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CNN Live Today
Barak Has Strong Words for Arafat
Aired January 23, 2002 - 10:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move on now to the Middle East. Strong words from Yasser Arafat's former counterpart in peace talks. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is saying that it may be time to treat the Palestinian leader as a terrorist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EHUD BARAK, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Arafat happened to behave like a terrorist. He looks like one, he walks like one, he quacks (ph) like one, so it may be he is really a terrorist, and it's about time that we tell the truth, first of all, to ourselves about his behavior, and be able to develop (ph) the conclusion -- conclusion from it, however painful they might be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Barak's comments come as the cycle of attacks and counterattacks rises to new levels.
Our Jerrold Kessel has the latest now from Jerusalem -- Jerrold, hello.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
And the strong words of Mr. Barak are indeed being echoed in the region as the two sides, again, charging each other with creating the volatile and extremely dangerous situation that has evolved, and the latest pictures that we see from the region out in Nablus on the West Bank at the funeral of four members of the militant Islamic group Hamas who were killed yesterday when Israeli troops launched what they called a "preemptive raid" against a Hamas bomb factory in Nablus and that ended in fire fight with the four who were shot dead by those Israeli troops who went into the Palestinian town.
Well, at the funeral today, there were calls from the Islamic radicals how were marching together with supporters of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, in the funeral march, declaring cries of revenge, and Hamas has indeed said it was now in an all-out state of war with Israel.
And the Israelis on a high state of alert, especially after yesterday's attack in Jerusalem by a lone gunman who opened fire at random, killed two women and wounded more than 30 civilians in the heart of West Jerusalem. The Israelis tightening security, and their intelligence chiefs warning that more such attacks could be on the way.
But Israel, not only on the defensive. Ariel Sharon -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has launched aggressive moves of his own, including that attack on Hamas, in Nablus yesterday, but also pointedly keeping Israeli tanks very much in place and perched ominously right outside Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah.
And the talk in the highest echelons of Israeli political and military circles is not only of the keeping up the pressure by keeping Mr. Arafat marooned in Ramallah, but perhaps going further, perhaps pushing him into permanent exile, and undercutting his Palestinian Authority.
But the Palestinian leader has not been cowed, although he is really in a state of growing isolation. He is being very defiant, talking of the fact that he has outlasted Israeli tanks before, back in Lebanon 20 years ago, he says. He outlasted Ariel Sharon's there. He believes, so say insiders, that maybe Mr. Sharon has overplayed his hand in pressing him this far, and he's talking very much of being able to stand and withstand this kind of pressure.
In this volatile situation, only one thing in common on the two sides: One single word which is heard on the lips of both Israelis and Palestinians, and that word, ominously, is "escalation" -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jerrold, meanwhile, the U.S. has tried to help somewhat by sending in Mideast Envoy Zinni. That doesn't seem to appear to have helped because things just continue to escalate. What if the U.S. were just to pull out entirely, and let these two sides try to figure it out on their own?
KESSEL: Well, there's a lot of thought going on on what exactly Washington is planning to do. They haven't sent Mr. Zinni, or the State Department's William Burns back to the region, and there are a lot of anticipation of whether there will be declaration from the United States in some way, which will point to U.S. thinking that perhaps Yasser Arafat is not only part of the -- of the solution, but maybe part of the problem. And also, on the other hand, whether Ariel Sharon's strident tactics are also perhaps part of the problem, not just part of the solution.
So very much an awareness of what the United States might or might not do, and interestingly, we were speaking just a short while ago to the chief U.N. envoy in the area, Terje Roed-Larsen, and he had some pointed comments to make, describing the area as teetering on the brink of an abyss.
He said there has to be a whole lot of new thinking in the international community about how to address the situation and about how, perhaps, to get them back onto the right track. Here's what Mr. Larsen had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TERJE ROED-LARSEN: We in the international community have to face some very unpleasant facts. Namely that the "security first" and the "security only" approach has failed, and we have to take the consequences. The micro-management on the ground, asking for Ahmed (ph), Mohamed (ph), whoever, to be arrested, it hasn't worked, and it will not work, unless it is paired with a political move. There has to be a political horizon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KESSEL: So there must be political moves, says Terje Roed- Larsen, but really, he seems to be directing his criticism to the U.S., who has been allowing making the demands primarily of Yasser Arafat, that he crack down on the militants, and really allowing the Israelis to go ahead and put that pressure on Yasser Arafat.
Big question now: What will be the U.S. policy in the days, literally, ahead as the situation teeters, as Mr. Larsen was saying, on the brink of oppressiveness -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem. Thank you very much.
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