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CNN Live Today
How Will Israeli Respond to Suicide Attack?
Aired March 28, 2002 - 13:02 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to turn attention first though this hour back to Israel, and the aftermath of that deadly suicide bombing. Nearly two dozen are dead and killed, and more wounded. The question now: How will Israel respond?
Back to Jerusalem and Mike Hanna who is tracking this.
Mike, good evening.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, that question likely to be decided in coming hours when there's a meeting of the full Israeli cabinet. The government source tells CNN that significant decisions will be taken at that meeting. What is being debated? What action Israel takes in the wake of the Netanya attack, which killed 20 Israelis and injured well over 100.
In recent days, Israel has been saying that it's practicing restraint, in its words, with difficulty in the face of previous terror attacks against Israeli civilians, but the sheer scale of the attack in Netanya likely to put immense pressure on Ariel Sharon from sections of his government and of the public to take the strongest possibility steps against the Palestinian Authority.
The question is, what steps will these be? Earlier this month, Israel launched biggest military deployment in two decades. It arrested numbers of Palestinians. It reoccupied great areas of Palestinian-controlled territory, and it killed dozens of Palestinians, but this operation did not put an end to terror attacks against civilians.
So the question being asked is, what can Sharon do that he has not done before? Well, that will be resolved in the hours to come, but Palestinians are bracing themselves for some form of military action. There has been evacuation of officers belonging to Palestinian security forces. There are reports of people in West Bank cities like Ramallah, Janin, Tulkaram, of stocking up on supplies, because they fear another Israeli reoccupation of the towns and cities, The Israeli cabinet meeting in a few hours, and the decision likely to be forthcoming after that -- Bill.
HANNA: Mike Hanna, live in Jerusalem. That hotel that Mike was talking about, recently John Vause on the scene there took a tour through there, and again, the devastation there was extensive.
Here is John's walk through the hotel room a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The devastation from that blast all around here incredible. The ceiling came down, electrical cables being exposed. It ripped the tiles off these pillars here. As a sign of what was going on here at the time, probably best that we just get out of the way over here, and go walk over here. Here's table that was set up for dinner. Around this table would have been family for the Seder (ph) dinner, for the Jewish Passover dinner.
On this table, we can see cutlery, we can see broken plates. Earlier when we were here, before this cleanup got into full swing, there's still uneaten left on that table. If we walk over this way, it's incredibly busy right now. Hours earlier, there was nobody here. But the blast incredibly strong, a lot of structural damage. Windows upstairs in this hotel are being blown out on the second floor.
If we can move over this way a bit further, on the floor here some bottles of wine, some wine which was to be drunk as that Passover dinner.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: That dinner known as a Seder. Ushers in Passover celebrating the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
And this year, though, a celebration tinged with deep sadness.
Rusty Dornin spent time with one American family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A joyous occasion at the Beale household in Berkeley, California: gathering for the Seder, the ceremonial meal that signals the start of Passover. But for Rachel Biale, an Israeli by birth, and for others gathered here, the Passover massacre near Tel Aviv took its toll on Jews everywhere.
RACHEL BIALE, PASSOVER CELEBRANT: Obviously, there is the difficulty in being joyous with such a horrible attack in the background.
DORNIN: Here at the table, the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery is relived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is our duty nonetheless the retell the story of the exodus from Egypt.
DORNIN: Questions are asked about the unusual ceremony, normally by the youngest child, here sung by all. Passover celebrates freedom from oppression. In light of the Palestinian situation, an irony not lost on the Israeli and American Jews here. And so, there are more questions. DAVID BIALE, PASSOVER CELEBRANT: Does it have to be a violent process? Can there be ways of achieving peace that don't require going through terror and the deaths of innocent people?
DORNIN: For Diane Wolfe, it's important that her 7-year-old son Max knows not only what went on thousands of years ago, but the politics today as well.
(on camera): So, how do you explain it to Max?
DIANE WOLFE, PASSOVER CELEBRANT: I explain to him that everyone deserves the right to live, and everyone deserves the right to live with dignity, and that we need to work for a just solution so that Jews can have their state and the Palestinians can have their state as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question is, why do we eat brown eggs on Passa (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is brown and circular...
DORNIN: Sixteen-year-old Tali Biale has lived in Israel. For her, the tragedy brings those here closer together.
TALI BIALE, PASSOVER CELEBRANT: It definitely enforces the idea that it should be a time of being together with family, and how important family is, during the holidays and through the whole year.
DORNIN: A meal celebrated in peace on a holiday now marked by sadness and Bloodshed.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Berkeley, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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