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CNN Live Today

Crisis in the Middle East: Working on Cease-Fire

Aired June 16, 2003 - 10:10   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: We now turn our attention back to the Middle East and efforts there to get the U.S.-led "roadmap for peace" back on track. Right now, officials are trying to secure a cease- fire.
We get the latest on that process now from CNN's Jerrold Kessel who is checking in live from Jerusalem.

Hello -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

And the focus today has been on Gaza where there's been enormous pressure on the militant Islamic group Hamas to try to get them to sign on to some kind of truce and to suspend their ongoing bombing campaign against Israelis. Without that happening, no chance of that peace initiative really gaining ground in any meaningful way. That's been the focus in Gaza today with the Egyptians applying enormous pressure on Hamas.

And here, there's a different kind of pressure. We're in the Israeli Parliament, in the Knesset, where debate has begun and has been foisted on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, questioning whether he is absolutely committed to the peace initiative, which he signed on to at the Aqaba Summit 10 days ago.

The debate was initiated by the left wing in Israeli politics, where their spokeswoman came up and asked some withering questions of Ariel Sharon. And really she put it -- at -- the kind of question that's being asked, not only here in the Israeli Parliament, but amongst all Israelis, is this a new Ariel Sharon? Has their prime minister really made a strategic shift where he is hell-bent on getting to a peace agreement, or is it the old kind of Ariel Sharon who's still unrestrained, still committed really to battering his enemies into submission and that he's signing on to the peace initiative is really a ruse? That was the question that was posed to him from the left.

But he's also been under a good deal of pressure from the right wing, from his own camp, who have -- where the questions are being asked whether Ariel Sharon was right to go down this peace road at all.

The prime minister listening for the moment impassively as he waits to give his own address in about an hour from now to clarify some of these questions, perhaps is there an Ariel Sharon committed to the peace process, or is he simply trying to parry the peace process in hope of getting his own strategy in place -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right then, Jerrold, if you can be the -- a soothsayer here, how in the world can Sharon satisfy both sets of critics in this case then?

KESSEL: Well, it's a good question, because the criticism is really fierce and it's so disparate. On the right, you have the people saying he's been -- he's making an enormous mistake in going down that old peace road without getting the kind of firm commitments that terror can be stopped, has been stopped. Whereas from the left, they're saying are you really committed to this? And the big answer really is Ariel Sharon probably can satisfy both, because when he's likely to speak in an hour from now, it will be reassurance that he will give to both critics.

He's going to be careful, he'll say, and he's going to remain committed to the peace process, but without giving in to terror. Ariel Sharon remains the king of the Israeli political system despite the parliamentary trouble he's in with a lot of criticism and a lot of opponents. He remains the king of Israeli policy making as well. He probably can still pull it off at this stage -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Jerrold Kessel will be our eyes and ears there at the Knesset. Thanks, Jerrold, we'll check back with you later on.

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 16, 2003 - 10:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We now turn our attention back to the Middle East and efforts there to get the U.S.-led "roadmap for peace" back on track. Right now, officials are trying to secure a cease- fire.
We get the latest on that process now from CNN's Jerrold Kessel who is checking in live from Jerusalem.

Hello -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

And the focus today has been on Gaza where there's been enormous pressure on the militant Islamic group Hamas to try to get them to sign on to some kind of truce and to suspend their ongoing bombing campaign against Israelis. Without that happening, no chance of that peace initiative really gaining ground in any meaningful way. That's been the focus in Gaza today with the Egyptians applying enormous pressure on Hamas.

And here, there's a different kind of pressure. We're in the Israeli Parliament, in the Knesset, where debate has begun and has been foisted on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, questioning whether he is absolutely committed to the peace initiative, which he signed on to at the Aqaba Summit 10 days ago.

The debate was initiated by the left wing in Israeli politics, where their spokeswoman came up and asked some withering questions of Ariel Sharon. And really she put it -- at -- the kind of question that's being asked, not only here in the Israeli Parliament, but amongst all Israelis, is this a new Ariel Sharon? Has their prime minister really made a strategic shift where he is hell-bent on getting to a peace agreement, or is it the old kind of Ariel Sharon who's still unrestrained, still committed really to battering his enemies into submission and that he's signing on to the peace initiative is really a ruse? That was the question that was posed to him from the left.

But he's also been under a good deal of pressure from the right wing, from his own camp, who have -- where the questions are being asked whether Ariel Sharon was right to go down this peace road at all.

The prime minister listening for the moment impassively as he waits to give his own address in about an hour from now to clarify some of these questions, perhaps is there an Ariel Sharon committed to the peace process, or is he simply trying to parry the peace process in hope of getting his own strategy in place -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right then, Jerrold, if you can be the -- a soothsayer here, how in the world can Sharon satisfy both sets of critics in this case then?

KESSEL: Well, it's a good question, because the criticism is really fierce and it's so disparate. On the right, you have the people saying he's been -- he's making an enormous mistake in going down that old peace road without getting the kind of firm commitments that terror can be stopped, has been stopped. Whereas from the left, they're saying are you really committed to this? And the big answer really is Ariel Sharon probably can satisfy both, because when he's likely to speak in an hour from now, it will be reassurance that he will give to both critics.

He's going to be careful, he'll say, and he's going to remain committed to the peace process, but without giving in to terror. Ariel Sharon remains the king of the Israeli political system despite the parliamentary trouble he's in with a lot of criticism and a lot of opponents. He remains the king of Israeli policy making as well. He probably can still pull it off at this stage -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Jerrold Kessel will be our eyes and ears there at the Knesset. Thanks, Jerrold, we'll check back with you later on.

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