ISRAEL . . . CLINTON REASSURES RABIN ON AID

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin received assurances from President Clinton in Washington today that his country's $3 billion annual U.S. aid package -- the largest for any nation -- won't shrink under aGOP-controlled Congress. After the two met for 80 minutes today, Clinton said he would press for even more U.S. money for an Israeli anti-missile defense system. (The president also said he might argue for sending U.S. troops to the Mideast to monitor a possible Israeli-Syrian peace accord in the disputed Golan Heights, but then demurred, saying he'd not yet committed himself.) Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) has threatened to cut Israeli aid, but today, future Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) promised no aid cuts "at this time of great tension in the Middle East where we're trying to achieve peace."