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CNN Live At Daybreak
Mideast Violence Increasing; Negotiators Appealing for U.S. Help
Aired February 20, 2002 - 05:06 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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With the level of violence increasing in the Middle East, top Israeli officials are meeting today to decide what more to do about it.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel is in Jerusalem -- good morning, Jerrold. What are they talking about?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, even before they have been talking, they're also preparing to bury the dead, and there are an awful lot of dead. This is perhaps the deadliest last few days in the year and a half of confrontation. And the response has been a fiercer one by Israel to the killing of six soldiers at a checkpoint on the West Bank last night.
Israel engaging by sea, air and land in some very, very punishing strikes in revenge for that killing of six of its soldiers on the West Bank. The scene of death and destruction, really blood and destruction in Gaza and in the West Bank this morning after the Israeli airplanes struck at a compound where Yasser Arafat is staying. He's been penned up there for almost three months now by Israeli tanks, not the building where Mr. Arafat is, but nearby.
The Israeli planes hit that building. They've been strafing the presidential compound in Gaza on the seashore, where four Palestinian policemen were killed from the presidential guard. All in all in the variety of Israeli strikes during the night, a total of 16 Palestinians have been killed, 12 of them in the police forces, in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority.
This, after the strike by members of the Al Aqsa Brigade. They claimed responsibility. That's a group affiliated to the Fatah movement of Mr. Arafat. Killed the six Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint west of the town of Ramallah on the West Bank last night.
Also during the night, the Israelis have been maintaining very strict blockades around many of the Palestinian towns on the West Bank and preventing traffic from crossing from one town to another. And Israel's security cabinet under Prime Minister Sharon convened this morning. That meeting is over. And from the message put out from the prime minister's office, he said that he had approved, after consultation with his top security and military officials, a new type of response. That's the word used by Mr. Sharon. Now, there's no indication whether this means new tactics by the military or a whole new strategic approach to the handling of the challenges by the Palestinian Authority and, indeed, to the very existence of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. That not yet clear.
But we do understand there may be an inner cabinet meeting at which even more concrete decisions may be reached later today.
Now we have on the telephone from his hometown of Jericho on the West Bank, one of those towns from which Palestinians are not allowed to travel out, Saeb Erakat. He's there on the telephone. And we'd like to ask you, Mr. Erakat, in light of, we don't know exactly what decisions Mr. Sharon and his government took today, how worried is the Palestinian Authority that he may be heading down towards a complete showdown to try to eradicate Yasser Arafat's authority and that of the Palestinian Authority?
COSTELLO: Jerrold, we seem to be having some technical problems. Maybe we'll be able to get back to him a little bit later on. But...
KESSEL: Okay, Carol. We'll try that.
But from what I understand from the Palestinian position this morning and talking earlier to Saeb Erakat on the telephone, was that Palestinians are saying absolutely urgent need for the United Nations, but particularly for the United States, to come into the situation. It has become too alarming, too dramatically, too dramatic in the escalation. There is need for the United States to engage immediately right away.
Let's have, we do have Saeb Erakat on the phone now.
Saeb Erakat, how worried is the Palestinian Authority that Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government is intending now to try to undercut completely the Palestinian Authority and, indeed, Yasser Arafat's control of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza?
SAEB ERAKAT, PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: Jerrold, I think the situation is very serious. It's deteriorating and I think we're in need of the United States' help. We need the United States to reengage immediately. This is the only way to stop the ever deteriorating situation. And if this doesn't happen, we only should expect the situation to go from bad to worse.
I think Sharon's end game has been to destroy the Palestinian Authority. And for Mr. Sharon, we say instead of sending your F-16s, your missiles, your gunships, your tanks, send your negotiators.
For the last 12 months your policies of escalation and closure and siege bombardment have brought now security and no Palestinians. As a matter of fact, out there Palestinians and Israelis are sinking in their blood. It's a big tragedy and it must end and we need the help of the third party. We need the help of the U.S. simply because the trust level between us is below zero. KESSEL: When you say you need the help, what exactly do you have in mind? After all, everybody's agreed to the Tenet plan, to the Mitchell plan. The problem now is getting it, getting those plans started and getting them on the ground. Is there any chance given the escalating situation of that happening? Is that realistic?
ERAKAT: Absolutely. It's more realistic now than any time before. It's time for the U.S. to tell the Palestinians you're in your corner, to Sharon, you're in your corner, and this is the time line to implement Mitchell and Tenet, immediately. Because other than this, I think we should only expect things to go from bad to worse, which means more Palestinian deaths and more Israeli deaths, and that's very unfortunate. And this must stop.
We cannot do it through our contacts with the Israelis. We cannot do it alone. We need the help of the United States, Europe and whoever can extend a hand to stop the cycle of violence and counter- violence out there.
KESSEL: Thank you very much.
Saeb Erakat talking to us from Jericho. An appeal there to the international community. While I daresay the Israeli government and the Israeli military in no mood for dealing with Yasser Arafat at this time. We shall try to discern precisely what Ariel Sharon has in mind when he talks of new approaches to handling the ongoing violence and the ongoing Palestinian attacks. That as the Israeli inner security cabinet prepares to meet later in the day, perhaps possibly to decide on even firmer, perhaps, Israeli responses -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us this morning. And also thanks to Mr. Erakat.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman commented today on the spiraling violence, saying response from the Jewish state must be measured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WIDEN EMIR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY: Until now, actually Israel restrained. What the Israeli Air Force did until now was hitting only empty buildings. We must consider our response. The response has to be measured. It has to be in such a way that as little as possible Palestinians will be killed. This is our way of responding, not to have more casualties, but to have less casualties.
Unlike the Palestinian way, where there is a daily dose of Israelis who are being killed. Unfortunately in the past 24 hours over 14 Israelis were killed by the Palestinians' terror campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The intense tit for tat strikes between the Israelis and Palestinians have been going on now for 17 months.
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