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CNN Live At Daybreak
Key Decision Today About Fence From the Israeli Cabinet
Aired October 01, 2003 - 05:33 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know about the controversial security fence between Israel and the West Bank. Well, today a key decision about that fence from the Israeli cabinet.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel live in Qalqilyah, which is on the West Bank -- good morning, Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Here on the Israeli West Bank border outside the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah, the sound, you may be able to pick it up in the background, it's just after midday and the call to prayer from the musine (ph), from the mosque, the minarets of the mosque, has just gone out from this town and other villages. But the real focus today is back in Jerusalem on the Israeli cabinet, where on the agenda again, that controversial security barrier which the Israelis have been erecting for the last year or year and a half or so between them and the Palestinians.
They've already built about 100 miles of the fence, wall, in different places, other barriers between them and the West Bank, to block off terrorists wanting to come in to blow themselves up or to launch attacks inside Israel.
The thing that's on the table today, though, is really controversial because whereas up until now the route of the fence or the wall is mainly close to or alongside the Israel-West Bank border, or extending just a few kilometers in.
Now what the Israelis are planning for the central section of the barrier is to extend a number of prongs deep into the West Bank to encompass some of the big Jewish settlements in that area, to bring them under the protection of the fence, as well. That's what's on the agenda and that, of course, as you remarked before, has led to United States opposition; of course, a good deal of Palestinian opposition.
And Mr. Sharon, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, trying to bring something of a compromise proposal, which isn't really a compromise. He says he's going to propose to the cabinet, which is discussing it now, building parts of the fence around those settlements, but not linking up those settlement fences to the main settlement fence along the border, the main fence barrier along the border. Whether that'll fly in Washington, whether that'll get -- he'll be able to do that, remains to be seen. But he's likely to get a good deal of support in his cabinet this morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: This is just so difficult to understand because, you know, that's such a complicated lay of the land out there. Can you give us an idea of why this is so difficult for both sides?
KESSEL: Yes, I think it would help if we'd move our camera across and you'll see the first part of the wall down in the distance there, beyond the town of Qalqilyah. You see that big concrete strip? Now, that's the wall part and that's part of the barrier. Beyond that is a big Israeli town right inside central Israel. This is the heart of central Israel, what the Israelis call their narrow waist. It's only 20 kilometers, less than 15 miles from here to the sea, to the Mediterranean. That's why Israel very narrow at this point.
They say they desperately need this barrier. Then it surrounds, as you see the new fence, around the town of Qalqilyah, the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah. All around it the fence has already been built, encompassing Qalqilyah. The problem is if we swing around to the other side is that with a new part of the fence that's going to be built here -- if our camera can move around and we'll see some angles of it just being built there at this area -- is where they're building into the West Bank, not just alongside the Israel-West Bank border, but right deep into the West Bank. And that is the complication that this new section of the security barrier is likely to provide and why it's arousing so much opposition in the United States, of course, in the Arab world and in many other places, because they believe that it will be very detrimental to any kind of efforts to maintain a peace momentum or to get a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank, which President Bush has promised to bring about as part of the overall settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, if, eventually, it is brought about.
But the Israelis, they're firm, they need security at this stage.
COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Qalqilyah this morning.
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 October 1, 2003 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know about the controversial security fence between Israel and the West Bank. Well, today a key decision about that fence from the Israeli cabinet.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel live in Qalqilyah, which is on the West Bank -- good morning, Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Here on the Israeli West Bank border outside the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah, the sound, you may be able to pick it up in the background, it's just after midday and the call to prayer from the musine (ph), from the mosque, the minarets of the mosque, has just gone out from this town and other villages. But the real focus today is back in Jerusalem on the Israeli cabinet, where on the agenda again, that controversial security barrier which the Israelis have been erecting for the last year or year and a half or so between them and the Palestinians.
They've already built about 100 miles of the fence, wall, in different places, other barriers between them and the West Bank, to block off terrorists wanting to come in to blow themselves up or to launch attacks inside Israel.
The thing that's on the table today, though, is really controversial because whereas up until now the route of the fence or the wall is mainly close to or alongside the Israel-West Bank border, or extending just a few kilometers in.
Now what the Israelis are planning for the central section of the barrier is to extend a number of prongs deep into the West Bank to encompass some of the big Jewish settlements in that area, to bring them under the protection of the fence, as well. That's what's on the agenda and that, of course, as you remarked before, has led to United States opposition; of course, a good deal of Palestinian opposition.
And Mr. Sharon, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, trying to bring something of a compromise proposal, which isn't really a compromise. He says he's going to propose to the cabinet, which is discussing it now, building parts of the fence around those settlements, but not linking up those settlement fences to the main settlement fence along the border, the main fence barrier along the border. Whether that'll fly in Washington, whether that'll get -- he'll be able to do that, remains to be seen. But he's likely to get a good deal of support in his cabinet this morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: This is just so difficult to understand because, you know, that's such a complicated lay of the land out there. Can you give us an idea of why this is so difficult for both sides?
KESSEL: Yes, I think it would help if we'd move our camera across and you'll see the first part of the wall down in the distance there, beyond the town of Qalqilyah. You see that big concrete strip? Now, that's the wall part and that's part of the barrier. Beyond that is a big Israeli town right inside central Israel. This is the heart of central Israel, what the Israelis call their narrow waist. It's only 20 kilometers, less than 15 miles from here to the sea, to the Mediterranean. That's why Israel very narrow at this point.
They say they desperately need this barrier. Then it surrounds, as you see the new fence, around the town of Qalqilyah, the Palestinian town of Qalqilyah. All around it the fence has already been built, encompassing Qalqilyah. The problem is if we swing around to the other side is that with a new part of the fence that's going to be built here -- if our camera can move around and we'll see some angles of it just being built there at this area -- is where they're building into the West Bank, not just alongside the Israel-West Bank border, but right deep into the West Bank. And that is the complication that this new section of the security barrier is likely to provide and why it's arousing so much opposition in the United States, of course, in the Arab world and in many other places, because they believe that it will be very detrimental to any kind of efforts to maintain a peace momentum or to get a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank, which President Bush has promised to bring about as part of the overall settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, if, eventually, it is brought about.
But the Israelis, they're firm, they need security at this stage.
COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Qalqilyah this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
