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

 the heroes of Normandy carried a resonance that cannot be reproduced today . Cl

inton will instead try to summon up the valor of the struggle against fascism an

d make it apply to the effort to consolidate democracy in the nations of the for

mer Soviet empire and elsewhere around the globe . ( Optional add end ) Aides in

volved in planning the trip and polishing the keynote speeches said there will b

e no chest-thumping over the Allied military triumph of World War II . `` Let me

 emphasize this : This should not be seen as a victory over Germany and over Ita

ly , '' said national security adviser Anthony Lake . `` I think the president w

ill be trying to make it clear that we are not celebrating the defeat of certain

 nations ; we are celebrating the victory of an idea , a liberating idea , of de

mocracy . '' Lake said Clinton intends to honor not only the veterans of the war

 but also those political and military leaders who shaped the postwar world , re

built the shattered economies of Europe and Japan and led the West in its costly

 victory in the Cold War .

 WASHINGTON With skepticism mounting about the fate of the health care reform in

itiative , key Democrats tried Sunday to minimize the damage from House Ways and

 Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski 's looming legal troubles . The commi

ttee `` is going to get a bill out no matter what happens , and we 're going to 

have it on the floor in July , '' House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D

-Mo. , predicted . `` The committee has already done a lot on health care . We '

re going to get it done . '' Gephardt and others , appearing on ABC 's `` This W

eek With David Brinkley , '' said there are many forces working to ensure passag

e of a health care reform bill this congressional session and that the legislati

on 's future does not depend solely on the chairman of the powerful House panel 

. Health care reform `` is bigger than any one person , '' said White House seni

or adviser George Stephanopoulos , adding : `` There is great momentum right now

 to make sure we get health care reform. .. . We 're confident we will be able t

o work with whoever is chairman of the committee. .. . We 're going to get this 

done this year . '' Rostenkowski has a Tuesday deadline for accepting a plea bar

gain that would require his resignation and a probable jail term . The alternati

ve would be an indictment and potential trial on corruption charges . There have

 been allegations that he has taken illegal cash payments from the House post of

fice and listed employees on his payroll who did not do any work . He has denied

 any wrongdoing and , according to sources , is now inclined to fight the charge

s . Under Democratic caucus rules , he would have to abandon his chairmanship if

 indicted . Rep. Charles B . Rangel , D-N.Y. , the third-ranking Democrat on the

 Ways and Means Committee , said on the ABC program that Rostenkowski 's skill w

as in `` being able to fully understand the needs of the different regions , the

 needs of members who had to vote for ( health care reform ) ... . In talking to

 people , he will know those who can vote for it , and those who can't . '' Rang

el insisted that `` with the presumption of innocence still going , '' he expect

ed Rostenkowski to continue to work to ensure passage of a health care measure `

` because he is really committed to this piece of legislation . '' But House Min

ority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , speaking on CBS ' `` Face the Nation , '' sai

d that recent Republican House victories , particularly in Kentucky and Oklahoma

 , signal more problems for passage of President Clinton 's reform bill than the

 potential loss of the influential chairman . Those Republicans ran against Clin

ton 's policies , including his plan for overhauling the nation 's health care s

ystem . Gingrich said he was concerned that Rostenkowski might get a lenient ple

a bargain through Democratic influence . He cited `` the weird situation where t

he president 's lawyer is negotiating with the president 's Justice Department o

n behalf of the president 's health care leader in the House . '' Robert S. Benn

ett , who is Rostenkowski 's lawyer , is also representing Clinton in a sexual-h

arassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas state employee . Gingrich said he w

as worried that the result would be `` some kind of rigged deal where 15 or 20 f

elony counts magically get reduced to a misdemeanor to allow him to stay in char

ge of health care . ''

 SHANGHAI Percy Chu 's eyes glisten as he recalls Shanghai in the decades before

 the 1949 communist revolution , when it was `` the Paris of the East , '' pulsa

ting with Jazz Age energy . It was Asia 's most cosmopolitan city , a hub of fre

e-wheeling capitalism , high intrigue , bacchanalian night life and brazen crime

 . Chu , 95 , was a prominent banker in those days . Among his prized mementos i

s a 1940 newspaper clipping reporting his abduction by an armed gang so audaciou

s that its extortion letters bore a return address . `` I survived , '' Chu said

 . `` I 've survived a lot of things . '' Now heady times are returning to Shang

hai and the city 's old capitalists such as Chu are gaining a new lease on their

 pre-revolutionary way of life . After four decades of stagnation and decay unde

r communism , Shanghai is bidding to regain the glory it once enjoyed as a cente

r of international finance and trade . The city 's rulers are wooing foreign inv

estors and spending massive amounts on public works in an effort to build a glit

tering nexus of commerce on old Shanghai 's faded ruins . They aim for the city 

to rival Asia 's modern urban jewels such as Hong Kong and Singapore within the 

next two decades . The endeavor underscores the extraordinary sense of hope and 

progress engendered by China 's explosive growth as its economy converts from st

ate planning to free enterprise . Given Shanghai 's dreadful overcrowding and an

tiquated infrastructure the majority of homes still lack flush toilets the city 

's aspirations are ambitious to say the least . But the atmosphere of rejuvenati

on has aroused the capitalistic spirits for which Shanghai used to be famous , f

ueling one of the most spectacular boons in China 's reform era . Members of Sha

nghai 's old money elite are back in clover . Chu , for example , belongs to an 

organization of elderly Shanghainese stripped of their assets during the communi

st era and brutally bullied by Mao Zedong 's Red Guards . The group , using mone

y that had been repatriated by the authorities , recently helped launch a local 

construction company , whose shares have soared on the Shanghai stock exchange .

 Chinese companies that left Shanghai after 1949 are streaming back with an eye 

to tapping its burgeoning markets and employing China 's best-educated work forc

e at wage levels that are rock-bottom by world standards . Chung Shing Textile C

o. , whose late founder fled Shanghai for Taiwan , has formed a joint venture wi

th the Shanghai apparel factory it had owned before the plant was nationalized b

y the communists . The Sincere department store chain of Hong Kong , whose flags

hip store on Shanghai 's Nanking Road was also nationalized , opened a glitzy ne

w store last year a few doors from the site of the old one . Multinational compa

nies from the United States , Europe and Japan are also pouring billions of doll

ars a year into offices , factories , bank branches , chemical plants and distri

bution facilities . Among them : AT&T Corp. , Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , Citiban

k , Morgan Stanley & Co. , Volkswagen AG , Unilever , Toshiba Corp. , Matsushita

 Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. . `` Two years ago we had 54 members ,

 '' said Diane Long , president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai 

. `` Now there 's 313 I mean , there were 313 a week ago . '' The number is risi

ng so fast , she explained , `` I don't know what it is today . '' The most dram

atic development is taking place in a section of the city on the eastern bank of

 the Huangpu River , named Pudong . Nearly 2,000 foreign-funded ventures are eit

her completed or underway in Pudong , including a giant department store backed 

by the Hong Kong-based retailer Yaohan ; a spandex-manufacturing venture bankrol

led by DuPont Co. ; and an air-conditioner factory established by Japan 's Sharp

 Corp. . Officials predict that by 1995 the new area 's skyline will boast 100 h

igh-rise buildings , including a financial center that will house the country 's

 main stock exchange , commodities exchanges and currency trading operations . S

hanghai 's comeback is emerging as a key test of China 's ability to shed its co

mmunist fetters and create a modern market economy . The city of 13 million , Ch

ina 's largest , encompasses nearly all of the nation 's most troublesome econom

ic problems poor transportation and distribution systems , inefficient state ent

erprises , poorly defined property rights and imperious bureaucracy . The Chines

e leadership under Deng Xiaoping , aware that a successful renaissance in Shangh

ai would send the strongest possible signal of the nation 's advancement , is tr

eating the city as an important showcase of economic reform , a major change fro

m the 1980s , when Shanghai was held in check . Tax laws have been changed to en

tice foreign-funded ventures , and $ 17 billion worth of infrastructure projects

 is nearing completion , including power generation plants , waste water treatme

nt facilities and a two bridges over the Huangpu River , connecting the city 's 

western and eastern segments for the first time . A second group of projects is 

now underway , including a new airport , subway , ring road and ocean container 

terminal . Seldom , if ever , has so bold a venture in urban renewal been launch

ed in a city where history echoes so clamorously . Shanghai attained its interna

tional fame as the result of some particularly shameful excesses on the part of 

Western imperial powers.In the 1840s , colonists from Britain , France and the U

nited States including many opium traders carved out sections of the city exempt

 from Chinese law , with exclusive parks and gentlemen 's clubs . Hundreds of in

ternational banks and trading houses set up shop in Shanghai . European refugees

 fleeing Bolshevism and Nazism flooded in by the tens of thousands during the er

a between the two world wars , as did Chinese refugees fleeing civil strife and 

the Japanese invasion . While Shanghai 's high society thronged to cabarets , te

a dances and greyhound races , its vast underclass endured slave labor , opium a

ddiction and starvation . The communists rid the city of its most sordid blight 

, and Shanghai became a bastion of ultra-leftist zealotry during Mao 's reign . 

But now the Maoist legacy weighs heavily on the city . Years of neglect left an 

infrastructure designed for a population a fraction of Shanghai 's size . Nearly

 3 million Shanghainese work for state-owned enterprises , many of them money-lo

sing dinosaurs , and the authorities dare not allow the extensive layoffs that w

ould enhance efficiency . Foreigners complain that bureaucrats , eager to fill m

unicipal coffers , are demanding absurdly high amounts for property leases , a d

evelopment that is threatening to cool investors ' enthusiasm . Yet Shanghai 's 

development goals , which once evoked widespread skepticism , are no longer the 

object of derision . `` Three years ago , I would have been rather reserved , ''

 said Annick de Kermadec-Bentzmann , manager of the Shanghai office of the Banqu

e Nationale de Paris . `` Today , when you look at what 's going on , you have t

o admit , it 's quite surprising . It 's not just a fantasy . ''

 JERUSALEM In leaving the Gaza Strip after a quarter-century of military occupat

ion and looking toward withdrawal from the West Bank , Israel is finally able in

 the view of many of its liberal thinkers to return to the question , profound a

nd contentious , of what kind of nation it should be . `` As long as we were occ

upying another people , depriving the Palestinians by force of arms of their bas

ic human and political rights , we were not a democratic state ourselves . And a

s long as we had more than 2 million Palestinians under us , we were on the way 

to losing our Jewish identity , '' philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz declared . ``

 We can again ask ourselves the question , What does it mean for Israel to be Je

wish ? What kind of democracy should we have ? What sort of nation are we ? What

 sort of people should we aspire to be ? After a generation , those questions ar

e back at the top of the agenda . '' Although the iconoclastic Leibowitz challen

ged Israel 's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip immediately after the 1

967 Middle East War , and called for a Palestinian state , he is joined today by

 many others closer to the Israeli political center in suggesting that the count

ry must now confront new issues . `` The glue of security has kept this country 

together , '' said Rabbi Naama Kelman , who directs Reform Judaism 's education 

program here . `` If we obtain peace with the Palestinians and then with the oth

er Arab neighbors as we hope and that is a big if we will face serious questions

 like social unrest , poverty , domestic violence , intolerance , economic prior

ities and relations between synagogue and state ... . `` Once Israelis are less 

concerned about physical security , they will have time to worry about spiritual

 security and they will find there is a lot to worry about . '' Among Israeli li

berals , there already is a lengthening agenda : the role of religion in the Jew

ish state , improvement of education after years of degradation , relations betw

een Jews and Arabs within Israel , how to close social gaps while encouraging en

trepreneurs , the future of Judaism itself . Many on the Israeli right share the

se concerns . But their focus , more than ever , is on security , because of the

ir fear that an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestin

ian self-government will prove to be a death trap for the country . Even liberal

s preface their discussions of where the country should go with clearly stated a

ssumptions that the autonomy deal must be the first step into an era of peace an

d with warnings that , if it fails , Israelis will respond `` very , very vigoro

usly and violently , '' as Rabbi David Hartman put it , and then retreat back in

to the `` world of conflict '' that they know so well . Novelist Amos Oz , while

 noting that `` everything depends on the Arabs and their acceptance of us , '' 

said it `` already feels a bit strange this life ` after the ( occupied ) territ

ories ' and the possibility we will look out and not see someone ready to kill u

s . `` I worry sometimes that Israel at peace will lose its character and become

 part of a homogenized , CNN world . That would be a great pity , because Jews f

orm a unique instrument in the world orchestra of art and culture , and it would

 be a shame if it vanished . '' `` The big question is whether Israel is the end

 of Jewish history or another chapter of Jewish history , '' asserted Hartman , 

a theologian and philosopher . `` People are wondering seriously about that . Th

ere is a profound Jewish identity crisis in Israel . '' ( Begin optional trim ) 

With the establishment of Israel as a modern state in 1948 and earlier , in the 

Zionist movement according to Hartman , Leibowitz and others , many Jews came to

 substitute the founding and building of a national home for the spiritual value

s and way of life that had defined Judaism for centuries . Israel 's triumph in 

the 1967 war , including the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip , confirme

d for many that `` the whole biblical promise was being worked out .. . and we w

ere living in God 's redemptive scheme , '' Hartman said . `` That meant they ne

ed not ask any difficult or embarrassing questions about the future of the Jewis

h people or the purpose of Israel . '' That was an illusion on virtually a natio

nal scale , Hartman and others maintain . And because of the fundamental shifts 

implicit in recognizing the Palestinians ' right to self-determination , includi

ng a share of the biblical Land of Israel , Israelis will soon be searching for 

new points of orientation . ( End optional trim ) Michael Breeson , who writes p

rovocatively on political and social issues under the name `` B . Michael '' in 

Israel 's largest newspaper , Yediot Aharonot , was even more pungent in assessi

ng this historic juncture . `` Over our 27 years in the Gaza Strip and on the We

st Bank , we became occupation junkies , hooked on power and running and ruining

 other people 's lives , '' Breeson said , `` and now we have to give it up . Th

at will be tough . People know they have to kick the habit and that means gettin

g out entirely from the West Bank , settlements and all but they say , ` Just a 

little more. ' ' ' For secular Jews such as Ilana Hammerman , a prominent editor

 , the questions may be the same as they are for Leibowitz , Hartman and others 

who are religious , but the answers are certain to be different . `` Is Israel a

 religious state , a theocracy run by rabbis , or is it democratic and pluralist

 ? '' Hammerman asked . `` We need a very big discussion on that . Having our li

ves run by rabbis , as it is now at the most important points like birth , marri

age and death , is the first battle I will fight . `` Then there is education th

at is the very future of our society . Next is the forced nationalism , the mili

tarism and all the holy little rituals that remind me of countries we fled . Wha

t about the cultural conflicts we have among us ? I could go on the list is long

 . But when can we start ? If we have to wait another 40 years , we will cease t

o exist . '' Oz also believes that `` the future has already begun getting out o

f Gaza just confirmed it . '' `` Turn your back on Jerusalem and scan the entire

 coastal plain from Haifa down to Ashdod , and you see a land that is secular to

 the core , hedonistic , passionate , noisy , warmhearted , temperamental like G

reece , Italy , Spain and North Africa , '' Oz said . `` Israel is finding its p

lace in the Mediterranean where it belongs . I like it . People smoke a lot , sp

eak loudly , push a lot , but are open and creative , very creative . What makes

 me relatively optimistic is that it is not going to become a boring place for a

 very long time . ''

 LAS VEGAS , Nev . Like corporate raiders seeking new markets to exploit , Los A

ngeles gang members have come gunning for easy money on the high-rolling Strip .

 In a spree of brazen invasion-style heists three of them in the last three mont

hs suspected Bloods and Crips have stormed into casinos , rifled through the cas

hier 's cages and made off with tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of seco

nds . No bystanders have been injured in any of the attacks , which reflect the 

continuing evolution of some South-Central Los Angeles gangs into profit-driven 

enterprises . But the robberies , captured on dramatic surveillance videotape , 

have stunned this mushrooming tourist mecca and forced image-conscious proprieto

rs to begin beefing up their intentionally low-key security measures . `` When y

ou see these guys jumping like animals over the counters with their pillow cases

 ready to fill with bounty , that really strikes fear in people 's hearts , '' s

aid Beecher Avants , security chief at the Gold Coast and a candidate for Clark 

County sheriff . `` This is going to continue .. . as long as we leave cash layi

ng out there like candy . '' Starting with a November 1992 , robbery at the San 

Remo Hotel and Casino , there have been seven casino heists in Las Vegas , inclu

ding holdups at the Aladdin , Flamingo Hilton , Harrah 's and the San Remo again

 . Although Los Angeles gangs are suspects in five of the assaults , authorities

 have had enough evidence to file charges in only two . In almost every case , a

t least three or four masked gunmen have burst into the neon-bathed gambling hal

ls , waving shotguns and shouting for everyone to hit the floor . A few times , 

the crowds failed to even hear the commands , drowned out by the clatter of slot

 machines and the unshakable lounge bands . Vaulting over the belly-high counter

s of the cashier 's cages , the robbers have scooped up bundles of large bills ,

 then sped away in stolen cars . One group of alleged thieves , all suspected Cr

ips , was caught in Las Vegas after a high-speed chase . The 15-year-old trigger

man in another casino robbery was arrested in South-Central Los Angeles after an

 informant overheard him boasting about his feat . None of the loot , which has 

ranged from $ 47,000 to $ 158,000 , has been recovered . `` It 's like they thin

k we 're the new frontier , that we 're easy pickin 's , '' said deputy district

 attorney Victoria Villegas , who successfully urged a 30-year prison term for t

he juvenile shooter . `` We 're trying to send a message to L.A. gangs that this

 not going to be looked upon lightly . '' ( Optional add end ) For much of the l

ast decade , Crips and Bloods have been evolving from turf-oriented neighborhood

 cliques into business-minded outfits . Some of the more sophisticated factions 

have helped fuel a nationwide drug-trafficking network , while others have been 

linked to the alarming rise in Southern California bank robberies . `` Our gangb

angers are master opportunists , '' said Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Sgt. Wes 

McBride , who fields calls from law enforcement agencies around the country seek

ing information about Crips and Bloods migrating from Los Angeles . `` Like any 

predator , they take what they can get . '' With the crack cocaine market satura

ted and banks rapidly bolstering security , gang experts say , the fast cash of 

Las Vegas became a lucrative target . Not only are many of the cashier 's cages