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CNN Live Saturday

Interview with David Grange

Aired May 04, 2002 - 22:07   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon travels to Washington next Tuesday, to meet with President Bush. He'll be pushing a peace plan, which calls for buffer zones between Israel and Palestinians. And with his perspective on the Mid East peace prospects, we're joined by CNN military analyst and retired general David Grange. He's joining us from Chicago.

Hey, general, you dressed up for me tonight.

DAVID GRANGE: Well, we have a fundraiser tonight for the off the street club kids in Chicago.

CALLAWAY: Thanks for being with us and for pulling yourself away from that fundraiser tonight to talk about this. Want to start with this proposal that involved the buffer zone. A lot of questions about this and some of the complications that it would involve to monitor a buffer zone. Who, and who would finance it, how it would be done. What do you think?

GRANGE: Well, it could be financed by Israel itself or with, of course, aid from the international community, especially the United States of America. The key thing in a buffer zone is, I believe the plan is about five kilometers in depth, that runs along the West Bank and some other areas in Israel is that it cannot appear to become the perception that it appears to become a border between two countries, because that's not the case. It's one country with the areas that Palestinian people live in.

So that has to be worked very carefully. So that doesn't come about.

CALLAWAY: How do you think that it work realistically? I mean, it sounds like a great idea, but as a general, what do you think?

GRANGE: Yes, well, it's tough to set those up. You know in the Balkans, we have what we call zones of separation between the different factions, Muslims, Croatians, Serbs. And then of course, Kosovo, it's the same thing, but with only two factions. And basically, within that zone of separation, someone controls that. It may be the Israeli military. It could be an international force. And people have to get permission to enter one side, go through and exit the other side.

And of course, the reason is to try to keep access to suicide bombers down to go into other places within Israel to set off the demolitions.

CALLAWAY: Well, what about if we go passed the demilitarized -- to the zone -- to an incursion into that area, you know, would that be allowed? And how would that take place?

GRANGE: You mean, within the zone itself?

CALLAWAY: Right.

GRANGE: Well, within the zone itself, if whoever's enforcing the zone, whoever has that responsibility, would have the authority to arrest, detain, or to shoot those personnel that are in the zone.

CALLAWAY: What do you think's going to come out of this meeting between Ariel Sharon and President Bush?

GRANGE: Well, they're going to try to work out several things. But you know, there's four key things, in my opinion, that are -- cannot be changed. One, the security of Israel has to be maintained. It's a -- the only democracy in that part of the world. It's an ally. It has to be maintained. Second, we have to assist the international community in keeping a war down between the Muslim countries in the area and Israel.

Second, we have to continue to work with the Arab states in the area, to try to figure out some type of solution. And you know, this is not just between the Palestinian people and Israel. There's a lot of Arab countries that have a responsibility as well to work this out.

CALLAWAY: Mm-hmm. And speaking of working things out, it's not looking good at the Church of the Nativity. What can be done? This has gone on so long now?

GRANGE: Well, they're going to continue with negotiations. And these type of operations when you have the terrorist element involved, especially in a site like this, that collateral damage would be devastating to the world, to the Christian faith. They're going to continue to negotiate and have the patience, but if they -- if it's required, there's no doubt in my mind that they would go in and take them militarily if they would have to.

CALLAWAY: And we just saw the report where the bomb factory was found, the so-called bombed factory was found not too far from there, after an explosion nearby. Are we going to see this heat up before it's all over?

GRANGE: I think you'll see more of this. That could've been an explosion that went off by mistake with someone preparing a bomb or it may have been just set off on a timer at a certain time. But this is going to continue on because you have some hardcore Jihad organizations, Hamas, that are going to continue regardless of what negotiations take place. They're going to continue with this terror campaign.

CALLAWAY: Brigadier General David Grange. Thank you so much for being with us and we apologize for pulling you away from that charity event, but we certainly appreciate your insights tonight.

GRANGE: My pleasure. Thank you.

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