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American Morning

Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu

Aired March 29, 2002 - 07:16   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The big question this hour: How far will Israel go? What is described as an extended military operation began with nearly 40 Israel tanks moving in on Arafat's compound in Ramallah, tearing down fences and clashing with Palestinian forces. Yasser Arafat, defiant and angry, responded by phone to the raid.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

YASSER ARAFAT, PALESTINIAN LEADER (through translator): They either want to kill me or capture me or expel me, but I say no. I will be a martyr. I hope I will be a martyr in the holy land. I have chosen this path, and if I fall, one day a Palestinian child will raise the Palestinian flag above our mosques and churches.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ZAHN: Joining us now from Jerusalem, former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu -- thank you very much for joining us this morning, sir.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FMR. ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Mr. Netanyahu, Yasser Arafat's planning minister is now saying that Yasser Arafat is calm, he is steadfast, he is sure, he is not afraid to die. He is accusing the Israelis of almost being involved with a "duck shoot," in his words. He says, tanks and heavy armored cars are just three yards below Arafat's office.

I know Ariel Sharon has said it is only his intention to isolate Yasser Arafat. What does that mean?

NETANYAHU: I don't know. You would have to ask that of the prime minister, but I have been calling for the last year-and-a-half, ever since Arafat began this latest unprecedented campaign of terror against our people, our women, our children. I have said that the only way that we can stop this is to take this man, who tells his people in Arabic that the goal is not create a state, but to destroy the one and only Jewish state, and then fosters terrorism at an unbelievable rate. Just take him and remove him.

I would put him on the Karine-A, that ship that he got from the Iranians, a ship of weapons and lethal bombs. I would put him on that ship, put him on the high seas and let him go to his friends in Libya or elsewhere. But unless he goes, there won't be an end to violence. There won't be a beginning of peace.

ZAHN: And I know you said you're not clear on exactly what Ariel Sharon's goal is. I should ask him that, but the fact remains CNN is confirming that at least 25 of Yasser Arafat's security guards have been wounded, one killed. What can be accomplished by this kind of offensive?

NETANYAHU: Well, what could be accomplished is that in the last 24 hours, we have just had 25 Israeli civilians killed, civilians murdered, butchered in a Passover Eve massacre. We are closing -- we are fast approaching 400 Israel civilians deliberately murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

The thing that can be accomplished is to eliminate the quintessential terrorist regime of our time. America has decided bravely and I think resolutely to fight terrorism. They say that any terrorism is illegitimate and that all terrorist regimes must be eliminated from the face of the earth. And I think this is what has to be done in this case.

I don't think Arafat is reformable. He was offered a year-and-a- half ago, less than two years ago, by a former Israeli government what he says he wants in the west, a West Bank state, half of Jerusalem. He turned it down, because he doesn't want a state next to Israel. He wants a state instead of Israel, and no matter what he or his spokesmen say on CNN or on the western media, that is what they tell their people. Arafat calls not only for himself to be a martyr, he has called for a million shahadin (ph), a million suicide bombers in Jerusalem, and that is what this man is about.

As long as he is here, as long as his regime is here, there can't be an opening for other Palestinians to come to the fore, because he is a ruthless dictator. He knocks out anyone who wants a genuine peace with Israel and a rapprochement and an end to terror.

So I think that President Bush is right. Terrorist regimes have to go, Arafat has to go as well.

ZAHN: But isn't it true, even if you isolate Yasser Arafat, Hamas has made it abundantly clear that it will act on its own?

NETANYAHU: Yes, Hamas represents about 10 percent of the Palestinians, and it would be there without a doubt. But what I recommend is going in, cleaning it out, just as you cleaned out the regime, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. And once you did that, the whole infrastructure of the associated groups, like al Qaeda, collapses. So I would clean it, clean the areas of weapons, clean it of any terrorists, then withdraw to a security separation between us and the Palestinian areas, and say to the Palestinians, choose a new leadership.

I hope they will actually choose. I hope for the first time, they'll actually have democracy in the Arab world and in the Palestinians, and I don't think any of us should be shy in finally saying, let's have it, let's have a genuine democratic election, not a fake one, a genuine one, where other forces can come to the surface. And when the Palestinians come with a leadership that says, we don't want to destroy you. We have our outstanding problems with you. We have to negotiate many things, but we don't seek to destroy you, and we will not take the weapon of terror, then I can tell you, we will embrace them and begin peace negotiations with them.

ZAHN: There is also...

NETANYAHU: And the idea that anyone should give support for a terrorist regime, like Yasser Arafat, is to give support to terrorism, and I don't think the American people want that.

ZAHN: There is also a lot of speculation about the stability of Ariel Sharon's government. Will it survive this?

NETANYAHU: I don't think that's the issue. Israel at least has, you know, a functioning democratic system, and the fate of the government is irrelevant. Right now, the fate of the country is relevant. And I think the entire people would support -- or virtually the entire people would support a very strong action against Arafat's regime, led by the prime minister and his government. I hope that's what they will do, just as the American people coalesce to support a resolute action by President Bush against the Taliban regime and the al Qaeda terrorists.

The people of Israel are no different from the people of America, and Arafat is no different from Mullah Omar and bin Laden. The only difference is we know where Arafat is.

ZAHN: All right. I know you were about 800 yards away from that explosion, the suicide bombing explosion in that supermarket. You must feel like one lucky man today.

NETANYAHU: I have to tell you, Paula, that in the last two weeks, I had a bombing of a cafe, 10 innocent youngsters were slaughtered. That happened a few yards from my home. We had a bombing of downtown Jerusalem. My wife and I were 30 yards away -- 30 yards away. We had a bombing of the supermarket today. We were a few hundred yards away. There was a bombing right next to my office three days ago. I was -- the office is about 150 yards away.

So it reflects not my predicament, but the fact that any Israeli, any resident of Jerusalem today, is a target for these killers, and that has to stop. Arafat is committed to this system of terrorism; 90 percent of these and the other attacks in the last three months have been committed by forces directly under his command, not the Islamic groups, but the direct forces like Hamas -- I'm sorry -- like Fatah, Tanzim 417 that Arafat directly controls.

ZAHN: All right.

NETANYAHU: He is a terrorist. That's what this man does. He has got to go.

ZAHN: All right. We are...

NETANYAHU: And I am saying I would put him on the Karine-A, let him go to the high seas.

ZAHN: We've got to leave it there. We are about ready to lose the satellite window. Mr. Netanyahu, thank you very much for your time this morning.

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