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Israeli Raids Go On Despite Strong Words From President Bush; West Bank Town of Jenin Under Attack by Israeli Forces
Aired April 08, 2002 - 11:01 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 start off this hour with the Mideast crisis. Israeli raids go on despite strong words from President Bush over the weekend.
First, we want to check in in Jerusalem, and that's where we find our Jerrold Kessel.
Hello once again.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
And really Everybody trying to suggest what precisely Ariel Sharon has in mind as he delivered this very, very strong address, you could say a path-blazing address, to the Israeli parliament today, at least in terms of spelling out what he sees as his vision of a future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. And if you say that Mr. Sharon was defiant, that's absolutely clear.
But beyond that, it seemed to be Mr. Sharon with the initiative in saying he needs to keep the initiative with him, and no more so than in the question of how long and in what way this Israeli military offensive, which had been mounted in order the Israelis have said to root out the sources of Palestinian terror, would continue.
Mr. Sharon saying it will go on until it needs -- until all the goals are met, and it won't end any time before that, despite what the United States had called for an urgent and immediate end to that campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The idea will continue with the operation as quickly as possible until the mission is completed. Until Arafat's terrorist infrastructure is disassembled and until the killers that are hiding in various places, like in the church of the nativity in Bethlehem, until they are captured.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KESSEL: And that standoff around the Church of the Nativity, one of the holiest plays for the Christian world, continuing, now almost a week long, with more than 200 Palestinians in the church since besieged by the Israeli troops. That led to a firefight, both sides accusing the other of starting it. One Palestinian policeman killed, and two Israeli soldiers wounded, but the standoff with regard to those people in the church continuing now.
And the Israeli prime minister simply said that -- he seemed to be saying, although he didn't say this explicitly, is that he would have no truck with the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat any more, labeling Mr. Arafat as the head of a regime of terror, almost suggesting as Colin Powell, U.S. secretary of state, makes his way to the area, that there is no point in trying to reach a cease-fire with Yasser Arafat, and the Palestinians almost picking up on that, charging that Mr. Sharon is trying to shoot down the Powell mission even before it's gotten under way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAEB EREKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: I think what he announced today was the destruction of the peace process, dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the end of the peace process as we know it. I think he has done a wonderful job of destroying our livelihood, our streets, our schools, our ambulances, our water systems, our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) systems. I think today he is really telling the whole world that the peace process that began in Oslo is over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KESSEL: But the campaign against -- to root out terrorism, as Mr. Sharon sees it, not yet over, and the Israeli army now saying that they have now virtual control both over those areas in the two big Palestinians town of Nablus and Jenin, which have been the focal points of much of the heaviest fighting of the last several days. They said that there had been some very fierce resistance. A number of people had blown themselves up, wrapping explosives around their bodies like suicide bombers, who have come to Israeli streets, trying to thwart the Israeli troops in that way.
There have been many who have given themselves up, according to the Israeli army, and the situation is evolving in those two camps to the satisfaction, say the Israeli military authorities, which will soon hear a report from the area from Rula Amin, who is outside Jenin.
Before that, the possibility of another front, seriously opening up on Israel's border with Lebanon, wherefore the sixth straight day Hezbollah guerrillas have fired across the border into Israeli- controlled territory on the occupied Golan Heights, across the border with Lebanon and Israel, and response has been firing artillery, and also bombarding from the air.
So a volatile situation there, as the offensive continues in the West Bank -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And that's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem.
It sounds like both sides continue to defy the orders of President Bush. Let's go back across the Atlantic and check in at the White House with our senior White House correspondent John King about the level of frustration from this Bush White House, in watching what continues to take place from both sides in the Middle East.
John, good morning once again.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again to you, Daryn.
Rising frustration, rising irritation, you might say as well, here at the White House, and as Secretary of State Colin Powell begins. He is now in Morocco, this high-stakes diplomatic mission. Secretary Powell wanting to meet with Arab leaders first, the king of Morocco, many times a moderating voice in Arab/Israeli disputes. He also will meet in Morocco with the crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who recently put forth a peace initiative, meetings on tap as well with the king of Egypt -- I mean, the president of Egypt and the king of Jordan, with your European Union diplomats. All that before Secretary Powell makes his way to Jerusalem.
By the time he reached Jerusalem, he had hoped that there would be several days of calm and the opportunity to negotiate a cease-fire, but a great sense of frustration, and as I said, even irritation here. President Bush over the weekend urged the Israelis to immediately end the military offensive. It obviously continues.
President Bush has urged the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to crack down on terror, and to deliver strong public statements denouncing violence as any means of ending the conflict. Mr. Arafat has not done that either. So a sense of frustration here at the White House as this diplomatic mission continues. Secretary Powell's goals are very modest, a cease-fire not a peace process. After the tough talk from Prime Minister Sharon today, U.S. officials say even that appears to be a difficult goal. The prime minister of Israel saying he doesn't want to talk at all with the leader of the Palestinian Authority. How then can the United States help broke ear cease-fire agreement is the big question, as Secretary Powell's mission gets underway.
KAGAN: And, John, some of the ideas floating out there, some people talking about a potential summit of the moderate Arab states, so the president shooting down that idea over the weekend, saying he wasn't interested in having any kind of summit if there wasn't going to be some kind of positive results coming out of that, which kind of sounds like a stinging criticism of former President Clinton at his efforts at Camp David, right before his administration ended.
Well, this administration, of course there was one public one day, when the White House press secretary seemed to publicly blame President Clinton. The White House quickly backed away from that, the Bush White House, saying President Clinton gave it his best effort, but this administration also says that it has learned a lesson from that, and that there will be no summits, no sit-down with the president of the United States, no major peace summits, until there is a clear, concise, demonstrated commitment of the Palestinians and the Israelis to work with each other, to trust each other. And to get to that point, you would at least have to have a cease-fire in place, and then a political dialogue, and there is no such dialogue right now, as Jerrold Kessel was outlining. So the administration's objectives now, very modest, simply to get a cease-fire, but even that might be out of reach, because not only is the Israeli military offensive continuing, but U.S. credibility now in the Arab world being called into question, because the president of the United States said stop it, and Israel has not.
KAGAN: John King at the White House, John, thank you very much.
A couple of minutes ago, we checked in with Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem. Now we want to go to the West Bank town of Jenin, which has been under attack by Israeli forces today, Palestinians forced to leave their homes.
Let's check in with our Rula Amin who is standing by.
Rula, hello.
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we're standing here just about three miles from where the fiercest battles have been going on in Jenin refugee camp. If I move out of the shot, you're going to see the camp just across the field. It's home to 15,000 Palestinian refugees, spread on less than a mile square. Fierce fighting has been going on here since the morning. Israeli Apache helicopters have been sending missiles to that camp for the fifth day in a row, tank shelling, explosions, since the morning. We have been hearing a lot of explosions; we'll probably be hearing another explosion now. We can see Apache helicopters taking position in the sky since the morning.
Every time they take that position, there was a missile fired. You can hear it now. Smoke has been rising from that camp.
We have been talking to residents in the camp over the phone. They have been reporting a lot of destruction, a lot of damage. They say Israeli bulldozers have been knocking down many houses. They say that many of the families have not been able to leave their houses before they were demolished. The number of casualties is on the rise. The last official number from Palestinian Authority officials was 100 Palestinians, they say, many are civilians. But it's very hard to verify any of the information since Israel says it's going in a very serious operation, trying to hunt down Palestinian militants, and they have not allowed the journalists to go in, neither even the ambulances, so that is something that we cannot really verify on these reports.
We still know that there is very fierce fighting going on. The army says it will not end this operation until it achieves its goals, which is to destroy the infrastructure of the militants -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Rula Amin, just outside Jenin, thank you so much.
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