposition Likud Party , the state comptroller and the director of an airlin

e used by the government for charter flights . There were also Weizman , top exe

cutives of the country 's two television stations , a number of lawyers , the ag

ency that administers the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem 's Old City , an insurance

 company , staff members from the newspapers Yediot Aharonot , Maariv and Haaret

z and 10 other private investigators . ( Optional add end ) Altogether , more th

an 400 different cellular telephones may have been monitored from August until t

he men 's arrest last month , according to prosecutors . Friedan and Yaakov Tsur

 , his partner in Agam Security Consultants , were held for three weeks and are 

now under house arrest . If convicted under Israel 's laws prohibiting wiretappi

ng , they would face sentences of three years for each conversation they monitor

ed . Although police do not believe the two monitored all conversations , they h

ave had very limited success in determining which calls they did record and no l

uck in finding out what they did with them . `` Their clients did not exactly pa

y with company checks , '' one police detective said . Prosecutors theorize the 

monitoring operation may have grown out of the bitter rivalry between Yediot Aha

ronot and Maariv , which have been engaged in a long-running circulation war . B

ut they are at a loss to explain how it came to encompass such high-ranking offi

cials .

 LONDON Since 1888 , the Chelsea Flower Show has been the most genteel of Britis

h institutions : a magnificent display of flowers , shrubs , exotic plants and e

verything else imaginable for a garden . Sponsored by the Royal Horticultural So

ciety , the show attracts hundreds of exhibitors and tens of thousands of dedica

ted visitors to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London 's Chelsea for five 

days in May . There they view orchids , violets , begonias , delphiniums , roses

 , azaleas , freesias , daffodils , lupins , clematises and dozens more in elabo

rate displays . After visits by Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Roya

l Family , highly prized gold medals are awarded to those exhibitors with the mo

st attractive displays from nurseries across Britain . But this year horror of h

orrors ! a scandal has rocked the flower show and dealt a blow to a great Britis

h tradition : It has been revealed that many of the exhibitors have shown flower

 displays not from their own gardens . Worse , many of the flowers came directly

 from London 's huge Covent Garden Market . Worst of all , many of the flowers h

ave come from abroad from Holland ! The disclosure caused an uproar this week , 

shocking the thousands of innocent visitors who assume the flowers are grown in 

the green fields of England . Apparently the practice of `` buying-in , '' or pu

rchasing flowers from outside sources for exhibition , has been going on for yea

rs with the knowledge of the Royal Horticultural Society . Some observers regard

ed the revelations as evidence marking the decline of another bastion of gentili

ty . The Chelsea Flower Show , the world 's largest , is the highlight of the ye

ar for lovers of Britain 's favorite outdoor pastime gardening . As one mourner 

noted , `` First it was our disastrous cricket season . Then the BBC went on str

ike for a day . Now the flower show . What next ? '' That reporters at the Briti

sh Broadcasting Corp. long an emblem of upper-middle-class rectitude would strik

e instead of standing by at their microphones once seemed unthinkable , as did B

ritish cricket losses to teams from countries that learned the sport from the co

lonial masters . John Metcalf of the Four Seasons nurseries in Norwich , who dis

plays only blooms he has grown and was awarded a silver medal , was angered by t

he buying-in and called for a ban on exhibitors displaying other people 's plant

s . `` It 's like an athlete in the Olympics letting someone else run their race

 , '' he said , `` and then going on to collect the medal . '' ( Optional add en

d ) More than a quarter of the 51 exhibitors who won gold medals admitted buying

-in some of their stock . Many of the flowers displayed came from the `` glass h

ouse '' area of the Netherlands , which year-round grows lilies , chrysanthemums

 , freesias and peonies for wholesalers in Britain . Those wholesalers sell to C

ovent Garden companies . The Royal Horticultural Society has been swamped with l

etters protesting buying-in since the practice became known just before this yea

r 's show opened on Monday . The Chelsea organizers maintain that they have no w

ay to monitor where blooms are grown , so they have not prohibited buying-in but

 simply asked exhibitors to note whether they originated their own flowers . Bes

ides , organizers argue , medals are awarded for showmanship and the artistry an

d quality of a display . That explanation has been lost on many . `` When someon

e shows a product they have not grown without making it clear , they are cheatin

g , '' said one flower lover . `` It is not right . ''

 U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali refuses to let the genocide in Rwa

nda go unchallenged . He scolds the West for not responding to the crisis . He c

hides Africa for not sending more troops to stop the killing . It 's a good use 

of his international bully pulpit . Though he met Friday with President Clinton 

, Boutros-Ghali can't drum up the political support he did when he finally persu

aded George Bush and other nations ' leaders to send troops to Somalia . That th

ankless operation soured much of the West on the idea of dispatching troops to a

nother bloody foreign power struggle . The American casualties in Somalia prompt

ed the Clinton administration to develop a new and stringent policy on peacekeep

ing , Presidential Policy Directive 25 , which Clinton signed May 5 . Even when 

no U.S. troops are promised , the new policy calls on the secretary general to a

nswer a series of tough questions posed by the United States , such as which cou

ntries will send troops , what role the troops will play on the ground and when 

they will leave . Washington demands satisfactory responses because Americans pa

y one-third of the U.N. peacekeeping budget ; although U.S. lives might not be o

n the line , U.S. tax dollars would be . In order to comply with the new U.S. di

rective , the U.N. . Security Council delayed sending 5,500 troops to Rwanda to 

allow time for a study of what can be accomplished in the Central African nation

 while the fighting rages . The troops would go only if the secretary general de

termined that the combatants would cooperate with the United Nations by agreeing

 to a cease-fire , that foreign troops were indeed available and that any missio

n in Rwanda would be short-lived . Additional delays have been caused by the ref

usal of most African nations to commit troops to a U.N. peacekeeping force . So 

far , only Ghana , Ethiopia , Senegal and Zimbabwe have committed . Boutros-Ghal

i has tried to put together an all-African contingent to secure Rwanda 's Kigali

 airport , ensure the flow of relief supplies and create safe havens for fleeing

 Rwandans . The reluctance of neighbors to get involved is not unusual in Africa

 , where isolationism is encouraged by the charter of the Organization of Africa

n Unity . Since the deaths of Burundi 's President Cyprian Ntayamira and Rwanda 

's President Juvenal Habyarimana in a suspicious plane crash April 6 , more than

 200,000 people have been killed in fighting between members of the Tutsi and Hu

tu tribes . U.N. officials will try again on Monday to negotiate a cease-fire . 

That 's a start , but only a start . What would it take to get more help for Rwa

nda ? Neo-colonial meddling is inappropriate , but for so many African nations t

o sit by while hundreds of thousands of neighbors die is unconscionable .

 BANGKOK , Thailand Nearly 30 years ago , the United States issued a clarion cal

l against the spread of communism in Asia and Southeast Asian nations eagerly un

ited behind the American initiative . But when Washington tried to pull together

 similar support this year to isolate Myanmar , where human rights violations ar

e rife , the coalition balked . Thailand said that instead of isolation it would

 offer `` constructive engagement '' to the military regime in Myanmar , formerl

y known as Burma . Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong paid a friendly state 

visit to Yangon , the capital . The six-member Association of Southeast Asian Na

tions even invited Myanmar to send the leader of its military junta to its annua

l meeting here this July . More and more , the economically booming nations of A

sia are flexing their political muscle in disputes with the United States and th

e West , especially on such sensitive issues as human rights , freedom of expres

sion and labor rights . Some call it the Asian Way ; others refer to neo-Confuci

anism or East Asian authoritarianism . A hybrid of traditional Asian culture and

 1990s economics , this doctrine champions society over the individual and `` fa

mily values '' over what is seen as corroding Western influences . Most importan

t , according to its ardent believers in China and the surrounding states of Sou

theast Asia , economic development requires a period of political stability not 

possible under democracy a notion derided by Western critics as justification fo

r tyranny . Whatever the name , the Asian Way doctrine is a distinctly post-Cold

 War phenomenon that may spell declining U.S. influence in the region and threat

ens to raise friction across the Pacific in years ahead . `` With the growth of 

their economic prosperity , East Asian countries are becoming more assertive pol

itically , '' said Washington SyCip , a prominent Manila business consultant . `

` I think you 'll see them being more and more forthright and stating what their

 values are . '' Bearing him out are statistics showing the combined gross domes

tic product of East Asia Japan , China , Taiwan , South Korea and the Southeast 

Asian nations was 4 percent of the world economy in 1960 ; by 2010 , it is expec

ted to be 33 percent . Is the Asian Way really new ? After all , both Taiwan and

 South Korea boomed economically under authoritarian regimes and have made the t

ransition to democracies . But in the 1960s and 1970s , the United States was mo

re willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in the name of anti-Commun

ist solidarity . Only since the Cold War ended in 1988 has Washington seemed eag

er to confront Asian countries with broader issues of democracy and labor rights

 . The most dramatic example of Asian muscle-flexing is the debate between Washi

ngton and the Communist rulers in Beijing over human rights , culminating in Pre

sident Clinton 's decision announced Thursday to renew most-favored-nation ( MFN

 ) trade status for China . The United States had linked continuation of the tra

de benefits with human rights improvements , but Clinton was forced to make an e

mbarrassing retreat . When Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Beijing

 in March , Premier Li Peng warned him that China `` will never accept U.S. huma

n rights concepts . '' As Christopher expressed outrage at the detention of Chin

ese dissidents , Li responded by warning that if its trade status is revoked , `

` the United States will suffer no less than China . '' China 's economy is boom

ing , with growth at 13.4 percent last year , and European as well as American b

usinesses are scrambling to enter the market . Even though China runs a $ 23-bil

lion surplus with the United States , meaning it would suffer much more from a t

rade drop , it was American businessmen who spoke gloomily about the potential l

oss of 200,000 jobs if MFN status were revoked enough to sway the President . Wh

ile many Asian countries remain wary of a resurgent China , the U.S. linkage of 

trade and human rights did not find a sympathetic audience in the region . `` Wh

en China becomes powerful in 20 or 30 years ' time , there is no reason why Chin

a should behave kindly toward the West , '' said Singapore 's Goh when asked abo

ut the possible effect of trade sanctions on Beijing . `` That 's our worry : Ch

ina may want to flex its muscles and then it will be a very troublesome world . 

'' He added that Singapore will continue to invest in China no matter what the U

nited States decides to do . ( Begin optional trim ) Even Australia , normally a

 champion of human rights but now courting Asia 's business , has parted company

 with the United States in its dispute with China . Australia 's ambassador to W

ashington , Don Russell , urged the Clinton administration in April to drop its 

aggressive pursuit of human rights and adopt a low-key dialogue with China using

 `` constructive , non-confrontational engagement . '' Southeast Asian nations a

re similarly assertive with the United States and Europe about Myanmar , because

 of budding economic ties and dislike of outside interference . No one disputes 

the country 's appalling human rights record , in which thousands of demonstrato

rs have been killed and the military junta has rejected the results of a May 199

0 election that was won in a landslide by the opposition National League for Dem

ocracy . The league 's chairwoman , Aung Sang Suu Kyi , has been under house arr

est for nearly five years . Winston Lord , the U.S. assistant secretary of state

 for East Asian affairs , called on Myanmar 's neighbors to help isolate the cou

ntry 's generals until the human rights picture improved . But last month Lord w

as forced to concede that `` as friends , '' the United States and Southeast Asi

a `` have agreed to disagree on the approaches . '' Singapore is the largest inv

estor in Myanmar , followed by Thailand and Japan . But beyond economic question

s , Southeast Asian countries are loath to allow outside powers to interfere in 

what they consider to be the internal affairs of a neighboring state . `` If we 

were to adopt the Western approach with Burma , we would be abandoning our role 

, '' said Thai Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri . `` We are neighbors and we sh

ould keep up relations in order to bring them out into the world community . '' 

The other members of ASEAN Malaysia , Singapore , Brunei , Indonesia and the Phi

lippines have agreed to follow the policy of `` constructive engagement '' towar

d Myanmar . ( End optional trim ) One of the paradoxes of the recent assertion o

f the Asian Way is that no two Asian nations are culturally identical . Corrupti

on-free Singapore stands in contrast to the venality of Indonesia and Thailand ,

 and the media are as free in the Philippines and Thailand as they are controlle

d in Malaysia and Singapore . Critics , mostly in the West , argue that there re

ally is no Asian Way . They say this is a convenient slogan seized by undemocrat

ic rulers to justify their continued hold on power . Kishore Mahbubani , the top

 civil servant in Singapore 's Foreign Ministry , published an essay in the Wash

ington Quarterly this year in which he blamed America 's current troubles on too

 much freedom . `` In a major reversal of a pattern lasting centuries , many Wes

tern societies including the United States are doing some major things fundament

ally wrong while a growing number of East Asian societies are doing the same thi

ngs right , '' Mahbubani said . ( Optional add end ) A Stanford University profe

ssor wryly observed that Singapore 's recent caning of American teen-ager Michae

l Fay for vandalism made him the first known victim of the `` clash of civilizat

ions '' expected to take place between Asia and the United States . President Cl

inton denounced the punishment as extreme , but many Asians and a fair number of

 Americans decried America 's crime rate and said it needed to adopt more string

ent punishments . Apart from the issue of human rights , few things make Asian l

eaders bristle as much as the Western media . China , Malaysia and Singapore hav