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CNN Live At Daybreak

Conflict in the Middle East: Latest Cease-Fire Falls Apart

Aired July 19, 2001 - 08:20   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Technically, they're not being called peacekeepers, but foreign ministers from the eight largest industrialized nations are talking about having neutral international observers in the Middle East to monitor the peace process.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. It is an attempt to stop the violence between Israelis and Palestinians after the latest cease-fire sort of crashed before it ever really got off the ground.

Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna now has some perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): A former U.S. senator, George Mitchell, drew up the report intended to break the cycle of violence. The director of the CIA, George Tenet, secured the agreement of both sides on a cease-fire plan intended to pave the way for the implementation of the Mitchell recommendations.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell came to the region to bolster the cease-fire and introduce a new concept: a seven-day violence-free period as a start point to the whole process, leaving the adjudication of when the period started and ended to the Israeli prime minister alone.

The violence continued. The Palestinian Authority argued the seven-day period had been and gone. The Israelis said they hadn't even started counting -- proof, said the U.N.'s regional representative two weeks ago, the seven-day concept had failed.

ROED-LARSEN, U.N. MIDDLE EAST ENVOY: Neither parties are conducting a dance of mortal dangers at the brink of the abyss, swinging back and forth, moving from crisis to crisis.

HANNA: The intense violence of recent days starkly affirming the cease-fire is dead; a seven-day violence-free period an unattainable ideal; the political confidence-building measures that George Mitchell saw as critical to achieving a lasting cessation of hostilities mere words on paper.

GHASSEN KATIB, PALESTINIAN MILITARY ANALYST: We now are living the disastrous consequences of the failure approach of Colin Powell. And it's not late to correct this mistake by taking Mitchell report as whole, including all its security and nonsecurity components, including these articles that are beneficial for the Israeli side and these are -- the others that are useful and necessary for the Palestinian side.

HANNA: But the Sharon government insists the Mitchell report will not be implemented until the violence stops. There is no talk of negotiation, only about containment of violence.

DORE GOLD, SHARON ADVISER: This is now a borderless conflict. And the Palestinians are trying to turn all of Israel into ground zero. And all our civilians could be affected, which I think puts -- places great burden on the government of Israel to provide the people of Israel with the defense they need. And I think that is going to be the approach you're going to be seeing in the days ahead.

HANNA: The further deployment of Israeli forces in the West Bank Wednesday: a tangible sign of this approach.

(on camera): The Mitchell plan intertwined three pillars: political, economic and security. But months after both sides accepted the recommendations, after repeated U.S. efforts to implement them, there is, in Israel, talk only of security.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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