Self Determination

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Saturday assured West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Soviet support for the early reunification of Germany at a pace and in a way determined by East and West Germany themselves. Gorbachev, reaffirming what Moscow regards as the German "right of self-determination," in effect cleared the way for the opening on Tuesday of preliminary negotiations between East Berlin and Bonn on reunification by pledging to respect the outcome.

Shortly after voting against reform here this week, Marc Dewit paused to enlighten an American reporter on Adolf Hitler ("one of the world's great heroes"), communism ("a Jewish conspiracy") and apartheid ("it's not a sin, it's God's law").

In two major policy statements on widely disparate issues, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops Thursday firmly rejected the use of condoms as a means of fighting the spread of AIDS and called for an independent Palestinian homeland that would recognize Israel's right to exist and safeguard its borders.

At the end of 15 hours of vitriolic debate, the Israeli Parliament early today narrowly ratified Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's agreement to give Palestinians control over much of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The 61-59 vote that Rabin called a motion of confidence in his center-left coalition government mirrors the deep schism in Israel over the peace agreement with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.

High in his 36th-floor executive suite, overlooking the neat line where the trees and houses of this city greet the vast, tawny expanse of Alberta prairie, oilman Kent Jespersen is girding for the political battle of his life. "I think this vote is the most important vote that Canadians will have to cast, at least in my lifetime," says Jesperson, senior vice president of Nova Corp. Jespersen means the referendum scheduled for Oct.

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo rejoiced Friday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a hated figure here, has fallen from power--even though many fear that his departure may delay their dream of independence. "It's more difficult to be independent without Milosevic, because [President-elect Vojislav] Kostunica looks like a democratic leader. He's not, but he looks like it," said local businessman Blerim Gerbeshi, 24. "With Milosevic in power, I think we would become independent faster."

Jacques Chirac, the first French premier to visit Israel, called Sunday for Palestinian self-determination and an international Middle East peace conference. "How can other peoples and more specifically the Palestinian people avail themselves of the right to self-determination, that imprescriptible right that the Jewish people were among the very first to champion?" Chirac said in a speech. "Israel's right to existence and to security must be unambiguously guaranteed.

In its understandable rush to embrace Belgrade after the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in October, the West has all but abandoned its friends in Montenegro and Kosovo as they attempt to redefine their respective relationships to Serbia and the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Like most people, I've long regarded the Abstract Expressionist painting done in San Francisco in the decade after World War II to have been a quick, sometimes deft response to extraordinary artistic developments principally being generated in New York.