Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Mocktail Movement?; Georgia Students Return to Class After Shooting; Interview With Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 24, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:06]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, this right here is Southern Lebanon right near the border with Israel.

And today's exchange comes one day after Israel targeted the militant group. Lebanese authorities say more than 550 people were killed in the deadliest day of strikes in that country in nearly 20 years. And a short time ago, Israel confirmed that it launched this airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel calls it -- quote -- "a targeted strike."

Joining us now from the United Nations, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the U.N.

Thank you so much for joining us.

So, just in the last hour, in his address to the General Assembly, President Biden called for restraint in Israel's fight against Hezbollah. As you know, yesterday was the single deadliest day in Lebanon since 2006. Do you consider this conflict an all-out war now between Israel and Hezbollah?

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Pamela, we have no desire for escalation with Hezbollah or with Lebanon.

But at the same time, a year after the attack of October 7 and the attack that followed from Hezbollah against Israel, we cannot sit idly by and wait for diplomacy. As we speak, we continue with diplomatic efforts, but we are also taking measures to degrade the capabilities of Hezbollah that they will not be able to continue and attack Israel.

And the end goal is very clear. We want to make sure that Hezbollah will obey Security Council Resolution 1701 and will move to the northern part, not next to our border. Once it will happen, either through diplomacy or through military action, we will have no issues with Hezbollah or Lebanon.

BROWN: A senior State Department official here in the U.S. said that there is skepticism on the U.S. part that this escalate to de-escalate strategy as it pertains to Hezbollah will be effective.

Why is Israel so confident that it will achieve its goals and not cause a bigger escalation or conflict, as you say it is trying to avoid?

DANON: You know, we are not in a position just to wait and see what Hezbollah will try to do or will decide.

We have waited for more than 11 months. And now we decided to bring our residents who left their homes -- they're refugees, about 70,000 Israelis who left their homes in northern part of Israel -- to bring them back to their communities. In order to do that, we're going to push back. That's what we are doing.

I hope that maybe the Lebanese government will be able to put the pressure on Hezbollah and to avoid a full conflict. We know what Lebanon will look like if there would be a full conflict with Israel. I think it will be bad for the Lebanese people and I hope it will not happen.

BROWN: It's interesting too. I just read a study out, though, that many of those residents who lived in Northern Israel, they don't want to go back because they're concerned about security and other issues there.

And I'm wondering. As you talk about you hope the Lebanon government will put pressure, has the -- when it comes to a potential ground invasion in Lebanon, the Israeli military has not ruled out that possibility. What can you tell us about that and whether it's an option that is still being seriously considered?

DANON: So, as I said earlier, we prefer the diplomatic approach. And now we're putting pressure and we have the means and capabilities to put pressure on Hezbollah.

They will feel it. They are feeling it as we speak. If that will not help, we will discuss other options. But I think our interest is not to invade Lebanon. Our interest is not to go back to the days when we had to send our boys and girls to fight inside Lebanon.

We prefer a different solution. But at the same time, in our region, unfortunately, when you show weakness, your enemies, they are emboldened and attack you more. That's why what we are doing today, we are stretching our muscles, and we are proving to the Hezbollah that they cannot continue with those attacks.

BROWN: So, is Israel then willing to accept a deal in Lebanon if Hezbollah pulls all of its forces back from the border? And, if so, how far? What would that look like? Is that enough?

DANON: Absolutely.

Pamela, last Friday, we had a discussion here in the Security Council, and I approached the minister of foreign affairs of Lebanon. And I told him we can make a deal in one hour. We have no dispute about territory or resources.

We even signed a deal with Lebanon a few years ago about energy and natural gas. We solved all those issues. But we know the main problem is Hezbollah. So I think, if the Lebanese government will be able to put the right pressure on Hezbollah, we can avoid this war. That's exactly what we want.

That's what the majority of the Lebanese people want. I don't know if they are capable of doing it, because Hezbollah, they are holding the government very tight. And, unfortunately, they get orders from Iran.

The leader from Iran is speaking here at the U.N. But at the same time he gets the applauses here, he is instructing Hezbollah to continue with the war against Israel.

[11:35:07]

BROWN: I want to get your reaction to President Biden's speech. We heard him give his last speech as president to the U.N. And he talked about Israeli violence against the Palestinians in the West Bank and the need for a two-state solution. He did not mince words on that part.

What is your reaction to what you heard from President Biden?

DANON: First, we appreciate the support of the United States, our closest ally, especially at a time when we are fighting evil. So we appreciate the position of the U.S.

We didn't support everything he said, but that's legitimate. You know, we have discussions. We share with our colleagues in Washington our concerns.

BROWN: What do you not support?

DANON: No, you can imagine that when one called for a cease-fire, we have the hostages in Gaza. And he mentioned the hostages a few times in his speech. And we appreciate that.

But, today, if someone can release the hostages, we can discuss cease- fire. But, unfortunately, diplomacy has its limits. And even with the good will of the U.S. and other international players, you cannot influence Hamas to release hostages or to accept agreements that were proposed.

President Biden and his team proposed a few agreements. We said yes in May. We said May -- in August. And if there will be another proposal, we will look into it. But, unfortunately, Hamas is not willing to negotiate any agreement with Israel.

BROWN: Ambassador Danny Danon, thank you so much for your time.

DANON: Thank you very much, Pamela.

BROWN: And let's continue this conversation. Joining us now is CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. And he is a former U.S. army commanding general for Europe and the Seventh Army.

General, it's interesting because one of the first questions I asked is, is this war now between Hezbollah and Israel? He clearly does not want to say it is war, that he made it very clear that Israel does not want this to escalate into what he views as a war. But I'm wondering how you see it. Is this the start of another war

between Hezbollah and Israel?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's certainly a conflict, Pamela, and it's very difficult to not call it a war because there are fires going on from both sides.

It's a rocket attack followed by Hezbollah rocket attack followed by strikes from Israel to hit those rocket locations and also to hit the leadership of Hezbollah. So it certainly is an escalation of a conflict. I don't think we're classifying it as a war yet because there is no ground and air campaign, per se. But, certainly, it has the potential for that.

BROWN: I'm wondering, how concerned are you about Iran getting more involved in this? At this point, when you look at what Israel is going through, it is squeezed on every side, given the war in Gaza as well. That war is raging. You have this escalating conflict with Hezbollah and you have Hezbollah being Iran's proxy.

What is your concern there?

HERTLING: Well, there's a lot of Iranian proxies in the area, Pamela, as you well know, not only Hezbollah, but also Hamas, but also the PMF forces in Iraq and Syria, also the Houthis in Yemen.

All of them make for a tough neighborhood for Israel. And when we talk about Israel's strike -- and I think the focus of attention has been primarily -- you showed a map earlier that showed all the strike locations by the Israeli air force.

But we don't seem to consider the amount of rocket launches that are coming out of Lebanon toward -- that's the map I'm talking about -- coming out toward Israel. This morning, as I get sitreps every day from the area, situation reports from the area, there were 50 launches inside of Lebanon toward Israeli territory before 9:00.

There was another 10 rockets launched into Israel between 9:00 and 10:00. So you're seeing the reaction of the Israeli Defense Forces against those kinds of strikes. They shouldn't be just accepting these rockets launching into the area.

And, as you said a minute ago and the ambassador said, there had been close to 80,000 citizens that have been taken out of that area. Some of them, as you said, aren't going to go back and it's because of the tension that continues between the Lebanese and the Israeli border.

BROWN: All right, General Mark Hertling, always great to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

HERTLING: Thanks, Pamela.

BROWN: Still ahead this hour: Students at Apalachee High School are returning to the classroom today, very emotional because it's weeks after that deadly shooting there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALAYSIA MITCHELL, STUDENT: It's hard to sleep. It's hard to eat. But I know I'm safe. I know I'm protected. But I wish I'd never seen that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:58]

BROWN: This morning, students are back in class at Georgia's Apalachee High School. It's been nearly three weeks since one of their classmates shot and killed four people in the deadliest school shooting of the year.

It will be a gradual reopening with half-days and shortened classes for the next two weeks. Some students, understandably, are still uneasy about returning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRI JONES, STUDENT: I'm a little scared to go back in just because it's going to replay. Like, I remember everything that happened.

ARMANDO MARTINEZ, STUDENT: It's going to impact us very hard. I mean, we're never going to let this go. We're not going to forget it. We can't forget it, really, even if you try.

ZOE GRAY, STUDENT: It's something you never think will happen. Like, you pray about it every day, like, lord, just let me go to school safe. And then there's...

DIANNA MORENO, STUDENT: It's just a scary moment. I mean, you're like, ever since that happened, you just have to be cautious about your surroundings. And it's just scary going to sleep.

SAMIRA BARNETT, STUDENT: We went to school with no worry in the world, going there, having fun and stuff, you know. And so the fact that these kids went to school thinking, oh, it's going to be a regular day.

Apalachee is a school. Winder is a good community, and then this happened. Like, it was rough.

[11:45:10]

MITCHELL: I still see my teacher. I do. It's hard to sleep. It's hard to eat. But I know I'm safe. I know I'm protected. But I wish I'd never seen that.

When you walk in fear, you're not going to be able to focus or anything like that. It's going to be hard walking on that hallway, passing by my teacher's classroom. It's going to be hard. I'm not going to say that I'm going to be the strongest person ever, but it is going to be hard for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I want to bring in CNN's Ryan Young.

I mean, just imagine how hard it would be, right, for these students, as that young student was just talking about it, and all the emotion as these classes resume today. Tell us about that.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam, I got to thank your team for putting that together.

Hearing those voices before this live shot hits you, because you understand, especially for those of us who've been covering this nonstop, talking to those kids, you realize they're talking like adults. They're dealing with something that's so very painful.

You're talking about the loss of classmates and teachers, people that you look up to. All day today, we saw sort of this weird dance between parents dropping their kids off, sort of looking at them as they walked out of the car. We saw school buses coming this direction with all the police officers and extra security here.

Then you saw all these therapy dogs that were being brought into the school. And one of the parts of emotion here at 8:30, when they did the Pledge of Allegiance, we could hear it. And you can see this big school behind us. You could hear that Pledge of Allegiance being read, and then the emotion from the principal as she was walking the students back, basically saying she was there for them and the fact that they were heroes in the hallways.

And you could just understand how this community is trying to bring itself back together. About a week ago, I talked to a student who got hit by shrapnel as he tried to keep the door closed to stop the shooter from getting into his classroom. Take a listen to him talking about that pain of knowing what was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALDO VEGA, STUDENT: Mason...

YOUNG: Yes.

VEGA: ... he was in the hall. I was going to arrest him after him. And he passed. And then it was Christian.

YOUNG: Wow. So Mason was in your class?

VEGA: That could have been me or worse.

YOUNG: Wow.

VEGA: I don't know pretty much what's going to happen next.

YOUNG: Yes.

VEGA: But I was going to see if I could go to the funeral of the friend. YOUNG: You really want to be there?

VEGA: I want to go see their parents to tell them what happened.

YOUNG: Wow. That's important to you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: You understand these kids are being asked to do something that even adults have never had to do.

Every single memorial they have had in this community, a lot of people have turned out. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to the families, but still there's so much healing that has to be done in this community, Pam. Today is the first step really with them going back to school. Even if it's for a half-day, some kids will hopefully get some normalcy back.

BROWN: Yes, hopefully, but as we heard from the one student say, you're not going to be able to forget what happened and running it through your mind and all the trauma that they went through. We're just thinking about them today and wishing them all the best.

Ryan Young, thank you.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:43]

BROWN: Well, many Americans have started swapping cocktails for mocktails as a way to cut back on alcohol.

Nonalcoholic drinks are not only showing up on restaurant menus, but popping up in bottle shops around the country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on call to talk more about the zero-proof movement.

I got to say, after going through three pregnancies, Sanjay, I had a lot of mocktails and they're pretty good. Some of the nonalcoholic beers actually taste like beer and this is an industry that's expanding and becoming more popular.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no question about it. Congratulations on the three kids, by the way. That's amazing.

BROWN: Thanks.

GUPTA: It is really interesting.

I think this is primarily being driven by Gen Z, Pamela. So, 61 percent of people in Gen Z say that they are choosing mocktails more in pursuit of good health, while still wanting to be social. But if you look across the country overall, about 41 percent of people saying that they want to start cutting back on their drinking.

So these numbers have been going up pretty steadily. And if you look how that translates then to purchasing of mocktails and no- or low- alcohol drinks, it's been going up very steadily as well. So you can see the numbers there, going up about 30 percent every year, expected to be a billion dollars sort of within the next few years, which is pretty incredible overall.

We talked to the folks at Athletic Beer -- you may have seen this product before. They said this. We looked into this.2018, they brewed 800 barrels of beer, last year, 170,000 barrels of beer. So it is a growing industry, for sure, some areas of it growing more than others.

Two important points. first of all About 68 percent of people say that they would still occasionally drink alcohol, so they're not totally upstanding from alcohol. And 93 percent of people who buy any of these low- or no-alcohol products are still often buying alcoholic products as well.

So we're sort of in this phase of transition in some ways,what people are calling the desire for intermittent sobriety. But it is a fast- moving sort of trend and it's driven, again, by some of the youngest in our generation.

BROWN: Which is so interesting, right, that it's some of the youngest in the generation that are really embracing this trend.

But how much healthier are these nonalcoholic drinks?

[11:55:03]

GUPTA: Yes. That's the question.

I mean, first of all, I will say that alcohol, in and of itself, I mean, there's no amount of alcohol that's good for you. I think that this has been a common refrain now for several years from the scientific community.

But let me show you quickly when it comes to Heineken, for example, this side-by-side comparison, alcohol, no alcohol, fewer calories, but more carbs. That should be sort of the headline for you. Are you willing to trade the alcohol for a few more carbs? They add more sugar to give it that flavor.

I think that's what a lot of people sort of are -- that's the decision point for them.

BROWN: All right, Dr. Sanjay, it's great to see you as always.

GUPTA: You got it.

BROWN: And don't forget to submit your questions. You can use the Q.R. code on your screen, and we will have Sanjay back to answer them later this week.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Pamela Brown. You can follow me on Instagram or X @PamelaBrownCNN.

And be sure to stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.