Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Summit at Aqaba: View From Jewish Settlements

Aired June 04, 2003 - 10:05   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: Now let's get the Israeli perspective on all of this. Our Jerrold Kessel is in the West Bank north of Ramallah just outside of Ofra settlement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Although skepticism remains very much the order of the day among the Israelis and Palestinians, they were following with rapt attention the fine words and the stirring sentiments at that Aqaba summit.

And it's almost hard after the two-and-a-half years and more of deadly violence and the bitterness that has engendered the absolute lack of trust that the two peoples have for each other to have even imagined that there could be such a ceremony and a stirring send off for this peace initiative that George W. Bush, President Bush, presided over. But he has done that. And as hard as it has been to believe that this would happen, it has happened.

Now, that's nothing compared to what is imagined down the road from peoples on both sides of the difficulty of putting the good intentions to implementation, because there are people lying-in-wait to knock this process off the road. There still are the militants. We have to wait and see if militants on the Palestinian side, whether they will line up behind Prime Minister Abbas' commitment that there should be no violence of any sort to gain Palestinians' objectives.

And there could be a resistance, a severe resistance from the Israeli right, from the settler community like the people here on the West Bank in the settlements behind me, who will resist Ariel Sharon's commitment to take away even those few unauthorized outposts, as he called it, let alone the major settlements, to deal with that as the president has asked for.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, on the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And we thank Jerrold that report.

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 June 4, 2003 - 10:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's get the Israeli perspective on all of this. Our Jerrold Kessel is in the West Bank north of Ramallah just outside of Ofra settlement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Although skepticism remains very much the order of the day among the Israelis and Palestinians, they were following with rapt attention the fine words and the stirring sentiments at that Aqaba summit.

And it's almost hard after the two-and-a-half years and more of deadly violence and the bitterness that has engendered the absolute lack of trust that the two peoples have for each other to have even imagined that there could be such a ceremony and a stirring send off for this peace initiative that George W. Bush, President Bush, presided over. But he has done that. And as hard as it has been to believe that this would happen, it has happened.

Now, that's nothing compared to what is imagined down the road from peoples on both sides of the difficulty of putting the good intentions to implementation, because there are people lying-in-wait to knock this process off the road. There still are the militants. We have to wait and see if militants on the Palestinian side, whether they will line up behind Prime Minister Abbas' commitment that there should be no violence of any sort to gain Palestinians' objectives.

And there could be a resistance, a severe resistance from the Israeli right, from the settler community like the people here on the West Bank in the settlements behind me, who will resist Ariel Sharon's commitment to take away even those few unauthorized outposts, as he called it, let alone the major settlements, to deal with that as the president has asked for.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, on the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And we thank Jerrold that report.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.