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Coronavirus Outbreak; Trump Impeachment; War in Syria; Trump's Middle East Plan. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired January 30, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Fifth largest cruise ship reportedly on lockdown in an Italian port with 7,000 people on board. And as countries
evacuate their citizens from China, frustration is growing over quarantine measures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They going to change the assessment of this from very high in China and a high risk globally to potentially a global emergency.
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Can this be controlled?
Which way is it spreading?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump claiming he recently spoke to Chinese President Xi about containing the virus. But that may not be true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are seven individual rooms, a bed in each of those rooms, there's negative pressure, we're told, to try and make sure
they can contain the virus and they are, already, they're waiting for potential patients to come.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Moments from now, a global emergency meeting of the WHO.
Will they declare one, a global emergency?
That is. It is midnight in Wuhan. It is 5:00 pm in Geneva, where the World Health Organization is gathering amid fears of the deadly coronavirus,
spreading as fast as the virus itself.
It is now verging on surpassing the size and scope of the SARS epidemic of 2003. The end doesn't seem to be in sight. Experts warn it could keep
going, infecting more and more people for months.
This hour, the World Health Organization holding that emergency meeting to decide if the outbreak weren't becoming a health emergency of international
concern. It's a rare thing for the group to do it, mobilizes extra funding and public health measures. And it seems increasingly to be such measures
that may now be needed.
Just take a look, a good look, at the map. From Australia to Finland, from Canada to Nepal, thousands of kilometers is the full scope on the face of
the Earth and some weeks into the outbreak now, it is still burrowing its way into new places with India and the Philippines reporting cases now of
the deadly virus.
Some 6,000 passengers aboard one of the world's largest cruise ships on lockdown at an Italian port. A couple there being kept in isolation, the
woman reportedly suffering from a fever. The two being tested for the Wuhan virus strain.
Remember, it is ships like these, it is planes, the very fabric of our modern world that unfortunately helps these viruses spread like wildfire.
And that is what is causing scenes like these.
With anxiety consuming Hong Kong, the city quickly running out of surgical masks, despite their very limited ability, to be honest, to prevent viruses
from spreading but I guess some comfort is better than none. People have been mobbing the few stores there that still have them stocked up, with
some waiting as many as three hours in Hong Kong to buy a single mask.
As you would expect, as we have been doing now for days, we are covering this story from every angle. CNN editor John Defterios is up with us from
London. There's a significant economic impact to all of this.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta live from CNN World Headquarters and David Culver in Beijing up all night and day, following
this story.
So, David, let's start with you.
What is the very latest where you are?
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Becky. I know all eyes are focused on what the World Health Organization will likely be changing the
designation to, that's what folks are curious about.
President Xi Jinping met with the head of the WHO here in Beijing and questions whether or not they'll open up the international scientists to be
coming here, that may include CDC members, as well.
That matters because if they can then determine how it transmits from one person to another and they can also look at what an effective quarantine
time will be, then that will give some clarity to some of this.
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CULVER: Clarity is what is desperately needed here. We have been talking with folks in the midst of the lockdown zone and it's 60 million people,
15-plus cities. And as you can imagine, they're desperate to get out, some of them, trying to figure out how they may be able to do so and not just
within the lockdown zones.
In fact, some major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, eerily quiet this time of year. Folks are back in their home provinces after the Lunar New
Year. We are learning that folks in the cities in particular likewise trying to get out of Mainland China.
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CULVER (voice-over): A normally traffic-jammed highway in Wuhan, China, near empty. Only a few passing vehicles. Public transportation shut down.
City buses sit untouched, a few residents spotted outside.
Eerie for a city 11 million people call home. Major food chains closing to customers, from Starbucks to KFC to McDonald's. Lights off inside. This
Walmart open and crowded. Shoppers wearing face masks inside and quickly buying up what's left, leaving bare produce stands behind. Outside the
lockdown zones, similar scenes.
JENNA DAVIDSON, AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENT: There's 24 million people in Shanghai and I'm walking in the middle of the street.
CULVER (voice-over): American college student Jenna Davidson arrived in Shanghai a few weeks ago for the spring semester.
DAVIDSON: We got here before the outbreak and it went south really quick.
CULVER (voice-over): She says finding food in the massive city is increasingly difficult.
DAVIDSON: They shut down the campus. We almost felt as though they didn't realize we're still living on it. We didn't have hot water for a few days
and the cafeterias on campus closed. So we started to realize, well, we need food.
And most stores within walking distance have been shut down or it is like zombieland in there, fighting for what's left on the shelves.
CULVER (voice-over): She tried to keep positive.
DAVIDSON: This is the guy who takes my temperature nine times a day.
CULVER (voice-over): She sent this photo to her dad, trying to reassure him.
DAVIDSON: For a while I wasn't telling my dad everything but he was finding out on the news just how bad it was so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DAVIDSON: It's been hard on him.
CULVER (voice-over): She and her fellow classmates now booked on flights to get out, destination, anywhere but here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you going?
DAVIDSON: Africa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you know in Africa?
DAVIDSON: I don't know anyone in Africa. What's most stressful is even though we're leaving I still don't feel like we're in the clear yet because
it's -- what if we catch it in the taxi or at the airport on the way home, on the plane?
We still need to be very careful. It is not over yet.
CULVER (voice-over): Back in Wuhan, social media shows how some residents move inside their homes, finding normalcy in the lockdown.
But a look outside and you're reminded, life here is anything but normal.
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CULVER: That is a neighborhood security guard there, head to toe, Becky, in one of the hazmat suits. As for Jenna, she says many students studying
abroad with her likewise trying to get out.
Where are they going?
She said one is going to Hawaii and one to London as more and more airlines cutting back or even cutting off the flights to Mainland China. People are
trying to get out as quickly as they can.
ANDERSON: So it goes on. Remarkable stuff. David Culver is there in Beijing.
Sanjay, let me bring you in at this point. It is, as we know, the WHO meeting at this hour. Russia closing its far eastern border with China.
Hong Kong also clamping down on some of its border crossings.
Here, our viewers see Russian tourists returning home from China, immediately screened. Airlines also partially or fully suspending flights
as well. As the WHO gather, the debate, it seems, is whether to call a global emergency.
Sanjay, how do they make that sort of an assessment?
Why is it important?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a few different criteria for it and even though in the -- at the last meeting, they
basically said, look, we acknowledge this is an emergency, that's unfolding.
But it's primarily within China, at that point obviously we didn't have as much of the global spread as we do now. So that's a big criteria.
The second thing is understanding what the impact of declaring this as a public health emergency will do.
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GUPTA: What will it do in terms of freeing up resources, allowing other -- even with regard to the evacuations, David was describing, help bolster
those?
There's lots of different considerations, some people were surprised this wasn't declared a public health emergency last week and if they look at
this and say, look, this is still strictly primarily within China, it may not be declared an emergency. It's really to make a statement to the world
and to share some of the resources.
ANDERSON: OK. We've been reporting on this. It's been a headline and it continues to be so. You and I have talked at length over the past week or
so about the microbiology.
Have we learned or have clinicians and biologists learned enough to be able to tell us how this thing works and when it might peak?
GUPTA: Yes. Those are great questions. And you are starting to hear some comments about the life cycle, if you will, of this. From the Chinese
health ministry, you heard that the peak could come, they say, within the next couple of weeks, although it's really hard to base any data and get
that sort of answer.
We just don't know yet in terms of peak. What I will say, and it's interesting, Becky, seeing the numbers grow, that's obviously alarming.
People are waking up every morning, hearing the numbers not going up a little bit but a lot.
Some is increased awareness or more available testing but there's no doubt the numbers are going up. But at the same time, Becky, if the fatality
numbers don't correspondingly go up, that means the ratio goes down. Right?
That means that what it suggests is possibly many people out there who do, in fact, have this infection but either have no or very mild symptoms. And
that would obviously be a little bit of good news in all this as well.
We always draw comparisons to SARS. We know, for example, how the numbers sort of spread around the world with SARS.
But we should also look at flu. Just the regular flu, for which we have a vaccine within the United States where I am right now, 8,000 people have
died of flu already this year. So it is worth giving a little bit of context.
Is this new virus, this novel virus, going to end up being more like a bad cold, flu?
Or is it going to spiral into a much more deadly pandemic?
We don't know the answer to that yet. But it is starting to lean a little bit, thankfully towards, the former.
ANDERSON: Yes. No. That's really important context. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always a pleasure. Thank you, sir.
John, a Chinese government economist warning this crisis could drag the first quarter growth rate in China below 5 percent and that doesn't sound
bad compared to the anemic growth in most developed economies. But it is as low as you and I will remember and we have been around for eons.
What's the knock-on effect for the world's second largest economy?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: You have to look at it, Becky. The stock markets have been dropping 2 percent to 5 percent today
and what are they indicating?
There's trouble ahead. The initial reaction is to go back to the SARS crisis of 2002 and 2003 and back then we had China growing at 9 percent and
it fell to 7 percent. It had the worst growth in three decades at 6 percent, 6.5 percent last year. 6 percent projected for this year. I think
5 percent is being very conservative and estimates are it could go down to 4 percent, which would be a crisis in China as you're suggesting because
it's a giant emerging market, spoiled by 6 percent to 7 percent growth.
I'm looking at road transportation. Internal traffic, as well. Airline passengers. And this is coming from the government. We are looking at drops
of 30, 40, 50 percent and we could have a shock much bigger than the initial estimates from SARS in 2002 and 2003.
Even looking at oil, the early estimates are that demand will drop in the number one oil importing country in the world by a million barrels a day,
worst-case scenario is a drop of 2-2.5 million barrels a day. Already the OPEC countries and the Middle East producers wondering, how deep is this
going to be?
Becky, we are limiting this to the local economy. There's a knock-on effect to South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, all dependent on Chinese
growth right now and, clearly, we don't know what the crystal ball looks like here in early days of the virus.
ANDERSON: Yes, no. You make a very good point. And South Korea itself. You just named that country, is reporting, John, its first case of someone
becoming infected who had not been to Wuhan in China, bringing the total confirmed cases there to six.
CNN's Paula Hancocks has a look inside the hospital in Seoul treating infected patients.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As we're filming, we are moved back by medical personnel in hazmat suits as potential patients arrive to be
tested. Given a CT scan in the country's only mobile CT scanner, trying to detect viral pneumonia, so potential Wuhan patients can be segregated.
A 55-year-old South Korean man was brought in last week and has been confirmed with the virus after traveling from Wuhan. This doctor has been
treating the patient and says he's stable but he believes the next week could be critical in stemming the spread of the virus.
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ANDERSON: And her full report is online for you at cnn.com.
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ANDERSON: In less than two hours from now, the jury in the trial of the American president, that is the U.S. Senate, will get stuck back into what
will be another long session of questions and answers.
But as long as it is, it could all be about to end. Republicans do seem confident that they have the votes to block new witnesses and, quite
frankly, put this trial to bed very soon. Even if witnesses are called, the White House has a backup plan, fighting and fighting hard.
It's sent a formal warning the former national security adviser, John Bolton, telling him not to publish his new book, which includes key
allegations that could implicate President Trump.
Meanwhile, a quite frankly rather dizzying argument put forward by one of Mr. Trump's defense lawyers that would seem at least to give the president
virtually unrestrained power.
Alan Dershowitz, a famous name in the legal world, one I'm sure you will recognize, arguing whatever the president does to gain re-election is in
the national interest because his victory would be, well, in the national interest. Have a listen to that logic.
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ALAN DERSHOWITZ, TRUMP ATTORNEY: Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest. And mostly you're
right. Your election is in the public interest. And if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public
interest that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.
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ANDERSON: Get your head around that which might remind of another president's words when under pressure.
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RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.
DAVID FROST, BRITISH BROADCASTER: By definition?
NIXON: Exactly.
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ANDERSON: Right.
So are we being cynical here, raising our eyebrows somewhat?
Let's bring in CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. He cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor. He spends his days brainstorming case strategy and working
complex cases.
In a nutshell, you are the right man to help us break everything down that we are seeing here, Elie. So walk me through Alan Dershowitz and pick up on
what you heard from Nixon.
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, Becky, first of all, no, we are not being cynical doubting Alan Dershowitz. We are being sane. The theory he
spun yesterday is completely made up and unsupported.
It is Dershowitz reading from the book of Dershowitz. First of all, he cited no authority. Scholars, professors, practitioners have been studying
impeachment for centuries and he had no support, other than it's something he came up with. By the way, he himself, Alan Dershowitz, has contradicted
that position in previous years.
The other thing is it would obviously lead to absurd results; he's saying the president can do anything as long as he believes it will lead to his
re-election, which is in the public interest. You can spin any crazy scenario you want.
Could the president threaten to remove benefits from anyone who votes against him?
Well, I think it's in the public interest. It helps me get elected and that's good for the country. Dershowitz's theory would put the president
entirely above the law. It cannot be correct.
ANDERSON: Key number one here, of course, in all of this is -- well, key number one?
What I meant to say is that number of 51, that's the number of senators who would need to vote in favor of witnesses as we move into what could be the
final phase of this trial unless witnesses are called.
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ANDERSON: There are some key Republican senators who ultimately may decide whether Trump's impeachment trial does go on or not.
Any chance those that we have up on the screen here, Collins, Romney, Murkowski, Gardner or Alexander, might flip?
HONIG: Well, so the magic number is four as you said because there are 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats and independents in the Senate. Four would
need to flip. All indications are that Romney and Collins will vote for witnesses, so 51 against witnesses and 49 for.
So the question is will 1 or 2 more of those?
I think eyes are on Alexander and there needs to be an X factor. At this point it looks like a coin toss as to whether that will happen. An
interesting scenario is if it ends up 50-50, what happens then?
I think the Democrats can and should then bring it to the chief justice to break that tie. He can and I think he should. But will he is another
question.
ANDERSON: That is fascinating, something I'm pretty sure will be new to the viewers and certainly something that was news to us in the newsroom as
we lean on people like you, Elie, to fill us in. Thank you, sir.
A new U.N. report shedding light on how the Syrian conflict is robbing kids of their dreams.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Safety is but a relative concept. The comfort of four walls, cleanliness, it feels like a
distant dream.
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ANDERSON: That story is up next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
DAMON (voice-over): The roads in Idlib are again gridlocked with the traffic of desperate souls.
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DAMON (voice-over): They join the hundreds of thousands already crammed against the Turkish border, as if that proximity could somehow provide
salvation.
The makeshift camps are mud pits where sewage mixes with the rainwater edging up against the tents.
Eleven-year-old Muhammad fled after a barrel bomb took out half of his home. He and his siblings were covered in white dust, miraculously unhurt
as the explosion spared the room they were hiding in.
He says, if he had a magic wand, he would wish away the water, fix the camp, stop the regime advancing and end the airstrikes.
Safety is but a relative concept. The comfort of four walls, cleanliness, it feels like a distant dream. Muhammad's grandmother, Hadijah (ph), can
barely find enough clean water to wash. She hasn't showered in over a month. The children are all getting sick. She's not entirely sure they will
be safe here.
Regime forces backed by the Russians are taking over more rebel-held territory. The fear that terror is not new. Part of the cycle that is now
Syria's reality, where parents don't know how to protect their children and life is little more than getting through the hours.
In a 10-day timespan this month, around 100 civilians were killed, a third of them children. In this video shot by the White Helmets in the Aleppo
countryside, a mother grimly picks through the dirt for the remains of her 14-year-old son Muhammad. She cries out.
There is no solace for this kind of pain, a pain felt by too many. Snippets of it blurred together in countless videos that have emerged over the last
nine years.
"May God not forgive you, Bashar," this woman cries out. The rescue worker runs past her screaming.
Where are they?
"Get out. Get out quickly," he yells at the children searching for the wounded. A woman is carried out, shouting. A child's corpse lies in the
rubble. The last rebel stronghold is being squeezed, suffocated by air and on the ground.
The physical and emotional effect on children, profound yet unaddressed. Those who make it, live in this filth. Lucky by comparison, even without
proper shoes or shelter, they are at least, for now, alive.
Despite declarations of ceasefires in name only and condemnations, it continues like a macabre movie on repeat, stealing childhoods before they
can even begin.
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ANDERSON: Arwa Damon has been reporting extensively on the Syrian conflict since the start. Tonight she joins me from Istanbul.
And, Arwa, once again to our shame, the world's shame, this is going on as life goes on pretty much as normal elsewhere.
Who is responsible for what you have just been reporting on?
DAMON: Well, I mean, Becky, look. At the forefront of all of it is the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad with the Russian backers and
then you have other players like the Turks and, to a lesser degree, the Iranians with a presence on the ground.
And what we are seeing is a by-product of the past nine years, where any power that had the capability to actually reduce the violence or end the
violence did not do so because they were all acting in their own interests or unwilling to take the necessary steps that would somehow bring about a
negotiated resolution, which is why the Syrian population in these rebel- held areas feel so abandoned, Becky.
And Syria faded from the spotlight a long time ago. And there's a sense among people that perhaps the violence has ended. It hasn't, as you saw in
that report. And the great fear for the population that is currently in Idlib is that that so-called safe space to run and hide is shrinking.
The regime is advancing faster than it has in the past. In the last two months or so this safe space, is all relative, of course, has shrunk by
about a third. You have a population of upward of 3 million people being squeezed even more.
ANDERSON: Arwa Damon tonight, out of Istanbul for you.
Folks, I want you to just hear a little more from Arwa's report now, certainly from the U.N. report. From both sides, from a victim and from a
fighter.
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ANDERSON: First, the words of a boy, a little boy, a child at the time, who watched his entire family be executed right in front of his very eyes.
Have a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I realized that my brother was shot in the head and neck. I witnessed how his soul left his body.
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ANDERSON: Those are words a child should never have to utter.
And now incredibly shocking what the U.N. describes as a person associated with a group fighting in Syria, telling them that sometimes the people
pulling the trigger are often just kids themselves.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The younger ones are very good fighters, they fight with enthusiasm and are fearless. Fighters who are 14
to 17 years old are on the front line.
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ANDERSON: I want to remind you of a few images that I know that you will remember. They are seared into our collective memories.
This is little Alan Kurdi. He was just 3 years old when he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea with his mother and brother trying to flee the civil war.
And Omran Daqneesh, who became the symbol of suffering in Aleppo, when images of him sitting in the back of an ambulance, bloodied and hurt, at 5
years old.
These images were taken four years ago, folks. And still today, children remain the forgotten victims of this bloody war. Do let's all think on
that.
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ANDERSON: Returning to our top story this hour, if you are just joining us, you are more than welcome. This is CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky
Anderson.
The director of the World Health Organization urging the international community to stop the Wuhan coronavirus in its tracks; 170 people have
died, more than 7,700 are sick and that is within China.
The WHO seemed to somewhat downplay the outbreak at first but it is reconvening the emergency committee as we speak, facing pressure to declare
a global health emergency once and for all. We are bringing you all the latest developments on this worldwide threat, both on TV and online.
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ANDERSON: A leader taking away some time from a trial that could see him pulled out of office to tout himself. We're not getting back to impeachment
for you at this point in the show.
We are actually sticking in this region of the Middle East because it's been quite the week for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scoring
a huge victory, it seems with the announcement of the Trump plan for Middle East peace on the same day that he was indicted back home on corruption
charges.
So he's moving full steam ahead, bolstering how he likes to position himself as a global statesman. Here's how.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): Stopping by Moscow for this warm welcome from the Russian president. The leaders talking about the Trump plan which the prime
minister hopes will finally put him over the top in Israel's third election in a year. That is, of course, in early March. And that would put him back
into office should he win.
Now he is not going back from Moscow alone. He'll be heading back with an American-Israeli woman who was pardoned by President Putin after she was
sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in Russia on a marijuana charge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Let's connect you to all of this. We do it like nobody else does. We are in Jerusalem and the West Bank, of course. Also tonight in
Moscow. And find out what is going on at the Kremlin.
Matthew Chance is with us from the Russian capital for that, Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem.
I want to start with Sam Kiley in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Sam, you are just back from a meeting with Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator for the Palestinians, should they be negotiating who could
potentially lead more or take a bigger role in the future.
What did you learn?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, notwithstanding the very loud motorcycle, we now have breaking news coming
from Saeb Erekat. The big question is what is the Palestinian Authority's reaction to the Trump proposals that give so much to Israel and have
greenlighted the annexation of the West Bank and the Jewish settlement -- sorry.
Annexation of the Jordan Valley and the Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Rather reluctantly he did admit at the end of the press conference
that a message had been sent from Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, threatening directly
to suspend security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis.
This would be a very dramatic development indeed. They work hand in glove, very -- oftentimes perhaps reluctantly but it is very much part of the
whole Oslo peace process, security cooperation for prevention of attacks on Israelis, including settlers on the West Bank, one of the principal areas
of attack but so that threat has been made.
That will come as almost a surprise to Palestinians who have been bereft of any kind of signals from their leadership until now. This is what I found
on the West Bank.
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KILEY (voice-over): A gloomy winter of Palestinian discontent made grimmer still by Donald Trump's new peace plan. It proposes that Jewish settlements
with the red roofs on the West Bank, which the U.N. says are illegally built on conquered land, to be handed immediately to Israel, leaving
neighboring Palestinians to work out their frustrations over their lost lands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is ours and all the land up there is ours. They're expanding more and more. This Trump plan legitimizes
stealing of our land. Nothing makes sense. Everything is getting worse and we have no more air to breathe.
KILEY (voice-over): For now, protests against the plan on the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in 1967, have been muted.
Leaving Ramallah and heading east, where the Israelis plan to take ownership of a vast amount of the ancient landscape.
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KILEY: In the next few days or weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex the Jordan Valley and the Jewish settlements on the West Bank but the
Jordan Valley is a huge area of territory and extends from Dead Sea down there, 80 to 90 miles, right up to the edge of the Sea of Galilee.
But in it are significant Palestinian populations, not least Jericho.
KILEY (voice-over): This is the world's most ancient continuously habituated city. And it's carrying on while others plan its future. There
are dire warnings of dangers to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We asked Palestinian people should go back to jihad. That should be our way of resistance. We should not be
afraid of Trump or Netanyahu or anyone. We should go back to our old ways of fighting. No more needless peaceful negotiations, which didn't bring us
any dignity or rights.
KILEY (voice-over): For now, the Palestinian leadership has fallen back on old slogans to deal with a radical new plan which could strip them of huge
swaths of land.
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MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT (through translator): The world should understand that the Palestinian people deserve to live and we
are committed to negotiations based on the international legitimacy. We will fight with all of our abilities and peacefully resist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILEY (voice-over): On the West Bank, though, resistance these days looks more like resignation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KILEY: Now Becky, Saeb Erekat said before that this plan or the Palestinian Authority will not survive contact with this plan if it goes
ahead. He's describing the potential for one-state, two-systems, calling it apartheid and in that context Mr. Erekat, who just walked past me, is
saying that the Palestinian Authority would collapse under the weight of that.
He is not saying when but he is saying it is inevitable -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes. That's fascinating. Some breaking news. Thank you, Sam. Some breaking news out of that meeting he's just been in. The message it
seems from the Palestinians sent to Benjamin Netanyahu, threatening directly to suspend security cooperation. You heard it here first.
Oren, what do you make of that?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The threat is one we have frankly heard quite a few times before. It is a crux of the relationship between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority and one that benefits both sides.
Additionally, it's facilitated by the United States, it helps in the West Bank to control Israel's enemies and crucially it helps to control the
enemies of the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah. It helps to control Hamas and other militant groups that oppose the governance of Fatah.
Certainly it has to be watched and I'm not sure Israel takes the threat seriously.
What will Israel do?
Israel plans to move forward with this plan. There's a question of when it plans to move forward with annexation of the Israeli settlements.
For now you would think it would be the settlers who are most excited about this plan. They get Israeli law and sovereignty applied to where they live
and American recognition of that.
But we spoke to one settler -- and this is an opinion shared by many -- that are hesitant about the plan though they see it as an opportunity to
move forward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): In the settlement of Kfar Adumim, Arieh Eldad stands to gain a lot.
ARIEH ELDAD, KFAR ADUMIM RESIDENT: This is the founding (ph) of the road.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Since its founding 41 years ago, his West Bank settlement has been considered illegally built on occupied territory.
TRUMP: They want peace and they want peace badly.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The White House's vision for peace would recognize this as Israel, even if no one else will. And yet he
ideologically opposes any plan calling for a Palestinian state.
LIEBERMANN: The Trump administration's vision, you vote in favor or against?
ELDAD: I vote in favor.
LIEBERMANN: Why?
ELDAD: Because all that in the plan will prevent a creation of a Palestinian state.
LIEBERMANN: Despite calling for one?
ELDAD: Oh, yes. That's politics. You call, you lie, you fake; the opposite.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): About 4,500 people live in the settlements along the ridge line. Among them, three of his children and 13 grandchildren.
Just last year, he says, the settlement began construction on the first new homes in a decade. He sees all of this land as undeniably Israel with the
religious and national right to live here.
Despite calling for a future state of Palestine, he accepts the White House plan, seeing this moment as a clash between ideology and politics.
ELDAD: Even though I know it's an ideological sin to say, yes, principally I support such a state.
[11:45:00]
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Critics say the White House's map for peace is an apartheid system subjecting Palestinians for a governance over which they
have no say. Eldad believes the West Bank Palestinians should have a right to vote but in Jordan, not Israel.
ELDAD: Why should be an apartheid state?
They can live wherever they want. They can go wherever they want. They can work in every -- only the issue of where do you vote for your parliament?
If you are citizens of another country, you vote for this parliament, not for our parliament.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Eldad sees little chance of anything happening soon. Promises to start a joint U.S.-Israel committee sound to him like a
plan to keep on planning.
It's a low resolution vision, he says, but one that doesn't guarantee the recognition he wants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIEBERMANN: Back to that question of timing of annexation. Netanyahu initially promised it would be coming on Sunday. Then one of the ministers
closest to him said it will be delayed by a few days for procedural reasons and now, based on statements from Jared Kushner, from secretary of state
Mike Pompeo and from U.S. ambassador to Israel David Freedman, it seems unclear when annexation is coming and perhaps Eldad's fear that it will be
put on hold is about to come true.
If it does and Netanyahu has to wait until after the elections, it may do far more damage to him politically before the March election than this plan
could have ever done to help him.
ANDERSON: That's fascinating. Oren, thank you for that.
Matthew, thank you for your patience, as you first stood by for two incredibly important perspective there, one from the Israelis and one from
the Palestinians. I want viewers to get another look, Matthew, at that American-Israeli backpacker smiling as she leaves Moscow with Benjamin
Netanyahu and his wife.
This was a diplomatic coup, it seems. Explain the perspective there in Moscow.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You're right. It is the first of a couple of diplomatic coups that Netanyahu can return
back to Israel with.
As he faces this acute political crisis in his own country, Naama Issachar, sort of backpacker, basically coming back from India on a plane that
transited through Russia in April last year. She was -- her bags were searched. They found marijuana inside and she was arrested and convicted of
drug smuggling and sentenced to 7.5 years.
There have been multiple appeals by Israeli officials, by the parents of here as well and finally that's borne fruit because last week when
President Putin of Russia was in Jerusalem attending the Holocaust anniversary commemorations, he met with the mother of this young lady and
said, everything would be fine.
Indeed, earlier today he issued that presidential decree, pardoning her and we understand she is going back on the plane tonight with Netanyahu, back
home to Israel.
ANDERSON: Matthew Chance is in Moscow. Sam is in the West Bank. Oren in Jerusalem for you.
Let's just step back for a second to remind ourselves of something on the main architect of the Trump plan, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.
He is a real estate developer by trade. A few days ago speaking to Sky News Arabia, he touted his credentials for putting together the plan, saying,,
quote, "I've been studying this now for three years. I have read 25 books on it. I have spoken to every leader in the region.
"I have spoken to everyone who's been involved in this."
I can tell you that on social media there is the following narrative, which goes something like, "Wow, he's read 25 books?"
That's been the reaction. Anyway, still to come, what in the world is this?
Is it even of our world?
More coming up.
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[11:50:00]
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ANDERSON: Right.
Do you know what time it is?
I do. It's pop quiz time. Next question -- what on Earth is this?
Liquid gold?
A brain?
Lava?
Well, forgive me. That was kind of a trick question.
What on Earth is this was the question because actually it is not on Earth. It is the sun. Yep, that bright, shiny, near blinding blob in the sky
actually looks like this up close. Each cell that you are looking at here, bigger than Afghanistan, each one.
It's a wild and violent terrain, bubbling, oozing and it is alive. And we are the first human beings ever to be able to see it like this, all thanks
to a brand new telescope.
Now next question, do you know what time it is?
It's time to say good night. I'm Becky Anderson. That was CONNECT THE WORLD and that was your week from us. See you on Sunday.
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