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American Morning
U.S. Campaign Officials Discuss Middle East
Aired May 02, 2002 - 09:21 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: Now to this morning's "Sound Off" and a new U.S. strategy in the Middle East. The president and the prince are the new partners in peace. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia cut a deal hoping to pave a patch of peace in the Middle East. Apparently, the way this is supposed to work, is the U.S. will put pressure on Ariel Sharon and at least publicly sound we are told less pro-Israel. And the Saudis and other Arab nations will, in turn, exert pressure on Yasser Arafat.
That's if this is all suppose to work the way it's put on paper here. But can they bring both sides together and give peace a chance in the Middle East?
Joining us now from Washington, Bob Beckel, Democratic political strategist, Cliff May, former communications director for the Republican National Committee.
Good morning you two.
CLIFF MAY, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good morning.
BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Bob, you look like you're in pain just listening to this interruption. Do you have little faith that this is going to work?
BECKEL: Well, I hate to say it, but those two guys look like Abbott and Costello on a bad day. The -- I mean the thing is, I certainly would hope it's going to work. But let's be serious about this. George Bush is getting applauded for this move that's like a kid who skips school for 15 months, showed up one day and they decide he's an honor scholar. This guys abandoned that region for 15 months, as he did with Korea, and the prince, if we can use that term lightly, is a guy that has been sponsoring his country, the money and the training places for the people who are the terrorist who are attacking us. It's like asking the guy that burnt your house down to start to rebuild it. I mean I just don't get it. I just do not get it.
MAY: Let me say this, Paula: I am supportive of what's going on but I'm also skeptical. Why am I skeptical because Bush is going to say what exactly to Sharon? Look the next time you get hit by a terrorist attack, don't do anything about it. Just take it, bury your dead and don't do anything. That's going to be hard for Sharon to do. I don't think it's fair to ask him to do that.
ZAHN: Well, he's still telling them to withdraw troops -- you know his troops, Cliff.
MAY: He is.
ZAHN: That hasn't happened. Did he not mean what he said?
MAY: No. No but the troops are being withdrawn, they're almost entirely withdrawn but they were withdrawn after our -- Sharon did what he set out to do, which is to destroy as much terrorist infrastructure as he possibly could in the time he had allowed.
Now the other part of this, Paula, is this. Abdullah has got to talk to Arafat. Imagine that conversation. He's got to say to Arafat, look, for 54 years, we have harbored the dream of eliminating Israel from the Middle East, driving the Jews into the sea. But, look, every war we fought, all the terrorism, it hasn't happened. The Israeli are too strong. The Americans don't want to let Israel disappear.
So we're going to have to give up that dream at this point and look where we are at this point. We have -- we're strapping explosives on our kids and sending them out as human bombs. You're in spending all your time in the Ramallah Ramada in a few feted rooms. This is not working. Let's take half a loaf. You'll be the president of a new country. We'll call it Palestine. First time in history there will be a country called Palestine but we'll have to live at least for a decade or two with the hated infidels having their own state.
Will Abdullah really have this conversation with Arafat? I am skeptical. But I do think that Bob and I probably agree on this. The Saudis will do whatever means that that regime, that monarchy, that despotism will survive. I don't know how they analyze that situation.
ZAHN: All right. So Bob, as they try to make sure there is a foundation in place to prop up the monarchy, what kind of conversation does Prince Abdullah have with Yasser Arafat? What does he tell him?
BECKEL: Well, I don't know the kind of conversation I guess John Gotti would have with the Genovese family. I don't -- the whole idea of these two guys getting together to build a foundation, I don't know about you all, but I wouldn't get in that building after it was built.
And you know, the thing that we go to keep in mind here about the Saudis. We always say they're our great friends. They are not our great friends. Right now, they've got trouble financially. They need to sell us oil more than we need to buy it. George Bush had an opportunity finally to put his foot down on the Saudis but you know like his daddy before him, you know, they all think that these guys with these long dresses are actually serious about trying to make a peace role in the Mideast. These people have been the funders of terrorism; have killed more people in absentia than any other country in the world.
ZAHN: OK. Hold on, Bob.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Before you go any further, what should President Bush have done, in your estimation, with the Saudis? Not have met with them at all?
BECKEL: Well, of course, meet with them and make it very simple. Look, if you don't get this thing done, then you -- we're going to have an entire different relationship. No more F-15s to you guys and we won't buy your oil. You think that's going to kill us? No, because there's plenty of it around the world. And I think it's finally time for somebody to stop being a wimp with the Saudis. I mean look at them. They're old. They're fat. You can take them out in a round.
ZAHN: Cliff? Good luck, Cliff.
MAY: Bob and I are rare state of basic agreement. I do think that it's been, for all the years, we have not talked the truth to the Saudis about a regime that is as despondent as any in the world. Look, the Saudi policy on women is no different than Taliban's. There is no freedom of religion. Why am I skeptical about the Saudis? Do they really want to have an Israeli embassy in Saudi Arabia? They won't allow a Christian church in Saudi Arabia. They won't allow our soldiers, who are defending them, to wear crosses or stars of David. This is a regime that needs to change. It's still somewhere in the seventh century. And I think -- actually I think Bob's right. If our idea of building peace is to rely on the Saudis, that doesn't make a whole lot of since.
Now this has been the policies of this administration and the past administration and all going back hasn't been very different in any of this. And the result is, I'm afraid, as Bob said, for 54 years we have not been able to persuade Arafat. We've not been able to persuade the Saudis or any of the other Arab regimes accept for Jordan and Egypt, that you have to allow a Jewish state, you have to allow Israel to survive. Your ambition cannot be to destroy this country, wipe it off the face of the earth through war or terrorism. That's what this is all about.
ZAHN: Bob, you got that look again.
BECKEL: I'll tell you. You know what sweet justice is? After having to defend Clinton for eight years, feeling like the only fire plug at the Westminster Dog Show many days, now, finally, finally the background briefer from the White House about this great new partnership is they want to get back on peace track that Clinton pursued with Barak...
MAY: And that scares me.
BECKEL: ... and also on North Korea, we want to go back and do what Clinton was doing and these are the same people how said we're moving away from the Clinton plans and the fact is, Cliff, you may not like to admit it because you know the Clinton's are the gift that keep giving, now here's the point. They're following Clinton's plan and they should have done it 15 months ago. They were out of school.
ZAHN: Cliff, you get the last word. You got about six seconds to finish this off.
MAY: Look. And I'm worried about that because the foreign policy establishment once again raises its head with quesing out approach, let's peace process forever. Peace processing didn't work. Clinton tried it. He tried it as good as he ...
ZAHN: You're out of time.
MAY: ... he could do. We need a different approach.
ZAHN: All right. Bob, remember that you get two seconds back the next time.
BECKEL: Four-and-a-half.
ZAHN: That's yours.
BECKEL: OK. Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: Bob Beckel, Cliff May, thank you both. Boy, I don't know what Bob had for breakfast this morning. Poor Cliff.
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