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CNN Live Today
Bombing Threatens Truce
Aired August 20, 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 turn to another point in the Middle East where tensions are extremely high this morning. Israel considering a response to yesterday's deadly suicide attack in Jerusalem. The militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both have claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed at least 20 people, four of them children. One Israeli government official says, quite simply, it might be the end of the peace process.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel is standing by in Jerusalem He has more.
Jerrold, is that thought a widespread one there in Israel? Perhaps this becoming the end of the peace process?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you can say it's certainly a milestone on that nascent peace process, the road map to peace. Whether it's the last milestone or a critical milestone that sets them in that direction of a peacemaking process could be determined in the next few days by what the two sides do do, Leon.
But even as they're grappling with what they ought to do next, the Israelis have been trying to grapple and come to terms with their pain and grief, and one of the reasons so many Israelis are saying that of all the bombings that they've endured and gone through, perhaps this one is one of the most painful, because of the children, and this was seen as we watched scenes coming in of one of the funerals of the dead of an 11-month old baby being buried in Jerusalem today, one of the 20 people killed in the bus bombing last night. And of the 20, many are children, and many more of the hundred or so wounded were certainly children.
And but as they grapple with that, the question is what will happen next, and the focus is very much on what the Palestinian Authority will do as much as on what Israel will do. And a spokesman for the top Palestinian security chief telling Mohammed Daklan (ph) telling CNN that Hamas has broken the rules, and the Palestinian Authority will act accordingly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIAS ZANANIRI, PALESTINIAN INTERIOR MINISTER: I can say at the moment that the Palestinian security forces are preparing for a set of measures that will be taken against whoever was responsible for the attack yesterday, and I mean Hamas and Islamic Jihad or others, all of the groups that tried to beat the peace process, by causing major harm to the national interests of the Palestinian people. We will have to deal with them and are going to deal with them in a very different way than in the past. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KESSEL: How they deal with them is what the Israelis are watching, and perhaps what the Palestinian Authority does and decides to do in a meeting later tonight of Mr. Abbas' cabinet might determine very well, Leon, what the Israelis decide to do, whether they decide to act themselves, or whether they seek simply to keep up the pressure on the Palestinian Authority to act against the militants. A lot of critical decisions due to be made in Gaza, in Ramallah on the West Bank, here in Jerusalem, perhaps also in Washington on whom the pressure ought to be at this stage to act or not to act -- Leon.
HARRIS: Very good point there, Jerrold. Thank you very much, Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem.
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 August 20, 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 turn to another point in the Middle East where tensions are extremely high this morning. Israel considering a response to yesterday's deadly suicide attack in Jerusalem. The militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both have claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed at least 20 people, four of them children. One Israeli government official says, quite simply, it might be the end of the peace process.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel is standing by in Jerusalem He has more.
Jerrold, is that thought a widespread one there in Israel? Perhaps this becoming the end of the peace process?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you can say it's certainly a milestone on that nascent peace process, the road map to peace. Whether it's the last milestone or a critical milestone that sets them in that direction of a peacemaking process could be determined in the next few days by what the two sides do do, Leon.
But even as they're grappling with what they ought to do next, the Israelis have been trying to grapple and come to terms with their pain and grief, and one of the reasons so many Israelis are saying that of all the bombings that they've endured and gone through, perhaps this one is one of the most painful, because of the children, and this was seen as we watched scenes coming in of one of the funerals of the dead of an 11-month old baby being buried in Jerusalem today, one of the 20 people killed in the bus bombing last night. And of the 20, many are children, and many more of the hundred or so wounded were certainly children.
And but as they grapple with that, the question is what will happen next, and the focus is very much on what the Palestinian Authority will do as much as on what Israel will do. And a spokesman for the top Palestinian security chief telling Mohammed Daklan (ph) telling CNN that Hamas has broken the rules, and the Palestinian Authority will act accordingly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIAS ZANANIRI, PALESTINIAN INTERIOR MINISTER: I can say at the moment that the Palestinian security forces are preparing for a set of measures that will be taken against whoever was responsible for the attack yesterday, and I mean Hamas and Islamic Jihad or others, all of the groups that tried to beat the peace process, by causing major harm to the national interests of the Palestinian people. We will have to deal with them and are going to deal with them in a very different way than in the past. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KESSEL: How they deal with them is what the Israelis are watching, and perhaps what the Palestinian Authority does and decides to do in a meeting later tonight of Mr. Abbas' cabinet might determine very well, Leon, what the Israelis decide to do, whether they decide to act themselves, or whether they seek simply to keep up the pressure on the Palestinian Authority to act against the militants. A lot of critical decisions due to be made in Gaza, in Ramallah on the West Bank, here in Jerusalem, perhaps also in Washington on whom the pressure ought to be at this stage to act or not to act -- Leon.
HARRIS: Very good point there, Jerrold. Thank you very much, Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
