Handshake

OUR HOPE for world peace, or at least peace for Roberto Alomar Jr., is that the photo of him shaking hands with umpire John Hirschbeck was reprinted in every newspaper in the country following Tuesday's Baltimore-Chicago game, and that the videotape of it gets replayed on EPSN and "This Week in Baseball" until every man, woman and child in America sees it.Finally, finally, there may be healing for the wound Mr. Alomar inflicted on himself last fall when...

BALTIMORE COUNTY'S archaic system of trash hauling, whereby routes are plums handed out by the county executive without contracts or competitive bidding, has been around for generations and reported on countless times.Each time, the public has responded with a big yawn. Trash isn't piling up on the sidewalk; property taxes aren't going up. Absent pressure from citizens, elected leaders have responded, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"Here's why: This trash-collection system carries the potential for abuse, even if abuse is not occurring now. History shows that, with few exceptions, taxpayers are best served when government work is awarded to the lowest bidder.

Frank MacConnell,61, a sports shop owner who got President Clinton and Newt Gingrich to promise campaign finance reform, died Saturday in Newport, N.H., without getting his wish. He was under treatment for cancer.At a June 1995 senior citizens barbecue, he suggested to Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gingrich, a Republican congressman from Georgia, that an independent commission should study campaign finance and lobbying reform. They thought it was a great idea and shook hands on it.A year after the handshake, campaign finance reform legislation was mired on Capitol Hill.

Without a written proposal or signed contract, former County Executive Robert R. Neall billed Anne Arundel for $7,600 in consulting work in the spring after a handshake agreement with close friend and successor, John G. Gary.An invoice from Neall's Annapolis consulting firm and a canceled county check represent the only evidence of the unusual way Gary hired Neall in December. Gary paid his predecessor to study whether Anne Arundel would save money by hiring a private company to run the new $29.7 million Glen Burnie jail.

MANY DOUBTED it would ever happen. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shook hands with Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat yesterday. They conversed for an hour and committed themselves to implement agreements already reached. With that, the disputes between them, which they did not resolve, became susceptible to resolution. The Oslo peace process is up and running, with a Likud Party government that had been critical of it.Mr. Netanyahu is coming to see President Clinton on Monday.

WASHINGTON -- In his weekend radio talk, President Clinton pointedly reminded listeners of that memorable scene in Claremont, N.H., last month when he and House Speaker Newt Gingrich shook hands on a "deal" to create a bipartisan commission on lobbying and campaign finance reform to curb the power of special interests, as suggested by a questioner.Clinton declared then that "in a heartbeat, I accept," leading to the handshake, as the crowd of predominantly senior citizens applauded.It was, for all those willing for a moment to suspend disbelief, an uplifting cameo.

MOSCOW -- Ivan the Terrible began Russia's relationship with the British by proposing marriage to the first Queen Elizabeth 441 years ago.VTC She refused him, and neither she nor any subsequent English monarch ever set foot in the place.Yesterday, the second Queen Elizabeth changed all that, having accepted a less drastic proposal from President Boris N. Yeltsin. Mr. Yeltsin simply invited her to visit.But when the queen flew here to begin her four-day royal tour, Britons and Russians alike were describing it with considerable awe."

Washington.--For all the signs of a new chapter in relations between Israelis and Palestinians, there are key issues that everyone agrees are too hot to handle right now.Dubbed "final status" questions, they have been put off until a new phase of talks begins in two years: the future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, refugees and Palestinian statehood.The idea, perhaps even the genius, behind the interim Israeli-Palestinian settlement is that it will allow a period of adjustment for people on both sides to start viewing each other in a new way.It is hoped that Israelis will stop seeing Palestinians as threats to their personal security and that Palestinians will stop viewing Israelis as occupiers trampling their rights and livelihoods.

In the end, it was Yitzhak Rabin, the dour and often dull speaker, whose words pierced our hearts. "It's not so easy," he said simply, and with great humanity.And we understood. It is not easy to enter a White House ceremony together with the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, an organization founded on destroying the Jewish state. Flanked by President Clinton, Mr. Rabin had kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, as did the other two men, evoking the awkwardness and undercurrents of enmity of a divorced couple walking their son or daughter down the aisle at a wedding.

"I am here to receive the Chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat," I told the guard at Andrews Air Force Base.The words seemed strange to my ears. In 1989, I had interviewed Mr. Arafat in Tunis and as I flew back to the United States, I was worried about the repercussions that this visit might have on the future of my career in this country. After all, Mr. Arafat was considered by many as the leader of a terrorist organization.The guard at the gate at Andrews showed respect as he directed me. His attitude formed a stark contrast, in my mind, with all the negative cartoon images that I had seen in this country over the years depicting Mr. Arafat as a terrorist, a murderer and so on.The same contrast emerged again as I heard one senator say after meeting Mr. Arafat, "He is up on the issues, and his English is excellent."