Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a U.S. public relations campaign against President Clinton. The surface story: Netanyahu rejected Clinton's demand that Israel accept withdrawal from another 13 percent of the West Bank as a prerequisite for further U.S. peace talks. The backstage story, reported by the New York Times: Netanyahu will visit Congress, the pro-Israel lobby, and the U.S. media this week to stir up criticism of the pressure Clinton put on him. Last week's spin: Netanyahu had to accept Clinton's offer, because it was too favorable to Israel to pass up and because Israel couldn't afford to antagonize the United States. The subsequent spin: If Netanyahu didn't accept, Clinton would take his case public to put pressure on him. The new spin: Netanyahu is passing up the U.S. offer, is willing to antagonize the United States, and is taking his case public to put pressure on Clinton. (5/11/98)

SBC Communications has agreed to buy Ameritech in a stock swap worth about $60 billion. This would be the second-biggest merger ever (behind Citigroup)--at least for the moment--and would create the biggest U.S. local phone company. The spins: 1) Merger mania continues. 2) This merger brings Ma Bell back from the dead by uniting three of her Baby Bells (spanning the West, Southwest, and Midwest) and an additional New England phone company. 3) Now AT&T will have to buy Bell Atlantic--which has already bought Nynex--to form a rival phone giant. 4) So much for the competition we were supposed to get from the 1996 Telecommunications Act. (5/11/98)

The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily grounded old Boeing 737s to inspect them for worn fuel tank wires. The first-day spin: What a nuisance for travelers. The second-day spin, after the inspections found that half the grounded planes had damaged wires like those suspected of causing the TWA 800 catastrophe: Don't panic; the wires are being fixed, and it's still safe to fly. (5/11/98)

White House aide Sidney Blumenthal apologized for calling Hickman Ewing, Ken Starr's deputy counsel, a "religious fanatic." Speaker Gingrich and more than 50 Republicans in Congress had demanded that Clinton punish Blumenthal for his "religious intolerance." White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles said he had discussed the transgression with Blumenthal, and Blumenthal issued a written statement saying, "I did not intend to offend Mr. Ewing's or anyone else's personal religious beliefs and I regret if anyone feels offended."(5/11/98)

Daimler-Benz and Chrysler are merging. It's the largest industrial merger to date, worth $35 billion to $40 billion. The global spin: Merger mania continues. The world auto industry is consolidating into GM and Ford in the United States, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen (which appears to be buying Rolls Royce) in Europe, and Toyota and Honda in Japan. The economic spin: 1) Foreigners continue buying American companies and endangering the jobs of their American workers. 2) Don't worry, there's little overlap between Daimler (which makes Mercedes cars) and Chrysler, so nobody will be fired. 3) Then what's the point of merging? The union spin: 1) The Chrysler bosses are selling out America. 2) Wait a minute--we get to join forces with the German unions, which have even more clout and better benefits. Workers of the world, unite! (5/8/98)

The U.S. Marine jet that killed 20 people in Italy by snapping a ski lift cable nearly struck the ski gondola in which they were riding, according to testimony in a military justice hearing. The jet allegedly came within 130 feet of hitting the gondola after flying just 300 to 500 feet above the ground--well below its permitted altitude--for at least seven miles, bolstering the theory that the crew was flying recklessly. Crew members are charged with involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide, and other offenses. (5/8/98)

New York's state supreme court denied a woman the right to implant her frozen embryos in defiance of a contract she had signed with her then-husband. Before their divorce, the couple agreed their frozen embryos could be used only if both consented. A lower court, citing the right to procreate under Roe vs. Wade, ruled that the woman was entitled to "exclusive control over the fate of her nonviable fetus." The state's high court disagreed. The superficial spin: It's a defeat for Roe vs. Wade. The sophisticated spin: It's a victory for the spirit of Roe, because the high court ruled that the procreation decision had been rightly made by the couple--"not the state and not the courts"--through their contract. The pro-life spin: This means that embryos will be treated as just another contractually disposable commodity. (5/8/98)

Judge Norma Holloway Johnson rejected President Clinton's invocations of executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to prevent interrogation of his advisers in the Lewinsky affair. The spins: 1) This means Bruce Lindsey and Sidney Blumenthal must testify. 2) This ruling bodes ill for Clinton's similar invocation of presidential privilege to prevent Secret Service testimony. 3) Ken Starr is on a roll, having won three consecutive rulings from Judge Johnson. 4) The White House will appeal her decision to the Supreme Court. 5) Comparisons to Watergate are resuming. (5/6/98)

The Dan Burton follies continued. In the previous episode, Burton, the chairman of the House investigation of the campaign finance scandal, was under fire for 1) releasing transcripts of Webster Hubbell's phone calls from jail and 2) omitting parts of the transcripts in which Hubbell vouched for Hillary Clinton's innocence. In today's episode, Burton 1) said he would bypass Democratic objections by assigning the investigation's next step to a GOP-stacked committee; 2) reversed that decision, evidently at Speaker Gingrich's behest; and 3) "accepted the resignation" of his chief investigator, David Bossie, who is blamed for releasing the transcripts. Gingrich said Bossie was fired. The Chicago Tribune called for Burton's removal. The Washington Post groaned that Burton "once again lived up to his caricature" as an overzealous idiot and pointed out that his real crime has been to distract attention from the transcripts, which indicate that White House "emissaries" encouraged Hubbell and his wife to fear their livelihood depended on remaining silent about the Clintons' roles in Whitewater. (5/6/98)

Politicians of both parties christened the new Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. It is the biggest U.S. government building, aside from the Pentagon, to have been erected, and it cost more than twice as much as had been projected. The half-cynical spin: The joke is on Reagan, because the building belies his rhetoric against big government. The fully cynical spin: The joke is on us, because the building faithfully reflects Reagan's continuation of big government, despite his rhetoric. (5/6/98)