WASHINGTON INSIGHT

GIVING PLO A HAND: In the wake of The Handshake between leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Congress is expected to move swiftly to lift restrictions against PLO activities in the United States. . . . The PLO is anxious to reopen the Washington office that it was forced to close after President George Bush canceled U.S. dialogue with the group 15 months ago. Other U.S. laws prohibit PLO officials from visiting this country without a special visa--and from traveling freely once they are here. . . . “We’ll have something fairly soon,” said an aide to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But legislation providing relief may have a string or two attached. “It is very likely that Congress will seek to keep something on the book to hold the PLO’s feet to the fire on commitments,” the aide said.

*

CHEF HILLARY? Several days before the PLO and Israel signed their peace pact at the White House, a top PLO official pressed Chairman Yasser Arafat for a list of PLO officials who would be attending. “I jokingly told him . . . Hillary will be cooking, and she needs time,” the PLO’s chief negotiator, Nabil Shaath, recalled at a session with journalists. “Oh, no,” rejoined Mideast columnist Helena Cobban, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton “will be at the table, not in the kitchen.” . . . Shaath said he made the remark to Arafat because cooking for such a big event back home has to start three days ahead.

*

ETHICS WEEK: Congressional leaders will set aside a week in mid-October to act on lobbying and campaign-finance reform measures that have been idling for months. Why the sudden movement? Sources involved in the discussions say leaders fear that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) will be indicted soon on charges stemming from the House post office scandal--and want to be seen moving on ethics issues before that happens.

*

HEALTH BULLETINS: Last spring, White House aides persuaded Ross Perot to quit knocking President Clinton on health care until the White House overhaul plan came out. Perot now has a copy, but an aide says he is too busy knocking the North American Free Trade Agreement to comment on health care for a while. . . . A new newsletter, Health News Reporter, covers reporters who cover health care. Its target audience: health industry press agents. For $298 a year, subscribers can learn how editors and reporters operate so they can “work with them more effectively.” . . . Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) quips that lawmakers are skeptical of the Clinton plan because of the “Star Trek Factor”--It “promises to boldly go where no one has ever gone before.”

*

INCISIVE AIR: The Capitol Steps, a political satire group based in Washington, is taking a wicked scalpel to the Clinton health care plan. To the tune of “Consider Yourself” from “Oliver,” cost-saving “doctors” warble about giving help by phone to do-it-yourself patients. Excerpts:

You can suture yourself at home

Suture yourself in front of your family

We’ll do it for just a song

Who cares if maybe we get it wrong

And:

Consider your home well-stocked

Your Hoover can do liposuctomy

If you want to bob your nose

Just use a wrench and a garden hose