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CNN Live At Daybreak
International News Desk
Aired October 13, 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: Yasser Arafat just can't seem to keep a prime minister.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us live with what's going on in the Palestinian political arena.
And you really could have predicted this, right?
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. I think it's more a case of him not really wanting a Palestinian prime minister. You have to remember here that the idea Yasser Arafat, the U.S. and the Israeli administration is trying to isolate him, push him aside and put somebody in his place with real power, a Palestinian prime minister that they can deal with, preferably a moderate.
Well, there are lots of moderates and at least a couple of people have taken the job so far. Ahmed Qureia is the latest person who holds the position of Palestinian prime minister.
COSTELLO: But didn't he have the sense that he wouldn't have complete control when he agreed to do this in the first place?
CLINCH: Well, that's hard to say. But it is very obvious that Yasser Arafat has and is still refusing to give up key areas of responsibility, particularly in the area of security.
Now, there is a loophole, apparently, in the whole deal of creating this new position of prime minister that allows the presidency, Yasser Arafat, to hold onto security. The Israelis, the U.S. and Ahmed Qureia saying that won't do. If he is expected to crack down on terrorism and deal with the issue of terrorism, he must control security. Yasser Arafat not prepared to give up that power yet. But it'll be interesting to see whether he does.
Now, the problem of Yasser Arafat is one of the obvious reasons why there's no progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and also one of the reasons why the U.S. is not getting more involved. Another less obvious reason and a story we've been wanting to do for quite a while, the role of Christian fundamentalists.
COSTELLO: Really?
CLINCH: Now, this is a very interesting story...
COSTELLO: Oh, in this country?
CLINCH: Well, in this country and in Israel. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon met last night, as he has done many times, with a group of visiting Christian fundamentalists in Israel, many of them from the United States, also from other parts of the world. But what is the connection here?
Many of the most fundamental Christians who are visiting Israel have a very biblical view of what's going on there, not just now, but obviously for the last few thousand years and in the future, seeing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as in some ways symbolic of the road to Armageddon, the end game.
Now, where the political side of this, Sharon turning up knowing quite well, being somewhat disingenuous, knowing quite well that these Christian fundamentalists have a very different view of why Israel should expand and why Israel should win this conflict and that in the end the Christians would envision the Israel state and Jews disappearing and being replaced.
Now, in the meantime, though, he sees a great political advantage in the fact that these Christian fundamentalists have a huge role here, domestically, in the United States, in influencing the Bush administration, and in some ways influencing them to be hands off in the way that they deal with the Sharon administration.
So a very, very interesting dynamic, something that we've been wanting to look at for a time being, for quite some time now, and our Chris Burns in Jerusalem is going to do that story later today.
COSTELLO: Interesting. That's just fascinating.
CLINCH: Yes, and Walt Rodgers, who covered that story for many years, I was just chatting with him in London and what he -- he put it, I think, brilliantly in saying that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in many ways has become an issue of domestic policy for the Bush administration, more than foreign policy. They don't want to get involved with Arafat and they don't really want to push it too hard on the Sharon administration while they've got this heavy influence of Christian fundamentalists.
It's not a key issue, but it's definitely a very interesting sidebar that we're going to look at today.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
CLINCH: I'll be back at 6:00. I've got a couple of things to talk about, Iraq related stories. Letters from soldiers in Iraq which are appealing for help and support going into U.S. newspapers. Apparently lots of -- the same letters signed by different soldiers turning up in papers. We'll be looking at that at 6:00 a.m.
COSTELLO: So the same letter with a different name on them?
CLINCH: Different name, different signature. Lots of reasons for that and we're not sure what the reasons are yet, so we're looking into that.
COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, David.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We look forward to that.
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 13, 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: Yasser Arafat just can't seem to keep a prime minister.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us live with what's going on in the Palestinian political arena.
And you really could have predicted this, right?
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes. I think it's more a case of him not really wanting a Palestinian prime minister. You have to remember here that the idea Yasser Arafat, the U.S. and the Israeli administration is trying to isolate him, push him aside and put somebody in his place with real power, a Palestinian prime minister that they can deal with, preferably a moderate.
Well, there are lots of moderates and at least a couple of people have taken the job so far. Ahmed Qureia is the latest person who holds the position of Palestinian prime minister.
COSTELLO: But didn't he have the sense that he wouldn't have complete control when he agreed to do this in the first place?
CLINCH: Well, that's hard to say. But it is very obvious that Yasser Arafat has and is still refusing to give up key areas of responsibility, particularly in the area of security.
Now, there is a loophole, apparently, in the whole deal of creating this new position of prime minister that allows the presidency, Yasser Arafat, to hold onto security. The Israelis, the U.S. and Ahmed Qureia saying that won't do. If he is expected to crack down on terrorism and deal with the issue of terrorism, he must control security. Yasser Arafat not prepared to give up that power yet. But it'll be interesting to see whether he does.
Now, the problem of Yasser Arafat is one of the obvious reasons why there's no progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and also one of the reasons why the U.S. is not getting more involved. Another less obvious reason and a story we've been wanting to do for quite a while, the role of Christian fundamentalists.
COSTELLO: Really?
CLINCH: Now, this is a very interesting story...
COSTELLO: Oh, in this country?
CLINCH: Well, in this country and in Israel. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon met last night, as he has done many times, with a group of visiting Christian fundamentalists in Israel, many of them from the United States, also from other parts of the world. But what is the connection here?
Many of the most fundamental Christians who are visiting Israel have a very biblical view of what's going on there, not just now, but obviously for the last few thousand years and in the future, seeing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as in some ways symbolic of the road to Armageddon, the end game.
Now, where the political side of this, Sharon turning up knowing quite well, being somewhat disingenuous, knowing quite well that these Christian fundamentalists have a very different view of why Israel should expand and why Israel should win this conflict and that in the end the Christians would envision the Israel state and Jews disappearing and being replaced.
Now, in the meantime, though, he sees a great political advantage in the fact that these Christian fundamentalists have a huge role here, domestically, in the United States, in influencing the Bush administration, and in some ways influencing them to be hands off in the way that they deal with the Sharon administration.
So a very, very interesting dynamic, something that we've been wanting to look at for a time being, for quite some time now, and our Chris Burns in Jerusalem is going to do that story later today.
COSTELLO: Interesting. That's just fascinating.
CLINCH: Yes, and Walt Rodgers, who covered that story for many years, I was just chatting with him in London and what he -- he put it, I think, brilliantly in saying that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in many ways has become an issue of domestic policy for the Bush administration, more than foreign policy. They don't want to get involved with Arafat and they don't really want to push it too hard on the Sharon administration while they've got this heavy influence of Christian fundamentalists.
It's not a key issue, but it's definitely a very interesting sidebar that we're going to look at today.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
CLINCH: I'll be back at 6:00. I've got a couple of things to talk about, Iraq related stories. Letters from soldiers in Iraq which are appealing for help and support going into U.S. newspapers. Apparently lots of -- the same letters signed by different soldiers turning up in papers. We'll be looking at that at 6:00 a.m.
COSTELLO: So the same letter with a different name on them?
CLINCH: Different name, different signature. Lots of reasons for that and we're not sure what the reasons are yet, so we're looking into that.
COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, David.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We look forward to that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
