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American Morning

Cancer Controversy; Crisis in the Middle East

Aired July 27, 2006 - 09:33   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Metula, Israel. This is as far north in Israel as you go. Those are the hills of Lebanon right there. About 200 yards down this road, past that border patrol humvee, is the border itself. The gate up there. On the ridge, you can see the water tower.
You can see some of the buildings. That's one of the United Nations observing posts. You know, it's the United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon, UNIFIL, but it's also happens to be -- it's a real misnomer. It happens to be one of the oldest peacekeeping or observation roles for the United Nations of all. You'll recall, of course, a couple of days ago four of the U.N. observers targeted by an Israeli Air Force fighter and a precision weapon. Still trying to get a good explanation from the Israeli Air Force of what happened there. An investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, what has been happening here today is that south of here, along a ridge from here. We're right above where the Sea of Galilee is, about 30 miles north of it. All the way across the coast of the Mediterranean to Haifa, a barrage of Katyusha rockets continuing to rain down. Closer to us here, Kiriyat Shemona (ph). Three Katyushas landing a parking lot. A car taken out. Damage to an apartment building. Caused a brush fire.

And we are told, though, despite all of that no injuries. And the real reason is people here are paying heed. They listen to those sirens and they take shelter. When the sirens went off and we got them here, we moved very quickly, and that's what people do in this part of the world.

Interestingly, Metula has not been hit. All kinds of speculation about that, but basically we are at the very tip of the fingernail of Israel, surrounded by Lebanon on all sides, and it might just be too hard a shot for a Katyusha, which is a very inaccurate weapon, and thus this little spit of land is spared.

Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, thanks.

There are Americans fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces during this new Mideast crisis. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho spent some time with a family in suburban New York that's got a loved one who's doing exactly that. It's kind of, I would have thought, a strange thing, but it's not that unusual.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not that unusual, Soledad. We did -- we were very interested in this. And you know, many people don't realize that there are indeed American citizens serving in the Israeli army. American Jews, who in many cases were born and raised in the United States and have such a special connection to Israel they are willing to leave the U.S. to fight for Israel. In that way, it is their American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): For 21-year-old American Matt Bielski, fighting in the Israeli army is family tradition. So when Matt told his parents he wanted to join the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, they were not surprised.

JAY BIELSKI, FATHER OF AMERICAN IN IDF: I kind of expected it. I didn't want it to happen. I promised him a Corvette call every year if he would stay here and go to graduate school, but I knew it wouldn't work. And I did the same thing to my parents.

CHO: Matt's father, Jay, was first a U.S. Marine. He left to join the Israeli army in 1973, just in time for the Yom Kippur War. Then there's his father. Zeus Bielski and his two brothers led what historians call the largest armed rescue of Jews by Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

The Bielski brothers, the subject of a book and a documentary, saved more than 1,200 Jews, as many as Oscar Schindler.

BIELSKI: What I did and what Matthew is doing is a piece of cake compared to what they did.

CHO: Matt was born in the U.S., but also holds an Israeli passport.

MARGO BIELSKI, MOTHER OF AMERICAN IN IDF: Matthew went not knowing there was going to be a war. They went planning to join the IDF, and you know, be in the army and feel what it's like to help defend the country, but they really didn't anticipate a war.

CHO: The Bielskis keep a close eye on the news from their home in Valley Stream, New York, more than 5,000 miles away, and it can be grim.

Matt told his mother by phone the Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon Wednesday were part of his unit. His parents try to talk to Matt a few times a week, like the day we were there.

M. BIELSKI: How are you, honey?

All right, is everything okay?

J. BIELSKI: How's the war?

MATT BIELSKI: Good.

J. BIELSKI: It's good?

MATT BIELSKI: All right.

J. BIELSKI: Stay safe. Don't be a hero.

M. BIELSKI: Do you need anything?

CHO: Matt's mom, Margo, admits she worries a lot about her son, but she's certain he's exactly where he wants to be.

M. BIELSKI: He followed his dream to do what he wanted to do. You know, some people they say talk the talk. Well, he walked the walk. He went.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: He most certainly did.

Now Matt will serve a total of two years in the Israeli army. After that, his parents say he plans to come home to the United States, maybe get his MBA, and perhaps even stay here a while, at least his parents hope he will. He was here last, Soledad, in June for his twin sisters wedding. And at the time, his mom said, hey, why don't you stay? I've got a couple of safehouses, maybe I can hide you, and you know, he obviously wasn't having any of that. And she said, you know, the toughest thing she had to do was take him back to the airport. She knows he's there fighting for a good cause, as she says. And it's in his blood; it's in his family.

S. O'BRIEN: That's got to be brutal to drive him back to the airport, I understand that. And when does he get to come home?

CHO: Well, you know, he signed up in November of last year. So conceivably after his two-year tour of duty he could come home as early as November of next year.

The interesting thing, Soledad, is that he has a younger brother, and that younger brother has just started talking about maybe being interested in joining the Israeli army. So...

S. O'BRIEN: terrifying his poor parents.

CHO: His parents. His mom say she hopes that he thinks that just having the brother there will be good enough. But his dad thinks he has the bug, so he may go.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Alina, thanks.

CHO: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, a big development in the case of that teenage cancer patient we told you about earlier this month. You'll remember the state threatened to take custody away from his parents because they were refusing chemotherapy for him? We're going to talk about what's happened in the court, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A few weeks ago, we told you about the story after controversial battle that's pitting a teenage cancer case against the state of Virginia. Sixteen-year-old Abraham Cherrix had refused a second round of chemotherapy. When his Hodgkin's Disease returned, he opted instead for an alternative treatment in Mexico, and his family agreed with his decision. Well, a juvenile judge did not, and he ordered Cherrix to report to a hospital for chemo and radiation. Well, this week, a circuit court set aside that order, scheduled a trial next month to settle the dispute.

Jay and Abraham Cherrix join us. They're in Virginia this morning. Nice to see you both again.

Abraham, let's begin with you. You lost at first and then you won, and it's not really all decided right yet. You got another round. How are you feeling about all of this?

ABRAHAM CHERRIX, FIGHTING STATE OVER CANCER TREATMENT: I'm feeling great. It feels so good to be off the leash finally. The social services no longer has partial custody of me and basically the case is postponed until the August -- August the 16th, and I'm feeling good.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and, Jay, and you know -- I guess postponed until August 16th, which is right around the corner? Again, you lost the first time around, but you didn't exactly win the second time around. How confident are you that, in fact, you can convince in the trial that you'll be able to see your way to victory here -- in fact that you can continue with the alternative treatment?

JAY CHERRIX, ABRAHAM'S FATHER: Well, I think that we feel a sense of fairness coming over the whole case, the whole situation. We feel like that when the judge listens to the facts and listens to the agonizing that we did to reach this decision, that he'll see the sensibilities of what we have done. And the indications we've got so far with the judge returning full custody of Abraham to us is a great reassurance.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I would bet it is. That had to be really difficult. Abraham, how is your health since we last spoke? Have you gone back to the doctor? Have you had your tumor measured? Are there, you know, empirical data on how you're doing?

A. CHERRIX: Yes, there's -- the last test I had -- and apparently the tumor has not grown in size that much at all. It's basically in a standstill point now, which is expected. And once it reaches that standstill point, it will start to shrink.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you plan, Jay, to fight this? I mean, will you bring witnesses in to talk about Hoxley, which is this very controversial treatment that goes on in Mexico, banned here in the United States? What's your strategy now?

J. CHERRIX: Well, the strategy is, as it was before, to bring forth the facts. These folks have cured people before of cancer. The fellow was here in the United States for a while until the FDA pushed him out. So we have fine lawyers that have stepped forward, John Stebanovich (ph) and Barry Taylor (ph). We have full confidence in them.

And our judge down here, we've seen him put the bad guys in jail, and we've seen him take the drug dealers off the streets. So we're confident when he hears, you know, our story, that he'll see the validity of what we've done.

S. O'BRIEN: The National Advisory Cancer Center -- and you and I have spoken about this before -- have showed that the 400 cases of -- that -- Hoxley's patients -- that none of the patients had biopsies, no confirmation they had cancer. And not one case of a Hoxley cure could be documented. Couldn't that be just devastating when it comes to court?

J. CHERRIX: Well, I don't think so. I think that, looking at the facts, the American Medical Association oncologists gave Abraham a 25 percent chance of surviving their treatments. As his father, we've got to be able to weigh all the options that we have.

And this is a terrible disease. This is -- we wish we had a silver bullet that would kill it, you know. If the Lone Ranger could supply it, I'd take it. But it isn't. It's a terrible disease. You have to research, you have look at all the options, and you have to go for what makes sense to you. And this made incredible sense.

S. O'BRIEN: Abraham, you've said no matter what the court decides, you will not go through with the treatment. You are not having chemo. You are not having radiation. What do you mean by that, exactly?

A. CHERRIX: Well, I truly believe that the chemotherapy I last took almost killed me. And, you know, there's many people who have said that, and there's many people that have told me that, you know, you felt like you almost died, but you didn't. But I truly believe that I almost did. This treatment that they want to give me has a 75 percent chance of killing me. And I truly believe that massive doses of chemo and radiation would finish me off for good.

S. O'BRIEN: So when you say no matter what, I am not going to do it, what does that mean?

A. CHERRIX: It means that I have my rights, and I have the right to do what I want with my body. It's the temple that God gave me, which I'm supposed to take care of, and I will not give it up to chemotherapy if I don't want to.

S. O'BRIEN: Meaning you will refuse the treatment? Meaning you'll go off to jail? I don't know if even that's an option. Meaning that -- meaning that what, specifically?

A. CHERRIX: Yes, I will refuse treatment. I will refuse all treatment that is chemotherapy from this oncology department. S. O'BRIEN: Abraham and Jay Cherrix. Again, we wish you the best of luck in all your treatments. And we'll see how this court case turns out. Thanks, guys, for talking to us. Nice to see you again, too.

A. CHERRIX: Thank you.

J. CHERRIX: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to our senior legal analyst, Jeff Toobin. We've been talking about this before, as well, Jeff. What do you make of this turn of events?

JEFF TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, all I can say is I hope this just becomes a crazy story that Abraham tells his grandchildren. You know, he's a great kid and everybody's rooting for him.

The paradox here is that as his condition deteriorates physically, his legal position gets somewhat better. Because, you know, he has had a recurrence of Hodgkin's Disease. According to the traditional medical science, his chances of survival have gone from 75 percent to 25 percent. So the difference between 25 and this unknown in Mexico, it's getting smaller. And there is less and less traditional medical science can do for him. And I think it's a tragedy that he's taking this course, but he may now have a better chance of getting it.

S. O'BRIEN: When this goes before a judge, what kind of a -- it's this treatment that's very controversial. We read a little bit about him. I mean, all -- the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer -- you know, all of them think that this is just a hoax, essentially...

TOOBIN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: ... in a nutshell. What kind of impact could witnesses, et cetera, have on this judge? Do you think he's going to win or he's going to lose?

TOOBIN: A big impact, because, you know, he is obviously very mature, he's smart. But he's 16. You know he's -- he can't vote. He can't drink. I mean, minors have different rights and the state steps in when they are doing damage to themselves.

S. O'BRIEN: So is the state judging him on listen, he's old enough to make a decision. If he wants to go and tap dance in the streets to try to cure his cancer, well, he can do that, because he's old enough? Or is it a judgment on the actual treatment, this Hoxley thing?

TOOBIN: No, it's a judgment on the treatment. He's not old enough to make this decision. You know, Coretta Scott King, tragically, could make the decision to die in a Mexican hospital with one of these ridiculous treatments, and she did, and there's nothing the state could do about it. But that's because she was an adult. Abraham is a child. And he's a mature child and he's a great child, but he's still a child, and the state has different obligations.

And, you know, this is not about a choice. This is a fraud that he's involved in. These people are charlatans in Mexico who are trying to take Americans' money. And, you know, I don't blame people for having high hopes, but, you know, that is the medical fact. And he is -- unfortunately, his family is, you know, playing a very dangerous game.

S. O'BRIEN: They're desperate.

TOOBIN: Yes, they're desperate.

S. O'BRIEN: They're desperate. Jeff Toobin, thank you. And, of course, I agree with you. You know, I hope that we're talking to Abraham 30 years from now.

TOOBIN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Looking back on this case.

TOOBIN: Indeed.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jeff.

Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's picking up our coverage in the next couple of minutes. Hey, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, good morning. "LIVE TODAY" keeping its focus on the Middle East in crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a scramble to get the wounded out of the bomb zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Bombs and rockets. Civilians on the receiving end of gruesome weapons.

And this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We happened upon this spot where Katyusha had recently fallen. We're looking for the actual rocket. We can't see it. It's likely buried somewhere in this direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Our Anderson Cooper on the front lines. He shows us life turned upside down in Israel's small border towns. The White House briefing state ahead. Plus, any breaking news.

Stay informed with LIVE TODAY. We'll see you at the top of the hour.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Daryn, thank you. We'll see you then.

Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" up next.

Good morning again.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

Exxon's numbers are out. And guess what? The company made a multibillion dollar bundle.

Also, Oliver Stone's new movie about 9/11 is coming out soon. And it may appeal to an unlikely demographic. We'll get to that soon, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

S. O'BRIEN: Short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. As faithful viewers know Thursday is Miles-cam day on Pipeline, coming up in a half an hour on the CNN.com/pipeline product, which we invite you to sample. I'll be taking your questions, whatever those questions may be. Send them to me now via e-mail. AM@CNN.com is the place. 10:30 Eastern Time. We'll be live from Metula, Israel, answering your questions about our coverage from the war, whatever else is on your mind.

That's it for us from Metula, Israeli today, Soledad. We'll see you tomorrow.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks. Be safe, OK, for everybody on your team. And that's it for us in New York as well.

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