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Can Truce in the Middle East Last?; Second U.S. Ebola Patient Arrives in Atlanta Soon; James Brady Dies at 73

Aired August 05, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With a cease-fire now in place, Israel says it will send a delegation to those peace talks in Cairo but only if Hamas honors the truce.

Reza Sayah is in Cairo to tell us more. You said there was a feeling of optimism. It sounds promising.

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, cautious optimism. It's 5:30 p.m. here in Cairo. We're still waiting for the Israeli delegation to arrive here in Cairo. They have yet to get here. But it's no cause for alarm according to the parties involved because Israel has made it clear that they have signed on to the cease-fire and they will come once they are convinced that this cease-fire is going to hold. Once that happens, ideally, they come here, they start negotiating with the Palestinians. Like all negotiations, it's going to take both sides compromising and maybe most importantly it's going to take both sides easing some of the anger and the sheer animosity and that's naturally tough to do when you've had such a difficult four weeks when so many people have lost so much.

The Palestinian delegation is already here. This is the delegation that arrived over the weekend and crafted the cease-fire proposal with the Egyptian government. The Egyptian government in turn conveyed it to the Israelis last night. Eventually the Israelis said yes.

Again, we're waiting for the Israelis to get here -- cautious optimism because we've seen this scenario before. We've also seen it falling apart, but this time you get the sense that both sides are serious, that there is a chance to, one, end the blood shed, and two, perhaps start talking about a lasting truce that has been very elusive on both sides.

Whenever these two sides have sat down, they have laid out their conditions but neither side has met those conditions. Israel obviously wants Hamas to disarm. They want to demilitarize Gaza. The Palestinians have said that's a non-starter. The Palestinians and Hamas, they want Israel to lift the blockade, to open some of the crossed borders, exits and entries and they say they just want a semblance of a dignified life and so far they haven't had that.

All of that is going to be on the table -- Carol -- once the Israeli delegations get here and that's why all eyes are on Cairo in the coming hours and days to see how this all unfolds. COSTELLO: And Reza, Hamas will be at the table?

SAYAH: Hamas will be at the table. They sent a couple of representatives over the weekend -- at least two other members from Gaza are making their way here to Cairo, according to Palestinian television. I think everyone agrees, without Hamas here in Cairo being part of the negotiations, these talks wouldn't go forward because, of course, this is one side of the warring factions.

They are not necessarily going to be sitting across from the table from the Israelis, but they will be here in Egypt.

COSTELLO: All right. Reza Sayah reporting live from Cairo Egypt this morning.

In spite of the talks that may or may not take place in Egypt, not many people believe there will actually be peace in the Middle East? Why? Intense hatred.

Listen to what the Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said. Actually I'll read it for you. Quote, "We all remember how the Jews used to slaughter Christians in order to mix their blood in their holy matzoh. This is not a figment of the imagination or something taken from a film. It is a fact acknowledged by their own books and historical evidence", end quote.

Wolf Blitzer pressured Hamdan to take back what he said. It did not go well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm going to remind you what you said. I'm going to play it in Arabic. Here's what you said --

OSAMA HAMDAN, SPOKESMAN FOR HAMAS: I know what I've said. Wolf --

BLITZER: I want to play this for you -- just listen to this and then you'll explain what you mean.

HAMDAN: I know --

BLITZER: Let's play the tape.

Do you believe that Jews used to slaughter Christians to mix their blood to --

HAMDAN: You cut the words. Not you. The Israelis. In mEmory, they cut the facts and they start this propaganda to say that they are innocent. They want to cover the genocide which is happening in Gaza now.

We don't have a problem with the Jews as they are Jewish people. In fact, we believe in Moses, we believe in Jesus, we believe in Mohammed. We respect them all -- the three of them the same and we believe that everyone has the right to choose his religion. We are all from Adam, but the people who are talking about genocide

against the Palestinians must be questioned and asked because they are saying that and doing that at the same time.

BLITZER: I was hoping to get a flat denial from you that you would utter such ridiculous words that Jews would kill Christians in order to cues their blood to bake matzoh?

HAMDAN: Wolf, Wolf, you have to be fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Peter Beinart is a CNN political commentator and a columnist for Haaretz; Larry Sabato is the director at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Welcome to you both.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, HE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Peter I'll start with you. Perhaps Hamas has to learn better PR but that was a hateful thing to say. So you have to wonder, is there any point to Hamas being anywhere near the table in Cairo, Egypt?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think tragically some of the ancient currents of anti Semitism that mostly have their roots in Europe have infected the Middle East and in this case, Hamas. This terrible, terrible libel about Jews using blood for matzoh during the Holiday Passover is absurd and hateful stuff has unfortunately infected some of the Palestinian discourse.

But Hamas is a political reality. The question about it for Israel I think is how do you politically weaken Hamas? You can destroy Hamas military arsenal. But Hamas is also a political challenge. And so I think the strategy for Israel has to be how do you strengthen those Palestinians who believe in nonviolence, who have accepted Israel's right to exist?

When you continue to subsidize settlement growth, you weaken them and you make people like Hamaz militants who have not accepted Israel's right to exist, who launch these terrible rockets, you make their position stronger. So I think the way to weaken Hamas is to have a political strategy to strengthen Hamas's moderate adversaries.

COSTELLO: And what might that political strategy be.

BEINART: It would be to show that Israel is open to a Palestinian state near the 1967 lines? That it's not going to continue to massively subsidize settlement growth as this government has done. I think that would strengthen Mahmoud Abbas who is the main rival to Hamas.

COSTELLO: So Larry, the former President Jimmy Carter he has a different take. He wrote an op-ed for "Foreign Policy Magazine" and he writes in part quote, "Ending this war in Gaza begins with recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor", as Peter said. "There must also be an opportunity for the teachers, police, and welfare and health workers on the Hamas payroll to be paid."

Now the question is the United States certainly considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization. So is that the way to go?

SABATO: Well, of course, Jimmy Carter had the great Camp David agreements and deserves full historical credit for that. That's one of the few bright spots in Middle East history since World War II. Having said that I think it's probably true that most Israelis see Jimmy Carter as being pro-Palestinian. He believes in a two-state solution which may be the right solution in the long run.

You know, I just don't see very much changing. I salute Peter and others for finding rays of sunshine somehow in all of this, but, you know, if you are perverse enough to want to be depressed, all you have to do is focus on the Middle East. It's eternally depressing because it's so difficult to see how you break out of current patterns.

Even in the United States, it is very difficult for the political alignments here to change. Jewish Americans vote Democratic about 75 percent of the time. Democrats overwhelmingly support Israel. Why would Republicans be more open to Palestinians? Because part of their base constituency is Evangelical Christians who are even more pro Israel because of biblical and doctrinal reasons. So it's hard to see the alignments here changing. It's hard to see the hatred in the Middle East changing very much.

COSTELLO: Well, Larry, you always hear about these polls that younger Americans don't strongly support Israel as older Americans do. Does that matter?

SABATO: Well, you are absolutely correct. Recent Gallup polls showed that people under 30 are much more inclined to be balanced and to be even sympathetic to Hamas and critical of Israel. Of course, unlike the enormous baby boom generation, they don't have the memories of say the 1967 War or the 1973 War and so on.

Still, I think that ought to be of concern to Israel and even the two big American parties because those young people, if it continues with people who are currently in their teens, if that continues, then there could be a basic change in American policy toward Israel.

COSTELLO: Ok. So I'm going to be a little more optimistic then, Larry. Peter you are showing a little bit of hope anyway. There are those who believe that other Arab nations are turning against Hamas and they're like silently supporting Israel. Will that change things?

BEINART: It's true. Because of that hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood in many Arab capitals, that translates into a hostility to Hamas because Hamas was born as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. But ultimately those Arab governments also can't get rid of Hamas. I mean the being against Hamas. The tragic reality is I think this war has probably strengthened Hamas. Hamas was very weak before it is a war partly because they're not doing a good job of governing in Gaza. They weren't producing results.

Now they have this image to some in the Palestinian world of having stood up and fought against Israel. Hamas had even accepted a Palestinian unity government. It's important that I want to get the distinction clear. Hamas as a party does not accept Israel's right to exist. But Hamas had been willing to sign on to a Palestinian unity government led by Mahmoud Abbas and Abbas said that unity government does accept Israeli's right to exist.

I think there was the best political strategy which is to say, let Abbas negotiate with the unity government behind him. Then tell Hamas that -- Hamas has been willing to say they would accept the will of the Palestinian people in a referendum on a two-state solution. They don't support the two-state solution but they would accept the will of their people in a referendum.

That, I think, is the best way to get a legitimate two-state agreement and ultimately the further you get toward peace and the end of this occupation and strengthening those Palestinians who believe in mutual co-existence and nonviolence, the more you weaken militants like Hamas.

COSTELLO: Ok. So I'm back to depressed like Larry.

Peter Beinart, Larry Sabato -- thanks so much. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are just moments away from the second ebola American patient landing in Georgia for treatment. You are looking live at Dobbins Air Reserve Base just outside of Atlanta. That's where the plane will be landing. Actually, her flight stopped in Maine to refuel and to be inspected. Then it's going to fly on to Dobbins. It will land there shortly. And then an ambulance will take Nancy Writebol to Emory University Hospital.

Let's get right there -- that's where CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is. Sanjay -- just a little bit ago, actually why don't we start with Writebol. What's ahead for her? What will happen once that ambulance arrives at the hospital?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think pretty quickly she's going to be taken up to this isolation unit, the same place where her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly is already. This is the unit designed to help isolate people with infectious diseases.

And you know, the other thing is she's probably going to be assessed. What impact has this virus had on her body? Check things like her kidney function or liver function and get an idea of her overall health. I was talking to the doctors a couple of days ago. They didn't know some of that information. So I think they're going to want answers to some questions before sort of deciding how to proceed.

We also know her family is here -- Carol. I'm sure they're going to want to see her. They're probably going to make some time for that as well.

COSTELLO: How will her family be able to see her because isn't the patient kept in isolation? GUPTA: Yes. It's a really interesting process actually. If you

think about the isolation area, the walls are -- at least a few of the walls are glass, so you can go up, you can see the person that's inside the isolation area, and then there's intercoms and phones for the person to talk. So we know, for example Dr. Kent Brantly who is already in the isolation unit which is in the hospital here behind me and was able to have a 45-minute conversation with his wife in that manner.

It's not the same obviously. You are not right there. But you are able to see and hear the person -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, I was talking about this with one of my producers last night how difficult it would be when you have this frightening disease, Ebola, and your family is unable to sit beside your bed and hold your hand.

GUPTA: Yes. You know, and another thing about it, I heard from the Brantly family that representatives for them said that they didn't know how he was going to be when he landed here, when he got off the ambulance and they saw him walking. It was the first sort of idea that they had that he was doing, I think, better than they thought. You keep in mind that they had heard from Dr. Brantly when he was in Liberia that at one point he was pretty close to death.

So this is the first time they are really going to see them. They have been wondering for a long time is my loved one, how are they doing, are they going to live or die? All of those questions I'm sure have been circulating. So I think it makes it even more difficult that they can't sit right there.

But no doubt, I think they understand. Again, this is taking the 10,000-foot view. This is an infection that is not transmitted through the air, but it can be transmitted by someone who is sick with ebola to someone who is close through bodily fluids. Bodily fluids getting on the other person's skin even -- so. That's the precaution. That's what needs to be done -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And of course, that's why British Airways is canceling all flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone. But I know you just flew back from guinea, right, where the situation is much worse more with ebola. So when you got on board the plane, what happened? Was there anything special that took place?

GUPTA: It was a fairly straightforward screening process. I mean most people don't go through this, but they simply took our temperature. They had a device which it wasn't an oral thermometer, but just a device that actually took the skin temperature and made a guess at what the core body temperature is.

We filled out a questionnaire, talking about what we had been doing, and based on that, mostly the temperature, they allowed us to get on the plane. If you had a fever, that was going to raise the concern, but if you didn't, that was basically the extent of it.

COSTELLO: And I'll ask you one more time, so if you happen to be on board a plane and someone infected is sitting beside you, how likely is it that you would catch ebola from that person?

GUPTA: Well, you know, I think one of the first things you have to ask is the person sick, and you know, by sick, usually quite sick before someone starts to shed virus into their bodily fluid. So again if the screening process worked and if the person had a fever; for example out of Guinea, they probably wouldn't be getting on that plane. So you wouldn't be sitting next to a sick person with ebola. But let's say you'd been sitting next to someone who'd been exposed to ebola but wasn't yet having symptoms. Now that person while they may have been exposed, they're not going to be shedding the virus yet, so you are not likely to catch it from that person because the virus isn't being transmitted in any way.

I think it's really remote. Even for that patient in New York yesterday which we're awaiting testing of, they went back and said, ok, cab -- that he may have been in cab drivers, people that he may have sat next to on a subway, people he may have sat next to on a plane -- are they at risk. And their conclusion was no, they weren't going back and trying to isolate those people and find those people? Family members who had had close contact with him, yes, they wanted to check their temperature and continue checking it for 21 days to make sure they didn't have any signs of ebola infection.

By the way, his test results are now back. We're hearing now -- as you may know Carol, there's a very good chance that they will come back negative. He just didn't seem to fit the pattern for someone who has ebola. He wasn't in contact with people who were sick with ebola. So just despite the fact that he had flown back from West Africa and has a fever, that doesn't mean in any way he actually has the disease. There's a lot of reasons someone can get sick during that sort of travel.

COSTELLO: Right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks as always. We'll be checking in with you throughout the morning as we get closer to Nancy Writebol's arrival.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: James Brady's life changed in an instant in 1981 when he stepped in front of a bullet meant for President Reagan. Brady partially paralyzed by the shooting would go from White House press secretary to a leading figure against gun violence. James Brady died yesterday at the age of 73.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is one of the most enduring images in American history. President Ronald Reagan shot outside as Washington D.C. hotel. Gunman John Hinckley set out to assassinate Reagan. But Press Secretary Jim Brady took a bullet meant for the President, robbing the White House spokesman of his ability to speak the way he once did.

But Brady's brain damage and paralysis did the talking for him as he and his wife Sarah became leading advocates for gun control lobbying for legislation that became known as the Brady Bill, imposing waiting periods for handgun purchases and eventually establishing a system of background checks on gun buyers for the first time.

Brady's Republican boss backed his efforts.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I happen to believe in the Brady Bill because we have that same thing in California right now.

BASH: He faced steep opposition especially from the NRA.

JAMES BRADY, FMR. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY, REAGAN ADMINISTRATION: They're going to throw every road block in the way they can to derail this speeding freight train.

BASH: In 1993 -- success, the Brady Bill became law.

In 2011, the 38th anniversary of being shot, Brady made an emotional return to the White House briefing room.

In fact, this room was dedicated to James Brady. It was named in his honor so that the White House Press Corps and the spokespeople who work here everyday will always remember him.

Remember the man Brady was before he was shot, clever banter with reporters.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He is somebody who I think who really revolutionized this job.

BASH: And for Brady's enduring current with his trademark thumbs up.

Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: James Brady dead at the age of 73.

Checking some top stories for you at 58 minutes past, tomorrow at Port Sam Houston in San Antonio, the army will begin asking Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl what led to his capture by the Taliban. Bergdahl was held for five years before being freed in May in a controversial swap for five high ranking Taliban prisoners. Some of Bergdahl's fellow soldiers have accused him of deserting.

Will Jodi Arias live or die? That's pretty much in her hands now. A Phoenix judge warned Arias it's not a good idea but he is allowing here to represent herself in next month's penalty phase of the trial for the murdering her ex-boyfriend. Arias has no legal experience, not even a college degree. She was convicted last year, but the jury could not decide on a sentence.

The founder of the Miami Clinic tied to performance enhancing drug within Major League Baseball, players like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun has surrendered to the DEA. Tony Boch is charged along with 10 other people. The charges include illegally defending PEDs and other illegal substances. Nine of the dependents will appeal in court later this afternoon.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA, after a break.