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CNN Live Today

Interview With Akida Eldar

Aired April 17, 2002 - 13:32   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: The Defense Minister tells me that in Jenin, there will be withdrawal within two days' time and in Nablus, after four days' time. After saying that, he attached the word maybe at the end of each statement.

He then said the withdrawal would take place only to a certain area, about two kilometers, about a mile-and-a-half, outside of those towns, indicating that Israel will sit back and make sure that things stay quiet inside. That not going to go down easy for the Palestinian side. Let's talk more about all of the issues today now.

Akiva Eldar is an editorial writer and columnist for a newspaper based in Tel Aviv, "Ha'Aretz." He is my guest tonight, this evening. Sir, we appreciate your time. I'm curious to get your perspective now.

AKIVA ELDAR, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "HA'ARETZ": Good evening, Bill.

HEMMER: Your take, now that Secretary Powell left the region. Where are we tonight?

ELDAR: Well, I think that we are in another junction of this crisis and hopefully reaching a kind of a political process that was launched, actually, by Prime Minister Sharon when he declared the kind of regional or international conference led by the U.S., to start in June.

And I believe that Secretary Powell has left his assistant, Mr. Burns, to try and work out, with the Israelis and with the Palestinians, the terms of preference and the target of this new conference that will put forward a new horizon, hopefully, for both parties, and for both Sharon and Arafat, a kind of letter to get down the tree that both of them have climbed.

HEMMER: The lines have been drawn, though, and it is quite clear now. The Palestinians are saying no more talking, no chance of a cease-fire unless the military gets out completely of the West Bank. Israel is saying, as you well know, end the terror, stop it, end the threats and we will have a reason to get out. Knowing the two sides still say that, even today after this visit and Secretary Powell leaving, it doesn't appear the ball has moved very much here. Is that an accurate read? ELDAR: Yes. That's an accurate read. But the conclusion that Mr. Powell has made from this deadlock is that what you need is a new ball into this game. And this ball is this kind of international conference. Because if one side can declare victory and the other side is defeated, you are going nowhere. So it must be a kind of a win-win situation, no winners, no losers. Or you have only winners. Otherwise it won't work.

So, when he visited Ramallah, he could clearly see that there is no point in asking Arafat to implement the Tenet work plan or Mitchell report. It is irrelevant. You need to put all this on the back burner and offer something tangible. And for Arafat to tell his people, listen, we have to stop the fire and live with this occupation, this is ridiculous even to believe that there is any slim chance that this will happen. So what Secretary Powell is doing is trying to work with whatever Prime Minister Sharon has offered him. Now, you may not like lemon juice. You prefer orange juice. But if you get lemon juice, there are still vitamins there.

This is exactly what happened 10 years ago, when President Bush senior invited Prime Minister Shamir to Madrid. Shamir said no, but he ended up meeting with the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Lebanese and the Jordanians and launching the peace process that unfortunately ended with this violence.

HEMMER: About 30 seconds left here. There appears to be two schools of thought on the Middle East peace process going forward. One says make the offer, all or nothing. The other one says work in incremental steps. The way you are talking, I believe you prescribe to the second theory, the latter, work in increment al steps. Given the talks that Colin Powell had here, you obviously think that, at this point, better to talk at this point than not at all.

ELDAR: Well, listen, from what I know is that Secretary Powell fully understands that these two people, with Sharon and Arafat, you cannot get a final status agreement. You are very far from the Clinton proposal or from what Barak had in mind in Camp David. The best you can get out of them is an interim agreement that will put this car in park. Hopefully not in reverse, but it won't go further down this road of the political process. But at least you can control the damage. So this is a conflict management. It is not going to be conflict resolution. It is just maintenance of this process. Hopefully, in the future, both the Israelis and the Palestinians will come up with more forthcoming leaders.

HEMMER: I like your analogy. Put the car in park. That's where we are tonight. Perhaps in neutral, I guess, is another way of saying it. Thanks for your time, Akiva Eldar, Columnist for Ha'Aretz there, live - go ahead.

ELDAR: Yes. What I'm saying is that we call it to press full gas in neutral, which means the car stands where it is. But at least it is not going backwards.

HEMMER: OK. Many thanks, sir. Appreciate it.

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