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CNN Live Today

Palestinians, Israelis Battle for Moral High Ground

Aired May 03, 2002 - 10:00   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Much more than housekeeping going on in the Middle East today, another deadly clash there. The Israeli army entered the West Bank town of Nablus to investigate what it says were plans for a suicide bombing. Two Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the military operation. And there were also some new developments in the standoff at the Church of the Nativity.

CNN Senior International Correspondent, Walter Rodgers, is live in Bethlehem with the latest.

Hello, Walt, what's the word?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. Well the siege or the standoff, the face-off between the Israeli and Palestinians continue. What it is turning into is a battle for the moral high ground between the two warring parties.

The Palestinians pretty well lost the moral high ground after a rash of suicide bombings. They're now using this standoff at the Church of the Nativity here in Bethlehem, the traditional site of Jesus birth, to try to regain some of that moral high ground. Of course, the Israeli point out that there are Palestinian gunmen inside that holy site, and that is something less than a moral position to do that.

Having said that. The issue which the Palestinian have seized upon now is the fact that the Israelis have not been allowing great amounts of food into the church, the Israeli trying to take the position that they should not reward people who have overtaken the church by force. Still, the Palestinian are appealing to the world and appealing to Christians around the world to help them get food inside. There are people in there who were extremely ill, famished and weak. They were carried out. Some of those people were carried out on stretcher. The Israelis, by the way, are allowing anyone to come out who wants to come out. These people, however, were said to be extremely weak from limited amounts of food. By the way, the Israelis do send food into the clerics, the monks, the priests, and the nuns in there. But the Israelis charge that that food is commandeered by the Palestinian gunmen inside.

There was a meeting in Bethlehem today between the negotiators at a lower-level, and that, according to Palestinians, did pave the way for shipments of food into the people inside the Church of the Nativity. But if this is going to be resolved, it will be have to be resolved at the very highest levels. And that means Yasser Arafat has to get involved more deeply. Leon?

LEON: Walter, right now many people have been thinking the same sort of formula that worked in Ramallah could work here. I mean, what do you hear about why that can't work there?

RODGERS: Well, actually, that is the formula that everyone assumes will ultimately resolve the crisis. There are 25-30 militant Palestinian fighters inside, some from Islamic jihad, some from Hamas, some from the al Aqsa brigades. The Israelis say they want these people.

Now, there is the pattern, the formula, which you described, that they would be released and then tried in a Palestinian court. And if convicted and found guilty, they would go to prison like Jericho, with British and American guards supervising it to make sure Arafat didn't let them get away. That's where we are at this point. But remember this is battle for the moral high ground. Both sides will milk this for whatever they can, to the best of their ability, to try to paint the other side as being cruel, inhuman, and incentive to religious holy sites.

LEON: Moral high ground looks like some very unsettled soil at the moment. Walter Rodgers in Bethlehem, thank you.

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