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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bush: Israeli Actions Not Helping Situation

Aired March 14, 2002 - 06:04   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk now about the situation in Israel. Will a U.S. envoy have any success in stopping the momentum of Middle East violence? Anthony Zinni's mission begins today. He's on his way there right now.

CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna looks at the challenge he faces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: This is the reality on the ground confronting the special U.S. envoy, the biggest Israeli military operation in two decades. Its troops reoccupy a number of Palestinian areas. A massive loss of Palestinian life in these military deployments, loss of life too on the Israeli side, as Palestinian gunmen attack Jewish settlers and the troops guarding them.

And suicide bombers continue to threaten strikes in the very heart of Israel. The region's violence, nothing new to Anthony Zinni, both (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by an increase in the level of conflict. The man who'd come to negotiate a cease-fire ended up paying respects to yet more dead.

MAHDI ABDUL HADI, PALESTINIAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY: If he will not be able to hold Sharon tanks and firing and killing Palestinians and if he will not be able to find an access for Arafat to go to the Arab Summit, I think his mission will be failed.

HANNA: The conflict Zinni is coming to try to resolve is more intense than ever. The result, says this analyst, of two factors.

ARI SHAVIT, HA'ARETZ NEWSPAPER: One is that the Palestinians have learned that there is profit in killing Jews. There's political capital to be made, and the other is that there has been a process of legitivization (ph) of the slaughter of Jews in this country.

HANNA: Zinni's task, to revive the cease-fire plan drawn up by CIA Director George Tenet. Among the steps demanded of the Palestinian leadership, to arrest known militants, confiscate illegal weapons, and do everything possible to end attacks on Israelis. Demanded of Israel, to lift the blockade on Palestinian territory, to stop the killing of individual Palestinian militants, and to withdraw forces to the positions they held before the end of September 2000. SHAVIT: The thing is that Israelis must know that once they make these concessions, they're going to have peace and quiet at home that they can walk safely to their cafes and go to their shopping malls without being slaughtered.

HADI: They have been sacrificing hundreds of people from both houses, and we need international presence, not only to protect the Palestinians, but to separate us and the Israelis for the time being.

HANNA: Palestinians have made repeated calls for international monitors on the ground, but Ariel Sharon has made clear he believes that would internationalize the conflict rather than contain it.

(on camera): Both sides have welcomed Zinni's return, but neither side has indicated it'll take the steps necessary to ensure this mission ends differently from those that failed before.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And President Bush does believe Anthony Zinni can make progress in the Middle East peace process, but Mr. Bush is criticizing Israel for its military reactions to terror attacks.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Frankly, it's not helpful what the Israelis have recently done in order to create conditions for peace. I understand someone trying to defend themselves and to fight terror, but the recent actions aren't helpful.

COSTELLO: Mr. Bush says both Palestinians and Israelis will have to work towards achieving security that could ultimately lead to peace. And as you might expect, the escalating violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians is complicating Vice President Dick Cheney's Middle East tour. Cheney traveled from Egypt to Yemen today and he's expected to push the anti-terrorism campaign with officials there.

CNN senior White House correspondent John King has more on the vice president's trip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Lunch with U.S. peacekeepers on the Sinai Peninsula, a chance to thank the troops and for once stick to the initial White House script for the vice president's Middle East trip. This meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak included talks as Mr. Cheney had hoped about Iraq and other future fronts in the war on terrorism. But Mr. Mubarak made clear escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence is a more urgent immediate issue in the region, and also made clear he blames Israel.

HOSNI MUBARAK, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT: It's a current military offensive in civilian towns and villages, cannot be tolerated, and must be immediately stopped. KING: Mr. Cheney chose his words carefully because of the delicate diplomacy, saying both sides have a responsibility to end the violence and that Washington's short-term goal is to broker a cease- fire, but he did try to curry Arab favor by reiterating the administration's long-term goal of a Palestinian state. President Mubarak says he is optimistic that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will let United Nations weapons inspectors return to Baghdad. The Egyptian leader said all diplomatic avenues need to be exhausted first, but he did not completely slam the door on U.S. military action.

MUBARAK: If then nothing happened, we'd find out what could be done in that direction.

KING: Mr. Cheney and other top U.S. officials are skeptical Iraq will agree to meaningful inspections and that his earlier visit with the U.S. peacekeeping troops, the vice president called confronting unfriendly nations with weapons of mass destruction the next objective in the war on terrorism.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States will not permit the forces of terror to gain the tools of genocide.

KING: The vice president's trademark is discipline and top aides say he is satisfied with his talks at his first two stops in the Middle East. Yet one senior official on the trip concedes it is more difficult to focus on Iraq when Arab leaders are so angry at Israel. The official declined to answer when asked if the White House accepts the Arab view that the Israeli offensive is excessive.

The this same senior U.S. official said emphatically that the violence needs to stop and sent a clear signal that the timing of the latest Israeli military offensive was complicating the vice president's diplomatic efforts here in the Arab world, noting with some sarcasm you might say Prime Minister Sharon did not consult with the vice president when scheduling his actions.

John King, CNN, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That must be the understatement of the year.

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