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CNN Live Today
Middle East Has Eyes on Palestinians, U.S., Iraq
Aired September 19, 2002 - 11:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Up first here on CNN LIVE TODAY, terror in Israel. A suicide attacker struck a crowded city bus in the heart of Tel Aviv today, killing five people.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All too painful, all too familiar scenes in Israeli cities. The dead, the wounded treated with alacrity, rushed to nearby hospitals by the emergency teams quickly on the spot.
Forensic experts trying to reconstruct how the bomber got to where he got, the busiest part of the Israeli metropolis, at the busiest time of the day. Why wasn't he intercepted despite the high alert? And the grim task for special volunteers, picking up parts of bodies, every bit of flesh for burial as Jewish custom dictates.
The Palestinian leadership condemns such attacks on civilians, which they argue undermines intrinsic Palestinian national interests. It comes at a time when Palestinians are trying to redefine their battle lines, whether to go on with such attacks, to curb them, or to restrict them to the reoccupied Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel says the battle lines are clear, part of the overall war on terror, even as Israeli leaders condemn Yasser Arafat's authority for not even trying to stop such attacks by extremists groups, they deliver a broader indictment, linking Israel's predicament to the argument over what should be done about Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
RA'ANAN GISSIN, ISRAELI SPOKESMAN: There's no doubt that the anticipation of something happening there, and the fact that these forces are all part of the axis of evil, as we call it, those forces, the terrorist groups, and of course Iraq who supports them and other countries, Syria, who supports these terrorist groups, have a clear intention, perhaps to create here a source of escalation in order to deflect, perhaps, any effort to launch an attack against Iraq.
KESSEL: The Tel Aviv attacks follow another suicide bombing in northern Israel the day before, which had come after a five-week lull, a seeming lull, Israeli authorities say, because bombers were either intercepted or have been contained in Palestinian towns by Israel continuing its tight military clamp down there. And, as Israeli forces more homes of families of previous suicide bombers, the Palestinian leadership reminds the violence is two way. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the last month, the Israeli army killed the total of 75 Palestinians, more than two third of them were civilians, including children. This violence, whether it is Israeli or Palestinian, is unfortunate, and is happening within the context of the Israeli occupation.
KESSEL (on camera): This is a region, which, like the rest of the world, is focusing on what happens next in Iraq. Yet, the conflict here goes on, apparently on its own terms, by its own agenda, and now the argument is set to intensify on all sides.
Is the conflict here linked to what is happening in Iraq, with what President Bush wants to do about Iraq?
Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 19, 2002 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Up first here on CNN LIVE TODAY, terror in Israel. A suicide attacker struck a crowded city bus in the heart of Tel Aviv today, killing five people.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All too painful, all too familiar scenes in Israeli cities. The dead, the wounded treated with alacrity, rushed to nearby hospitals by the emergency teams quickly on the spot.
Forensic experts trying to reconstruct how the bomber got to where he got, the busiest part of the Israeli metropolis, at the busiest time of the day. Why wasn't he intercepted despite the high alert? And the grim task for special volunteers, picking up parts of bodies, every bit of flesh for burial as Jewish custom dictates.
The Palestinian leadership condemns such attacks on civilians, which they argue undermines intrinsic Palestinian national interests. It comes at a time when Palestinians are trying to redefine their battle lines, whether to go on with such attacks, to curb them, or to restrict them to the reoccupied Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel says the battle lines are clear, part of the overall war on terror, even as Israeli leaders condemn Yasser Arafat's authority for not even trying to stop such attacks by extremists groups, they deliver a broader indictment, linking Israel's predicament to the argument over what should be done about Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
RA'ANAN GISSIN, ISRAELI SPOKESMAN: There's no doubt that the anticipation of something happening there, and the fact that these forces are all part of the axis of evil, as we call it, those forces, the terrorist groups, and of course Iraq who supports them and other countries, Syria, who supports these terrorist groups, have a clear intention, perhaps to create here a source of escalation in order to deflect, perhaps, any effort to launch an attack against Iraq.
KESSEL: The Tel Aviv attacks follow another suicide bombing in northern Israel the day before, which had come after a five-week lull, a seeming lull, Israeli authorities say, because bombers were either intercepted or have been contained in Palestinian towns by Israel continuing its tight military clamp down there. And, as Israeli forces more homes of families of previous suicide bombers, the Palestinian leadership reminds the violence is two way. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the last month, the Israeli army killed the total of 75 Palestinians, more than two third of them were civilians, including children. This violence, whether it is Israeli or Palestinian, is unfortunate, and is happening within the context of the Israeli occupation.
KESSEL (on camera): This is a region, which, like the rest of the world, is focusing on what happens next in Iraq. Yet, the conflict here goes on, apparently on its own terms, by its own agenda, and now the argument is set to intensify on all sides.
Is the conflict here linked to what is happening in Iraq, with what President Bush wants to do about Iraq?
Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
