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American Morning

Another Barrage of Hezbollah Rockets Raining Down on Israel; Hezbollah Prefers Ground War With Israel; Pace of U.S. Evacuation Quickens

Aired July 21, 2006 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another barrage of Hezbollah rockets raining down on Israel. Haifa among several targets. Several people injured, some seriously.
Is an all-out ground invasion coming? Israel now sending reinforcements to the border with Lebanon. Lebanon firing back with a not-so-veiled threat.

All that ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm Miles O'Brien, in New York.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

We're coming to you live from Jerusalem this morning.

Lots to get to. Lots of developments out of the Middle East this morning.

The situation in some ways seeming much more intense. Seeming, in some ways, to be an escalation, at least in preparation for some kind of an incursion, or maybe even a ground war in Lebanon.

We're going to have more from that from Paula Newton, who is right on the border, in just a few moments.

First, though, let's take you right to Beirut. That's where we find Anthony Mills with the very latest back-and-forth, words of what the Lebanese president and prime minister are now saying, if, in fact, the latest developments result in Israeli troops coming into Lebanon.

Anthony, good morning.

Obviously we're having some difficulties with his satellite, so we're going to try to get that fixed and check in with Anthony Mills in Beirut in just a moment.

First, though, let's take you back to Paula Newton. As I mentioned, she is right on that border between Israel and Lebanon. And as we talked about earlier, Paula, you mentioned that you're seeing truly an escalation, at least in preparations potentially for some kind of incursion into Lebanon.

Tell me more about that.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can see it. We can hear it. And we can feel it. It is getting much more tense along this border. In the hills behind me there are Israeli troops with their armored vehicles, with their tanks, getting ready at the border.

What is happening, Soledad, is two things.

One is, whenever the Israelis have gone in with special forces for pinpoint attacks, guerrillas from Hezbollah have taken them on. And secondly, the Israeli government itself has admitted that it's done maybe 50 percent of the work in terms of knocking out Hezbollah and its rocket potential. To get to that last 50 percent, Soledad, it's going to take boots on the ground.

The decision now remains, do they really want to go into Lebanon with a full-scale ground invasion? We're expecting that the Israeli cabinet will make a decision on that on Sunday.

In the meantime, things very tense here. We had Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, yesterday looking very calm, very resolute, saying, look, we will continue to fire those rockets into Israel and we still have the capability. Israel has not changed that. And look what's happened this morning. We've had more rockets hit Haifa.

I have to say, in total numbers, the amount of Katyushas flying in northern Israel has come down. And we have no idea why that might be the case -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Paula Newton for us. As I mentioned, she's right on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

She mentioned boots on the ground. Well, if those boots on the ground are Israeli, and they're on the ground that belongs to Lebanon, that could be a big problem. Lebanon promising to join the fight against Israel if that does happen.

Let's go to Anthony Mills. He's in Beirut with the very latest from the Lebanese prime minister, and president, as well.

Anthony, good morning.

ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there.

Hezbollah has said within the last couple of days that that's exactly what it wants. It wants Israeli troops to fight them face to face and not by dropping bombs from the sky. So Hezbollah would welcome a ground invasion. Of course, Hezbollah has years of experience of fighting Israeli troops in Lebanon before they pulled out in May 2000.

Now, much speculation here as to whether or not that ground invasion is going to happen, but if it does, then Hezbollah says it's ready. As well, the Lebanese army, in an interview, as we saw, the Lebanese president, Emil Lahoud, said that if Israel invades south Lebanon, then the Lebanese army would fight back. And the irony of that would be that the Lebanese army would be doing precisely the opposite of what it has been asked to do by Israel.

Israel has said the Lebanese army needs to take Hezbollah on and prevent it from firing rockets into Israel. The Lebanese president is saying that that army would actually help Hezbollah repel an Israeli ground invasion -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Anthony Mills for us this morning.

Thank you for that update.

Rockets into Israel. We're talking -- some of those rockets getting right into Haifa.

Let's get right to Fionnuala Sweeney. That's where she is for us this morning.

Fionnuala, what is the latest where you are?

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, there have been two barrages of rocket attacks on Haifa. It was in the last few hours. The first indication we had that something was up was when the air raid sirens went off and about 30 seconds later the first of at last four Katyusha rockets fell.

Nineteen people injured, one critically. And for a time afterwards, the air in and around Haifa was filled with the sounds of ambulance sirens, police sirens, and police helicopters.

About an hour after that, the air raid sirens went off again and three rockets fell in and around Haifa. Two of them in open spaces, and one of them in another space.

Haifa now is very, very quiet. There's not a lot of traffic on the streets. This is what people had feared after a couple of days of relative calm, when rockets hadn't been falling on the city. But it seems now that what has been taking place over the last nine days is back to business as usual here -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Fionnuala Sweeney for us with an update of what's happening there in Haifa, in northern Israel.

Some of those people leaving Haifa and the other areas in the north and coming here to Jerusalem for safety, we're told by the deputy mayor here in Jerusalem, that in fact they have taken in some 600 families right here in the city. Another 3,000 are about an hour's drive away. They are being housed and fed and entertained, as well.

Barbara Starr is in Larnaca, Cyprus, where some of those evacuees coming out of Beirut are making their way to safety.

Let's get right to Barbara with an update on what's happening there.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, yesterday, we rode in here to Larnaca from Beirut, Lebanon, with the first U.S. Marine Corps Navy amphibious warship that had pulled Americans out of Beirut. The USS Nashville pulled about 1,000 Americans out of Beirut. And it was quite a sight yesterday as we left the coast of Lebanon near dusk, sailing with those Americans.

U.S. Sailors, U.S. Marines on board, helping all of these people. Even stripping their own bunks of their sheets and blankets to give to people lying on the deck all night on cots as the ship made its way from Lebanon.

But now the next step is under way, Soledad. They believe there are about 4,000 more Americans over in Beirut now that immediately want to come out, and there are four -- now four Marine Corps amphibious warships in place doing that.

The Trenton, the Whidbey Island, the Iwo Jima and the Nashville, they hope to have those 4,000 people out of Lebanon here in Cyprus by the end of the weekend. So they think that they will have at least the first group of people that really want out of Lebanon.

The question now, though, of course, is, how long does the military stay here? What about the balance of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon? The real question, of course, is, how will the military know when it's done with this mission, when everybody is out that wants to get out? Because right now they've placed quite a number of assets here.

Even as we left the coast of Lebanon yesterday there was a U.S. Navy destroyer at sea between us and southern Beirut. That area of Beirut that is said to be, of course, the Hezbollah stronghold. That warship between the American civilians and Hezbollah ready to take any action if there had been a move against the civilians.

Of course, there wasn't. It was all very peaceful. But it's just part of the U.S. military strategy here to get the Americans out safely under the cover of military protection -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr with the latest on the evacuation of Americans out of Beirut.

Barbara, thanks.

Let's get right back to Miles in New York -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, coming up, an all-out invasion of southern Lebanon, it now seems all but imminent. What are the risks? And why would Israel take them? We'll ask an expert.

And while the war rages, there's still time to sow the seeds of peace at this place? Young Israelis and Arabs together trying to bridge the chasm ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Tropical Storm Beryl breezed past the coast of Massachusetts, headed down east as we speak. No damage or injuries to report, but the surf is up, and that could mean dangerous rip currents.

Live now to CNN's meteorologist Rob Marciano, on the eastern tip of Nantucket.

Good morning, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.

Rip currents and huge waves a big problem yesterday. Rip currents likely to be a problem, at least today. But the surf itself is beginning to dwindle, and actually now the sun is trying to break through these clouds.

Boy, this storm came through fast last night. It didn't really start raining until 10:00 p.m. And it pretty much stopped raining right after eye, or so-called eye, of this tropical storm rolled right over the top of us here on Nantucket Island.

We're at the eastern point in Siasconsetm, as you mentioned, right along the bluff here. The lighthouse just behind me. And the bluff and the dunes protecting this residential area.

A 20 to 30-foot high wall of sand and grass being eroded by the sea and wind year by year. That is an ongoing problem here and along much of the Eastern Seaboard as these storms continue to rip apart at the landscape.

But, the ocean right now laying down pretty flat. We had big breakers rolling in early this morning just as daylight was approaching, 10, 15-foot waves. Winds switched west-northwest, now off shore. And the storm itself much farther off shore.

And boy, I tell you what, you could -- you could water ski on this stuff. This is some pretty flat water right now at -- as high tide continues to roll in.

Tropical storm warnings earlier. We had a peak wind gust of about 45 miles an hour. That was enough to bring down some tree limbs. But no power lines. Power is up.

There was some ponding on the roadways, but that is about it. No damage or injuries to report here on Nantucket, although some locals say even though nobody evacuated -- there's up to 40,000 people who are here this time of year, and nobody was leaving last night. And they are a hardy bunch here.

Miles, that's the latest. Things are pretty quiet.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. Ponding, I'm not familiar with that term. Does that mean just puddles, ponding?

MARCIANO: It's a big puddle.

M. O'BRIEN: A big puddle is ponding. All right.

MARCIANO: There you go.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. I learn something new from you guys every darned time.

Thank you very much, Rob Marciano.

MARCIANO: See you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's get to Chad Myers, watching things from way up in the sky there. He's got the radar going there and all that stuff.

Ponding.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Ponding of water, sure.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Chad Myers in the weather center.

Thank you very much.

Back to Soledad in Jerusalem.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles. Thanks.

As we've been reporting, the very latest from north of here in Jerusalem, in Haifa, the bombs continue to fall. We're talking this morning with ambassador -- I'm sorry...

RICHARD JONES, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Dick Jones.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Dick Jones -- excuse me.

Dick Jones is the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

First, we've heard from the Israeli deputy mayor that there will be no end to the fighting, he expects, until Condoleezza Rice comes into the area. Do you think that's true? That's the case?

JONES: Well, I think that the conflict will continue. I think you have seen very bellicose statements out of Hezbollah. I don't think they have any intention of ending the conflict. And as long as they pursue it, I think Israel has got to continue their side of it.

S. O'BRIEN: There is a sense the U.S. could put pressure on Israel for a cease-fire. It's 500-plus Lebanese civilians dying, that now is the time to bring an end to it.

JONES: Well, we shouldn't forget that there's been a lot of death and destruction on both sides of the border in this conflict. You've had literally dozens of Israelis who have been wounded and many Israelis killed. A lot of property damage throughout northern Israel as a result of the shelling and the rockets coming from Hezbollah.

And I think Secretary Rice has repeatedly addressed this question. And I think it was also addressed by the G-8 in their meeting in -- on Sunday. And that is, that you want to set the conditions for a lasting peace.

You know, I was ambassador in Lebanon in '96, and in a way I have seen this movie before. We had a conflict there. And again, it was initiated by Hezbollah, between Hezbollah and Israel. And at that time we worked out a cease-fire.

Secretary Christopher came to the region. He worked very aggressively with the Israeli government, with the Syrian government, with the Hezbollah -- I'm sorry, not with the Hezbollah, but with Lebanon, and put together a cease-fire. And that cease-fire largely held.

But what we found in the interim 10 years is that Hezbollah was using that time to organize itself and to resupply itself and to get stronger. And so...

S. O'BRIEN: So how do you knock out Hezbollah without knocking out the civilians? It's sort of a $64,000 question.

JONES: Well, and, in fact...

S. O'BRIEN: And the infrastructure, too.

JONES: ... that's what we counsel the Israelis, that we want them to avoid collateral damage, we want them to avoid damaging the civilian population. And I think that they are generally making an effort in that direction to focus their attacks on their -- on their enemy. And their enemy is not the Lebanese people.

S. O'BRIEN: What -- does all that change, that position change, if, in fact, there is a ground invasion? When I talked to the Israeli foreign minister spokesman a little while ago, he said, well, not -- we wouldn't want to stay there, but maybe an incursion. And the Lebanese president, as you know, says, listen, if there are Israeli troops here, well, then there are going to be Lebanese military troops as well. So, you sort of ramp everything up.

Does the U.S. position change as sort of, let's watch and wait and try to avoid civilian casualties, if, in fact, Israeli troops go into Lebanon and now you have a bigger escalation?

JONES: Well, I mean, first of all, Israel has made very clear publicly that they don't intend to do that. So I don't really want to get drawn into a hypothetical situation. But I do believe that the U.S. will be engaging. It is engaging on this issue. You know that Secretary Rice is seriously weighing coming to the region. I expect that she will come before too long. I don't know when exactly yet. And I think that you will see U.S. engagement, and we will help start to create those conditions which will allow a lasting cease-fire.

S. O'BRIEN: When you hear word like that from the Lebanese prime minister against what is happening here in Israel and Israelis, to some degree hasn't what Israel and the U.S. didn't want, which is Lebanon and Hezbollah to become closer, isn't that sort of happening?

JONES: Well...

S. O'BRIEN: Because of what's -- because of Israel's reaction to the kidnapping of the soldiers?

JONES: Well, Hezbollah is trying, in effect, to drag Israel back into Lebanon. Israel, of course, did occupy Lebanon for several years, but they withdrew in 2000. And, in effect, fighting Israel was Hezbollah's raison d'etre. It was their reason for existing.

And Israel's withdrawal cut that out from under them. And that's what they are trying to do. They are trying to drag Israel back in.

I don't think Israel will fall into that trap. And that's why I don't think that your -- your fear of a ground incursion will materialize itself, other than the limited actions you're seeing right now.

S. O'BRIEN: U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones. Forgive me if I messed up your name earlier.

My apologies.

JONES: No, that's OK. No, it's a hard name I know to remember.

S. O'BRIEN: And I was thinking that. I thought Jones -- Jones is like the Irish O'Brien. We can remember that.

JONES: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, sir. Such a pleasure.

JONES: Yes, very nice to meet you, Soledad. Thank you for having me.

S. O'BRIEN: The pleasure is mine. Thank you.

Let's send it right back to Miles in New York.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad. It is Soledad, right? Yes.

Back with more in a moment after a short break.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

We're getting this word from the White House this morning that the British prime minister, Tony Blair, is going to visit the White House. It's going to happen on Friday, the 28th. And a couple of days after that we're expecting a visit from the Iraqi prime minister, Maliki. That will happen just after the British prime minister's visit.

So an update on some of what will certainly be some important negotiations and discussions going on between President Bush and the British prime minister, Tony Blair.

We -- it's very easy to be incredibly pessimistic about the situation in the Middle East, certainly as we have been covering the escalation over the last several days and weeks. Especially if you're an outsider. But what if you are an insider, a young person who lives here, regardless of what side of the debate you're on?

This morning we talk to Efrat. She is an Israeli. She lives in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the program of Seeds of Peace.

Kheirallah is a Palestinian. And he lives in Jerusalem as well. He's also a graduate.

It's nice to talk to you. And I thank you for being with us.

Tell me a little bit about Seeds of Peace, the program.

EFRAT, SEEDS OF PEACE: Seeds of Peace is an organization that was founded I think already 14 years ago. And the whole goal is to bring together youth from conflict areas. At the age of 15, Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians leave their countries for one month and go to the states for an American summer camp in which we play tennis and water ski, but we also talk dialogue conversations about what is going on back home in this country.

S. O'BRIEN: , I have to imagine that sometimes those discussions and that dialogue can become very ugly and nasty, especially at a time like this when the conflict is so intense.

KHEIRALLAH, SEEDS OF PEACE: Yes, it is mainly tough, but people develop or try to learn the skills of listening to each other and trying to avoid being so much emotional. Actually, it is always emotional, but try to listen at least. That's what they're trying to do.

S. O'BRIEN: So, when you see the circumstances, this morning's developments, continued bombing in Haifa, continued bombing on the other side of the border, the Lebanese president saying, well, if Israel sends troops in, then we're going to stand up our military, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, do you feel hopeful that there is going to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis? Or do you feel that here we go again? Here we go again? EFRAT: I think that on one hand side, peace is not something that is really now part of our vocabulary. Maybe cease-fire, but peace is something that it's very difficult for us to imagine at this current time.

But just as you said, to be maybe someone living outside of the Middle East, it's easy to look at what is going on and say, oh, they will never solve that. But we have to know that it can be solved. We have to know it must be solved because this is our country, this is our home, this is where we live. We have no other choice but eventually to come into a peaceful agreement.

We just cannot give up. You can't be pessimistic and live in the Middle East unless you are on the bad guy's side.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about spreading the message, which is a big part of Seeds of Peace, that once you graduate, as the both of you have, you go on to spread the message of what you've learned. Is it hard at a time like this to get people, as you said -- you know, you used the word "emotional" -- to listen when it is so emotional?

KHEIRALLAH: It is very hard. And it's always -- whatever we do inside Seeds of Peace is always affected by what is happening outside. So there is a big amount of frustration amongst the kids, but actually what we are calling for, or everybody inside Seeds of Peace as we listen to each other, that the sides outside the Seeds of Peace community in Palestine, in Israel, in the Middle East area, try to look for the human value in each other and try to recognize the importance of life and not just take -- implement plans that are on paper and without disregarding the importance of life.

S. O'BRIEN: Easier said than done. Hezbollah would say, well, you know, we are protecting life. We are shelling back and we are freedom fighters.

Israelis would say, they are bombing our people here. And if we have to send troops to get our kidnapped soldiers back and protect our people, we'll do it. I think that's easy to say, but hard to sort of remember the value of life when the conversation can deteriorate quickly into military positions.

EFRAT: Yes. We're not blind into what is going on in our region, you know. Both Kheirallah and I live amongst our communities, feel the pain and the suffering that our people feel. Have I'm sure very different political views towards what is going on. And that's OK, because we don't have to agree on what is going on in the Middle East. We don't have to have the same political views, because we'll never have them.

But we have to understand that we're talking about people. And that's the first thing Seeds of Peace really lets you see. It's all about the people, and that's the difference, I think, with that.

KHEIRALLAH: Our main message -- at least my personal main message -- is try to let the government not impose on the people the idea of security and by actually attacking the other side. As Israel was trying to convince that by war you can advance security, my hope is that security was not being achieved in this way, trying -- oppressing one side. The security to be achieved by actually talking to the other side and reaching to an agreement where both sides are equals.

S. O'BRIEN: At the same time, you're talking about a piece of land -- maybe specifically this piece of land right behind us, which is important to Muslims, important to Christians, important to Jews, and that is really a military -- you see areas where mosques have been built on top of temples that have been torn down historically.

How -- how far away are we from peace here one day do you think? Am I an optimist?

EFRAT: I think there's a lot of work to be done. You know, on the government level, on the political level, but also on the people level, because I see the Israeli people now, and my feeling, my personal feeling is that everyone is taking one step towards the right wing. And I'm sure that's what is going on the other side. The both other sides that we have now, the Palestinians and the Lebanese people.

And first of all, everything has to stop and you have to have quiet, and you have to have an area and an environment for us to be educated and to learn and to build communities. And then after that, hopefully we can talk about peace. But even I, Seeds of Peace, feel that it's not around the corner. Not yet, certainly.

S. O'BRIEN: Efrat and Kheirallah joining us, graduates of the program Seeds of Peace.

Thank you for talking with us. We certainly appreciate it.

EFRAT: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Good luck to both of you.

Let's get back to Miles in New York -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad.

Coming up, Israel's military options. What are the risks if it launches an all-out invasion of Lebanon? They have been down this road before.

We'll take a closer look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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