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CNN Live At Daybreak

Discussion of Possible Political Fallout From Israeli Attack

Aired July 24, 2002 - 05:29   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's head now to the Middle East and talk about what's next in the aftermath of this attack and the possible political fallout.

CNN's Chris Burns is in Jerusalem -- Chris, the latest?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, a lot of political flout. Just take a look at the newspapers this morning here, the Israeli newspapers. "Haretz" admittedly is a rather liberal newspaper, but they are coming across and saying this was a disaster, that this was the Gaza bombing disaster, and they say that there are calls within even the army to take a closer look at what could have gone wrong, if it was, if it was wrong or whether it was intentional.

Another newspaper here, take a look, this is "The Jerusalem Post," which tends to be more conservative. However, even they are critical. Take a look at their political cartoon here showing Sharon, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the very conservative foreign prime minister, torpedoing what had been any kind of defense against wider anti-Israeli sentiment.

And this is just what the Palestinians are saying. They're saying that the believe, some of the Palestinian leaders believe that Ariel Sharon intentionally torpedoed what had been any vestige of a peace process. There had been talks in recent days over possibly eventually lifting the Israeli clampdown in the West Bank in exchange for a Palestinian Authority clampdown on any further terrorist attacks.

There is a threat, a very strong threat now, from Hamas because their military leader was the one who was killed by the Israelis in that attack two days ago. They are saying, according to one spokesman, that now every Israeli is a target.

Now, there had been previous targeted assassinations or targeted killings by the Israelis against militants on the West Bank or Gaza Strip that had triggered a wave of attacks and that is the fear among the Israelis. Even Sharon is saying for his people to brace for possible new attacks.

Sharon, however, also holding a meeting today, his steering committee, with his very close immediate cabinet, talking about the possibility of further peace moves with the Palestinians. However, there are no meetings planned at this point with the Palestinians -- Anderson.

COOPER: Has there been any reaction from the Israeli government to some of the criticism that they have been receiving? Are they showing a united front or have there been some, any open criticism of the Israeli government from within the government?

BURNS: Well, you know, even, there is the indication that the Sharon and his defense minister, Ben Eliezer, are saying well, you know, we thought -- they issued statements yesterday saying well, we thought that there weren't any civilians that would be harmed in this attack.

But there are very, very harsh criticisms from within and without the government here in Israel that this was an intentional attack that they did. In fact, even authorities are defending themselves, saying well, if there were going to be what they call collateral damage, civilian deaths -- and they're even using the word collateral damage, which indicates to you something -- that really this was the calculated risk, this was the acceptable risk, especially because, they say, that this leader, Salah Shehada, the military leader of Hamas, was a ticking bomb himself. That's why they killed him, because he planned on staging new attacks that would kill more Israelis.

So it's either a question of Israelis dying or Palestinians dying, Palestinian civilians dying, and that is the sort of judgment call that they made in making that decision -- Anderson.

COOPER: And, of course, obviously security is always a huge concern in Israel. Have you noticed any new security measures, I mean, in the wake of this? Is there anything special being done?

BURNS: Well, you know, Anderson, it's very difficult to have any more security measures. The Israelis are extremely tight on their security, police all over the place searching everything. You try to go into a shopping mall, they really check your bags.

So it's very hard to be any more, any tighter on security than they are already -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Chris Burns in Jerusalem, thanks very much.

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