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CNN Live At Daybreak

Conflict in the Middle East: Cabinet Member Rehavam Zeevi Assassinated

Aired October 17, 2001 - 07:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A Cabinet member who led a right wing party at odds with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was ambushed and gunned down today inside a Jerusalem hotel. A hard-line Palestinian group has now claimed responsibility. The assassination could pose a threat to the already tenuous U.S.-Arab alliance to fight terrorism.

For more on that, we go to CNN's Jerrold Kessel, in Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Less than two hours after the early morning attack on the controversial Israeli Cabinet minister, doctors at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, to which he'd been rushed, announced his death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we announce his death.

KESSEL: Three bullets were fired at close range, police say. One hit the ultranationalist politician in the head, another in the neck. He reportedly had no bodyguard. Police say the assailant used a silencer.

The shooting was in this hotel, where Rehavam Zeevi had been staying. Shortly after they had breakfast together, his wife followed him up to the eighth floor, where she found him lying in the corridor outside their room. Within an hour, the radical Palestinian group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took responsibility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The military forces of the PFLP have declared in a pamphlet that they did this operation against the continued Israeli occupation, against the continuity of the assassinations.

KESSEL: Specifically, the PFLP says it was avenging the killing two months ago of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa. He was killed in a missile attack, Israel blaming his organization for a series of deadly car bombings and other terror attacks inside Israel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Palestinians have now opened a new page of their terrorist activity by targeting an Israeli minister. This is an extremely serious development which may have wide repercussions.

KESSEL: But a Palestinian cabinet minister denounced the killing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel sorry for the assassination of Mr. Zeevi. We feel there is a need to put an end to this vicious circle of violence.

KESSEL: Zeevi, 75, a retired army general, had long espoused very hard views about how Israel should relate to its Arab neighbors. He advocated a so-called transfer policy, the expulsion of all Palestinians from Israel and Israeli-controlled areas, and was also a vigorous backer of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and Gaza.

Just on Monday, Zeevi and his ultranationalist colleagues announced they were quitting the broad national unity government of Ariel Sharon, objecting to the Israeli Army's pullout from parts of the divided West Bank town of Hebron as part of efforts to revive peace moves.

On learning of the shooting, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon canceled all other plans and went with other Israeli leaders to the hospital -- from there, to an emergency Security Cabinet meeting, to assess the political and security implications of the killing. An immediate and critical question of the Israeli leader is whether he will still remain committed to his declared readiness to move back to negotiations with Yasser Arafat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KESSEL: But Paula, the Israeli leader say the onus is on Yasser Arafat, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres saying that unless the Palestinian leader immediately takes firm control of the situation, all these latest efforts to get back to the political process will come to nothing.

So a critical moment here, critical questions both of Ariel Sharon and of Yasser Arafat, and that, of course, could have critical bearing on the international backing for the U.S. global war on terror -- Paula.

ZAHN: Something we'll be following very closely from here.

Jerrold Kessel, thanks so much for that live report.

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