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CNN Live Today

Arab League Puts Forth United Front on Issue of Peace With Israel

Aired March 28, 2002 - 13:08   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: Now to Beirut, where the Arab League today put forth a united front on the issue of peace with Israel. The 22-member group endorsed a Saudi plan that purports to grant the Jewish state peace, security and full diplomatic relations, that is if Israel relinquishes the land it seized in the six-day war of 1967. And speaking of united, the Saudi crown prince and a top aide to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein today staged a very public reconciliation. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been estranged, at best, since the Gulf War in 1991, but not, it would seem, at least publicly anyway, anymore.

Oftentimes, though, what we see in public is different from private. Notably that summit ended with a declaration, presumably directed at Washington, citing the group's complete rejection of an attack on Iraq.

Let's talk more about the Middle East situation right now and some insights and be prospect for peace. Former U.S. diplomat now serves as a political consultant to the Palestinians.

Edward Abington is our guests from D.C.

Good to see you again, sir. Good afternoon to you.

EDWARD ABINGTON, ADVISER TO THE PALESTINIANS: Good afternoon, Bill.

HEMMER: Here is what I think a lot of Americans don't get: If Yasser Arafat truly wanted peace and wanted progress at the negotiating table, he would almost on a daily basis speak peace to own people in Arabic and not only when a suicide bomber ripped a Passover dinner. Why is that Arafat doesn't behave that way?

ABINGTON: I think that he sees this as making a concession to Israel when he believes that Israeli concessions are not forthcoming toward the Palestinians, and I think this is the dilemma that we find ourselves in, is that each party mistrusts totally the motives of the other and, therefore, both sides are not speaking the truth to their people about the need to stop the violence and to get on with making peace.

HEMMER: Ed, I introduced you as an adviser to the Palestinians. What do you advise now? ABINGTON: Well, what I advise is to make the most of the Zinni mission, to contain the violence to the extent possible, but the Palestinian security services have suffered a lot of blows as a result of Israeli military action over the last year, and this will be a gradual process, and to do everything possible to try to get back to negotiations, because you know, I've been there. I've seen the bus bombings. I saw the piece on the hotel in Netanya, and I feel very deeply about the tragedy that struck those people during one of the most holy nights of Judaism.

HEMMER: You refer to Israeli retaliation, but after you see something like this, 200 people gathered for a holy dinner, boy, can you blame them?

ABINGTON: No, you can't blame them, but on the other hand what does it solve? We heard that Prime Minister Sharon and his cabinet will take significant decisions. Two or three weeks ago they went into Ramallah and other cities in the West Bank and Gaza. And did it really solve anything? Not really. So yes, there can be retaliation, and I certainly understand the anger and the grief of the Israeli people.

But if you step back from it, where has this policy of retaliation gotten either side? Retaliation by extremist Palestinian groups who say they are doing this because innocent Palestinian civilians are being killed, and they are. I mean, I think CNN has documented that pretty clearly. But by the same token, any Israeli political leader is under pressure because of atrocities that we saw in Netanya. The question is, how do break out of this?

HEMMER: That's exactly right, and that is the question. How do you break this cycle? To me, it takes really strong leadership. Are these two men, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, the two men for this job?

ABINGTON: They cannot do it by themselves. I think the last 18 months have shown they're incapable of doing it. For someone who has been in the Middle East for 30 years, it comes back to American leadership. It comes back to decisive American leadership. I think President Bush is to be commended for the steps he has taken over the past couple of weeks, but it seems to me that if the situation is not to slide into further violence -- and every day, we're seeing worse and worse things happen -- there has to be a very strong commitment by President Bush to try to bring the two parties back to negotiations.

HEMMER: I don't disagree with you, and clearly the White House is re-engaged on this issue. Do you think they're even listening to us? Do you think they even care if the Americans are involved right now, because clearly there are a lot of wildcards in the Middle East?

ABINGTON: There are, but look at, for example, the Arab summit and the Saudi plan. That very was clearly was directed not only at the Israeli people, but also at the American administration, and I think it was a statement by the Saudis and other moderate Arab governments saying, look, we need you, we need you to get involved, because all of us living in the region, we can't do it by ourselves. We need decisive American leadership to help us.

Ed, thanks.

ABINGTON: And I think we have to grab that opportunity.

HEMMER: Ed, thanks, I appreciate your comments today. Ed Abington, Palestinian adviser, live in D.C.

Going to go to other side right now, with the Israeli perspective.

Alon Pinkus, the Israeli consul general, live in New York.

Sir, good to see you. Good afternoon, ambassador.

ALON PINKUS, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL: Good afternoon, Bill.

HEMMER: At what point, and how strong and hard does Israel retaliate for this?

PINKUS: I don't know if I can answer that. There's a very rich menu of military options available to Israel. Each and every one of them will be weighed seriously with the repercussions and the political implications obviously factored into that decision.

HEMMER: Would it surprise you, though, if Ariel Sharon held his fire right now and did not respond, and if so, what would that tell us?

PINKUS: It's not a question of surprise. We have not held our fire in the last several months even though we three times announced a unilateral cease-fire, even though on the eve of the Zinni mission, we announce cease-fire, even though we withdrew our forces on the 14th of March because Vice President Cheney was visiting the region, and because of General Zinni, the American envoy, was in the region.

I will not be surprised if we exercise restraint. I will not be surprised if we retaliate militarily. There is a host of options open to us. One thing, though, Bill, is abundantly and unequivocally clear, and that is that this will not go unanswered, whether the measures will be military, whether they will be political, I don't know yet.

HEMMER: Here's what I hear, Mr. Ambassador. I hear from Arabs just in the past 24 hours. They say, when the Israeli military goes into places like Ramallah, goes into various refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, tearing holes through homes, trying to look for people to round them up or arrest them. There's shooting and there's violence, and we all know that. So then, they say, Israel should not be surprised by this response yesterday.

Now, listen, heinous crime, no question about it. On the holy night when was everybody siting down in that hotel room 200 strong. But then they say, again, don't be surprised by the response you see from groups like Hamas. PINKUS: Well, in that case, Bill, I rest my case. This is the culture that we need to contend with. People who say that do not be surprised if there are more suicide bombers.

Look, this is not a suicidal or a homicidal maniac who has committed suicide in the process taken out of the context. There have been 111 suicide attacks since the Oslo process began. There have been 61 suicide attacks ever since September of 2000. Let me remind you and the viewer, September of 2000 after we sat down at Camp David under the auspices of then-President Clinton, I heard Ed Abington talk about the importance of American commitment and leadership. How much more involved, how more committed can the U.S. be than Bill Clinton was? But the Palestinians double-crossed him. They did not show up at Camp David. They did not come with counter-proposals.

Instead, they have set up the political culture that idealizes and idolizes suicide and homicide bombers. This is what we need to deal with. You are looking at a political leadership, the Palestinian political leadership, that is completely, completely out of touch with reality, that is completely unwilling and incapable, perhaps, of doing what needs to be done in terms of quelling down the violence, and in the end, it is an absolutely defunct leadership that I cannot see coming through with a viable legal process.

HEMMER: I want to move the ball forward just a little bit here, talk about American involvement. We are told there is progress within these negotiations. Can you give us an idea about what kind of progress is being talked about?

PINKUS: Well, General Zinni, whose mission we still think is important and vital, and we still believe he could succeed if things happen the way they ought to happen, is trying to put together or to reinstate the defense or security cooperation and coordination mechanisms. Toward that end, he tried to convene three or four times a trilateral meeting of Americans, Palestinian and Israelis.

HEMMER: Quickly, we're running out of time here.

PINKUS: But it doesn't seem to work. It doesn't matter what you discuss with the Palestinians around the negotiating table, other Palestinians glow themselves up in Sedal (ph) dinner. You're talking about the completely chaotic system. You are talking about a system that is completely bankrupt.

HEMMER: A deadly cycle on both sides.

PINKUS: It's not a cycle, Bill. It's sequential. It is not a cycle.

HEMMER: Thank you, sir. Appreciate your time. We'll talk again.

Alon Pinkus, live in New York.

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