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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Mideast Explodes; Iran: Terror Central?
Aired July 17, 2006 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli artillery and aircraft bombarding Lebanon for a sixth consecutive day as Hezbollah fires more rockets into Israel. The Israeli prime minister says Israel will hunt down every terrorist.
We'll have live reports for you tonight from Jerusalem, the Israel-Lebanon border, and Beirut.
And the United Nations considering sending a new international peacekeeping force to Lebanon. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, among our guests, as will be former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
I'll also be talking with three of the country's foremost experts on the Middle East next here tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Monday, July 17th.
Live in New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening, everybody.
Israel tonight is expanding its war against radical Islamist terrorists in Lebanon. Israeli fighter aircraft launched new attacks against Lebanon as Israeli artillery bombarded suspected terrorist positions along the border. Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel.
Twenty-four Israelis, 170 Lebanese have been killed over the past six days.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today declared Israel has reached a critical juncture in this fight against terrorism. The Israeli defense minister said Israel intends to create a new buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Nic Robertson reports from Beirut, where Israeli aircraft today attacked port facilities, army barracks and the city's southern suburbs.
John Vause reports from the Israel-Lebanon border, where Israeli troops are engaged in the biggest offensive in at least a decade.
Kitty Pilgrim, here in New York, reporting on the central role played by Iran in the radical Islamist war against Israel and Western civilizations.
We begin with Nic Robertson in Beirut on the latest Israeli airstrikes against Lebanon -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lou, in the last hour we heard Israeli aircraft flying overhead. Shortly after that, the Lebanese army told us that just 12 miles from where we're standing now, their barracks was targeted by an attack. They say they have casualties. They won't say exactly how many.
To the south of where I'm standing, in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, which is where Hezbollah's real support heartland here is, there have been continuing attacks there through the night. This is an area where the Hezbollah leadership lives. We don't know exactly what the targets have been, but their houses until now have been some of the targets in that area.
Through the day, targets in the port city of Sidon, the port city of Tyre. Targets as well, strikes in the south of Lebanon, just across the border from where Hezbollah has been firing its rockets into Israel. Also in the east of Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, targeting of sites there.
The death toll now, according to Lebanese officials, some 170 people killed, more than 400 people injured so far. The attacks, though, seem to continue. They seem to continue the most in the south of the country, but they are continuing right around here in Beirut -- Lou.
DOBBS: Nic, thank you very much.
Nic Robertson from Beirut.
Israel today said it destroyed at least one long-range Hezbollah missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv. Israel says the missile was manufactured in Iran. The missile has a range of up to 100 miles. Tel Aviv is about 70 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border.
John Vause reports from the Israel-Lebanon border on the escalating military offensive against Hezbollah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Hour after hour, day after day, for almost a week now, these Israeli howitzers have pounded southern Lebanon while warplanes and helicopters attack from the air.
Just across the border, the impact is devastating. Lebanese civilians are dying; homes, buildings and bridges destroyed. The Israelis are aiming for mobile rocket launchers like these, small, quick to set up, hard to hit.
MAJ. ZVIKA GOLAN, ISRAELI ARMY: Wherever you can see Katyusha rockets launched from Lebanon, we actually can see it here as a target. VAUSE: But there's little Israel can do once the Katyushas are in the air. About a thousand Hezbollah rockets have hit Israeli towns and cities.
Kiryat Shmona is right on the front lines. And life here has come to a standstill. For a few hours, residents come up for air. They spend most of the day and all of the night terrified in underground bunkers. And if this firepower is not enough to stop the Hezbollah rockets, Israel still has the option of sending in ground forces.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And within the past hour, Israeli security sources say that Israeli soldiers have killed two Hezbollah gunmen as they tried to cross the border from Lebanon into Israel. Also, another barrage of Katyusha rocket attacks hitting 16 communities in the north of Israel.
And also, the Israeli shelling continues. The Israeli government says it wants to create that buffer zone between Israeli towns and cities and Hezbollah militants -- Lou.
DOBBS: John, thank you very much.
John Vause reporting from near the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel and the United States blame Iran for the Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks against Israel. Iran has supplied Hezbollah with weapons, military training, and hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid. Iran also supports radical Islamist terrorist groups in both Gaza and Iraq.
Kitty Pilgrim has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Is Iran supporting the attacks coming out of Lebanon? U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice points directly at the influence of the radical regime in Iran.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: Obviously, Iran is involved. Iran is financing Hezbollah. Iran is providing technology.
PILGRIM: The Israeli ambassador charges that Iran aided Hezbollah in firing a missile that hit the Israeli warship on Friday, saying the C-802 was supplied by Iran. And, he warned, that Iran, along with Syria, was using Lebanon for a larger goal.
DANIEL AYALON, ISRAELI AMB. TO U.S.: And their strategies are clear: a push of -- a push forward of a very radical Islamist system with the continuation of terror.
PILGRIM: The Israeli ambassador charged that Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been in Lebanon for "quite some time," something regional experts confirm.
STEVEN SIMON, CO-AUTHOR, "THE AGE OF SACRED TERROR": In Lebanon, the Iranians have Revolutionary Guard Corps staff, Revolutionary Guard personnel that are actually stationed in Lebanon and work with Hezbollah.
PILGRIM: In 2002, Israeli defense forces intercepted the Karina A, a ship carrying 50 tons of advanced weaponry. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it was loaded with weapons by Iranians and Hezbollah and headed to Gaza.
Experts say it's impossible to say in total how many millions of dollars Iran has given in support of Hezbollah and Hamas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Regional experts say Iran's revolutionary efforts have intensified under the regime of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the problems in Gaza have given Iran a good opportunity to rally support for its brand of Islamic fundamentalism -- Lou.
DOBBS: But its role is becoming increasingly clear to not only Israel, but the world.
PILGRIM: It is. And you can see a variety of statements across the board today pointing directly at Iran.
DOBBS: Kitty, thank you very much.
Kitty Pilgrim.
Insurgents in Iraq have killed five more of our soldiers. Three soldiers were killed in Baghdad in separate attacks. Another soldier was killed in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. A fifth soldier has died of his wounds in the hospital.
2,552 of our troops have now been killed in Iraq, 18,874 of our troops wounded, 8,628 seriously wounded.
Terrorists in Iraq today stormed an Iraqi market. They killed at least 40 unarmed civilians. Nearly 100 people were wounded.
That attack took place in a town south of Baghdad. One of the bloodiest attacks, in fact, in Iraq this year. Most of the victims were Shia. Local residents say the assault was a revenge attack after the killing of seven Sunnis in the same town yesterday.
Still ahead, U.S. helicopters are finally beginning to airlift Americans out of Beirut days after other countries began their rescue operations. Why?
We'll have a special report.
And Israel's war against Hezbollah is a part of a much bigger global war against radical Islamist terrorists. We'll have that special report. And I'll be joined three of the country's foremost authorities on the Middle East, as well by the U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
All of that and more coming up here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: U.S. military helicopters have begun to airlift American citizens out of Lebanon, but only 64 of the estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon have left. Tomorrow, a Greek cruise ship chartered by the United States joins the rescue operation. It will take evacuees to Cyprus, an estimated 750 Americans.
Jamie McIntyre reports from the Pentagon now on the U.S. rescue operation.
Bill Tucker reports on why the United States has been much slower to begin evacuating its citizens than other countries.
We begin with Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Lou, so far those helicopter flights have been going to people who have special needs, but for most Americans the way out of Lebanon will be by sea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice over): A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 helicopter brought the first evacuated Americans to a British Royal Air base in southeast Cyprus. The first to be airlifted out, 21 Sunday and 43 Monday, were U.S. citizens with dependents with special needs, along with some embassy staff. But the trickle of Americans is expected to become a flood in the coming days, as thousands who are stranded in the war zone are just waiting for word they have arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm waiting for the United States to -- you know, they haven't been very communicative with people here. We feel very abandoned, quite frankly, and I'm just waiting for them to come up with something.
MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say three more helicopters from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit operating in the Red Sea will be moved to Cyprus Tuesday, bringing to a half-dozen the number operating in the air bridge. But for most Americans, the way out is by sea.
The State Department has chartered an aging Greek cruise ship, the Orient Queen, which usually carries 750 passengers, but could take twice as many on a short five-hour trip between the port of Beirut and Larnaca, Cyprus.
SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: We're building up the assets in the -- in the region so that we can operate on a scale of moving thousands of people.
MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say several U.S. amphibious assault ships are on standby in the Red Sea if they are needed to increase the capacity. They include the USS Trenton, the USS Nashville, and the USS Whidbey Island. In addition, the U.S. Navy destroyer Gonzalez is being dispatched to Lebanon to provide security for the sea evacuation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, roughly 15,000 have registered on the State Department's Web site. Three thousand since the crisis began.
The question is, how many actually want to leave Lebanon? The U.S. government doesn't know. Its best guess at this point is upwards of 5,000 -- Lou.
DOBBS: Jamie, thank you.
Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon.
The U.S. rescue operation for Americans trapped in Lebanon appears remarkably slow compared with the efforts of some other countries. The Italians and French, for example, have already been evacuating their citizens and even some Americans. But it took six days for the U.S. State Department to announce a plan to rescue our citizens.
Bill Tucker has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There is no greater priority than getting Americans out of Lebanon, says the State Department.
MAURA HARTY, ASST. SECRETARY FOR CONSULAR AFFAIRS: It's job one. It's the only job right now, take care of American citizens. Get them out of harm's way.
TUCKER: Tell that to Lobna Fakih, a Dearborn, Michigan, pediatrician whose husband and sons were vacationing in Lebanon.
DR. LOBNA FAKIH, FAMILY WAS TRAPPED IN LEBANON: It's unbelievable how these people are just waiting day in and day out through all this bombardment and harm.
TUCKER: Rather than sit back and wait, they decided to flee by car, exiting through Syria.
FAKIH: It was a really stressful ride. He was fearful for his life. He wasn't sure if on the route driving from Beirut through to Syria if he would get bombed.
TUCKER: Lobna's husband and sons are expected home on Tuesday.
The U.S. has been slow in evacuating its citizens because it's a matter of scale. The State Department says evacuating 20,000 to 25,000 Americans is very difficult.
SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: We are operating on a scale of operations and planning that -- that is really different than most other countries.
TUCKER: Matters of scale don't seem to have stopped the French, who have a similar number of French citizens to get out. Their full- scale evacuation is already under way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: And for those Americans wanting to leave, evacuation does carry a price tag. American citizens will be asked to pay for the evacuation. If they don't have money available, they will be allowed to sign what amounts to an IOU. And Lou, the State Department is not saying when the evacuations will start, only "in the near future."
DOBBS: Of course, those helicopters, two helicopter airlifts and the cruise ship expected to arrive tomorrow. But as you say, that is all we know at this hour tonight.
Bill Tucker, thank you very much.
We'll have much more on this worsening crisis in the Middle East tonight, including these developments tonight. New missile attacks on northern Israel tonight. The siege of Haifa is going on.
The war in the Middle East just one front on the war on radical Islamist terrorism around the world. We'll have that special report on the rising threat of radical Islam.
And expert analysis from former secretary of state Henry Kissinger here. We'll be joined by a panel of Mideast experts as well.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: In the past hour Israeli air aircraft have launched new airstrikes against Lebanon. A Lebanese army barracks among the targets. There are no reports yet of any casualties.
The Lebanese government says 170 Lebanese have been killed over the past six days of fighting, more than 400 Lebanese wounded.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, has fired dozens more rockets and missiles at Israel. Some hit the Israeli port of Haifa, Israel's third largest city. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed over the past week, 12 civilians and 12 soldiers.
In Gaza City today, Palestinians rallied in support of Hezbollah and its widening terror campaign against Israel. Members of the radical Islamist terrorist group Islamic Jihad also took part in the demonstration. The protesters stomped on Israeli and U.S. flags, then set them afire.
Today's rally was held as Palestinian militants fired at least five homemade rockets into Israel. At least two Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
Also today, Israeli warplanes launched a second airstrike against the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Gaza City. The attack completely destroyed what was left of the building.
Hezbollah is launching new rocket attacks tonight against the northern Israeli city of Haifa. Hezbollah rockets are also falling on separate targets in northern Israel. One rocket hit a hospital. At least five Israelis have been injured in those new attacks tonight.
These attacks against targets in northern Israel come one day after a Hezbollah missile hit the Haifa train station. Eight people were killed.
Paula Hancocks reports from Haifa, a city tonight under siege.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): 6:000 a.m. in Haifa, a different wake-up call for the residents of this port city. The sirens a constant reminder of the threat from the north.
Usually the sirens sound first, then seconds later the dull thuds of the rockets exploding. But it doesn't always happen in that order. Several times in the afternoon, the ugly thuds come first, then the warning sirens. Hundreds of Hezbollah rockets have been striking northern Israeli towns for the last six days, killing at least a dozen.
This the immediate aftermath of one of the Hezbollah rockets, part of a three-story apartment block in the center of town collapsed. Eleven people injured.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of the casualties are suffering if crush injuries due to the situation when the building was collapsing.
HANCOCKS: Avi said Haifa has become the top of the target list for rockets. It's just too dangerous.
Another neighbor, Nahom (ph), tells us he's lucky to be alive. He was a stone's throw from where the rocket hit.
The rockets were not reserved for Haifa. The border town of Safed was hit again. The residents of this house screamed, "We will be hit in the head, but we are not scared!"
With the barrage of rockets came Israeli wartime censorship rules. CNN and other broadcasters can no longer show you wide pictures of the area during attacks. The IDF says showing those images provides Hezbollah with invaluable targeting information. DANNY SIMON, ISRAELI SPOKESMAN: By having the media not serve as an intelligence-gathering element for the enemy -- now, in times of war, I'm sure the enemy have other sources of information. But our job is to make it more difficult for them, not easier for them.
HANCOCKS: And as the sirens sound again, a collective holding of breath, and the wait for that dull thud.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Haifa, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: Coming up next, much more on the escalating Middle East crisis, including Israel's next move in the war against Hezbollah. Why Israel may be forced to send more ground troops into southern Lebanon.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, joins us here. He's rejecting calls for an international security force in southern Lebanon.
Former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger joins us as well.
All of that and more coming right up.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Israel tonight reporting it's destroyed a long-range Hezbollah missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city. Israel said the missile was made in Iran.
Hezbollah today fired dozens more rockets at northern Israel. Those rockets hit at least 11 Israeli towns and villages. Israeli aircraft and artillery continuing their bombardment of Lebanon. One of the targets, a Lebanese army barracks. Earlier in the day, Israel hit port facilities and the suburbs of Beirut.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today vowed to step up Israeli attacks against Hezbollah terrorists. During a speech to the Israeli parliament, he said Israel will strike at Hezbollah until all of Israel's cease-fire conditions are met.
Fionnuala Sweeney is live in Jerusalem with a report on Israel's strategy from here -- Fionnuala.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, Lou, it was a rousing speech to the Israeli Knesset. Many saying they had never seen Ehud Olmert in such feisty form. He used several stock phrases, angry phrases against what he described as terrorists' willingness to attack Israel being a sign of a mistake or weakness on Israel's part.
We'll, if that was the case, then they were wrong. He said the state of Israel had a right to defend itself. Terrorists, he said -- he described as subcontractors of regimes who support terrorism from Tehran to Damascus.
And he spoke directly to the Israeli people, saying this was a moment of vital importance to "our national existence." "Israel will not continue to live in the shadow or the face of the threat of terrorism."
But signs as well, though, that although he intends to continue and bring the fight to Hezbollah, that all signs also of a compromise possibly in the offing. Israel now seeming to believe that a military solution may not be the answer to all this, and now beginning to look for a diplomatic solution.
Its deputy chief of the Israeli military army saying that the Israeli army would need one more week to "clean up Hezbollah," as he put it. But now, seemingly, Israel looking for a resolution which was passed two years ago, Lou, in southern Lebanon, implying that the Israeli government should not be involved there, but the Lebanese government should actually create a buffer zone there and clear Hezbollah and other militant groups out.
This is what Israel is beginning to say tonight that it wants, but first it needs a week, it says, to finish up what it has begun.
DOBBS: Fionnuala, thank you very much.
Fionnuala Sweeney reporting from Jerusalem.
That brings us to our poll question tonight.
Do you believe Israel is justified in what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called war waged at full strength, with all determination, courage and sacrifice? Yes or no?
Please cast your vote at loudobbs.com. The results coming up later in the broadcast.
President Bush today returned to Washington after attending the G-8 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. That meeting, of course, dominated by the Middle East conflict. World leaders called upon Israel to exercise restraint, but they told Hezbollah to make the first move to end this conflict.
French President Jacques Chirac said that means Israel must agree to a cease-fire, an assertion that was immediately challenged by the United States. President Bush strongly supports Israel's right to defend itself.
The United States and Israel tonight are strongly resisting United Nations efforts to deploy a new international security force in Lebanon. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said he doubted any international force would be able to disarm Hezbollah as required by a U.N. resolution enacted two years ago.
Rich Roth reports from the United Nations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Mideast diplomatic hopes are currently riding with shuttling United Nations envoys. Stop one on Monday was in Beirut.
VIJAY NAMBIAR, U.N. MIDEAST ENVOY: I can announce today that we have made some promising first efforts on the way forward.
ROTH: The peacemakers say they have concrete ideas, but it's too soon for optimism. They have company in the region. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is also in Beirut, saying no magic solutions, but the immediate goal is a cease-fire.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will go, too, awaiting the outcome of the U.N. dialogue.
Their boss, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, proposed , along with Britain's Tony Blair, a new international force to separate Israel and Hezbollah.
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: ... to make sure we have the troops well trained, well-equipped troops that can go in quite quickly.
ROTH: But the U.N. already has a peacekeeping force in the same area, and it has been ignored by both sides.
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: Would it be empowered to deal with the countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?
ROTH: The Security Council has met but taken no decisions.
NASSIR ABDULAZIZ AL-NASSER, QATARI AMB. TO U.N.: Yes, we are late. We should take -- we should take action two days ago, not today, not tomorrow.
ROTH: The U.S. is blocking any Security Council response to the Middle East violence, saying Israel has a right to defend itself.
MCCORMACK: Nobody wants to see a cessation of violence done in such a way that you end up back where we are today at some point in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROTH: The Security Council is not likely to act, Lou, until an in-person visit from those traveling U.N. envoys. A top aide to Kofi Annan said the idea of an intervention force is just that, an idea, with the Security Council holding the final approval. Lou?
DOBBS: Richard, thank you -- Richard Roth from the United Nations.
Later here, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, joins us. Israel's fight to drive Hezbollah from southern Lebanon has reignited one of the central fronts in the war against radical Islamist terrorism. Around the world, radical Islamist terrorists are rising in strength and expanding their reach. Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Radical Islamic fundamentalist groups now stretch across the globe. Different agendas, but a common anti-U.S. and Israel ideology. In the Palestinian territories, Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyr's brigade and the Islamic jihad. In Lebanon, Hezbollah, al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and with cells in most major western countries. The Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines and the armed Islamic group operating out of Algeria.
JON ALTERMAN, CSIS, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST PROGRAMS: We're not only seeing more acts of terror around the world, but we're seeing terrorists getting better publicity. And they're able to reach their audiences and I think are growing more sophisticated about their audiences to the extent that terrorism in some ways is viewed as performance art. You're doing it for the reaction.
SYLVESTER: Pakistani Islamic extremists with links to al Qaeda are believed to be behind last week's train bombings in India that killed 186 people. The current Middle East conflict has brought together two groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. They are far larger and more sophisticated than al Qaeda. Hamas consists of Palestinians, largely Sunnis, fighting for an independent Palestinian state. Hezbollah is a Shia group that wants to create a Muslim fundamentalist state in Lebanon.
VALI NASR, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Hezbollah often views Hamas, if you would, as a frontline deterrence or a frontline force to contain Israel or to keep Israel preoccupied and divert its attention from Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: Israel's attention is now firmly focused on southern -- for Hamas and Hezbollah, the fight is about territory in the Middle East and political control. These are more traditional goals. On the other hand, for al Qaeda, it's a general anti-American sentiment. Lou?
DOBBS: Lisa, thank you -- Lisa Sylvester from Washington.
We want to bring you up to date, some breaking news out of Lebanon tonight. Israel tonight has launched new airstrikes against targets in Lebanon. Lebanon is -- the southern suburbs are receiving those strikes by the Israelis. There have been reports of at least two large explosions. These are live pictures of Beirut. We have no word on casualties. We'll have much more from Beirut here coming right up.
Just ahead, we'll be talking with the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton joins us to discuss whether a cease-fire makes sense at this moment and what the United States policy will be going forward as the Middle East conflict widens. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
DOBBS: Israel tonight has launched new air strikes against targets in Lebanon. Lebanon striking -- Israel striking the southern suburbs of Beirut. There are reports of at least two large explosions. We have no word on casualties so far or damage. Nic Robertson in Beirut joins me now live. Nic, tell us what's going on.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lou, two very big blasts that we could hear from the center of Beirut. The southern suburbs begin two to three miles from here. That seems to be where the explosions were coming from. We saw this on local television as well. They carry live pictures. You can see the blast there. First one, then the other comes fairly soon after.
They shook the area that we're in. When we were looking at the television sets here, it appeared from the monitoring that the local television channels as doing as if the lights went out, possibly an indication that a local power distribution or power plant may have been the target. It's not clear.
But those are the sort of facilities that we've seen targeted in those southern suburbs. They're very close to here, Lou. The way that the two explosions reverberated here, again an indication just how close they're striking to the center of Beirut, the southern suburbs, really just off to my left over there. Lou?
DOBBS: Nic, thank you very much. Nic Robertson live with that report in Beirut. Of course we'll be going back to Nic as developments warrant.
The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says there should be a new international peacekeeping force in Lebanon to stop the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton says that he doubts an international force could be capable of disarming Hezbollah and to stop the rocket attacks against Israel.
Ambassador Bolton joins us here now. Good to have you with us.
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Glad to be here.
DOBBS: This conflict. It's clear the United States opposes a cease-fire at this point. Both remarks by yourself and the president in St. Petersburg. What is the expectation going forward? Is there a time appropriate that you have in your mind or in the minds of our government to put together a cease-fire?
BOLTON: Well, right now we think Israel is exercising its legitimate right of self-defense. If cease-fire could be brought about within a few seconds of Hezbollah released the two Israeli soldiers that it captured, just as in the Gaza Strip, if Hamas released the Israeli soldier they captured. This is not a question of balance here. There's a terrorist attack committed against Israel combined with numerous rocket launches. And what the Israelis are doing is no different than what any responsible government should do to protect its citizens.
DOBBS: No different. It is within the power of both Hamas and Hezbollah to end this according to the terms set forth by the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, to return those prisoners and to disarm, effectively.
BOLTON: Well, precisely. The root cause here is that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah continue to reject any acceptance of the state of Israel. And as the G8 leaders said in St. Petersburg, that kind of extremism in the Middle East has to stop. Hamas and Hezbollah are financed and supported by terrorist cells in Syria and Iran. They get extraordinary amounts of financing from Iran, in particular. And this kind of connection is the sort of problem that needs a solution in the Middle East.
DOBBS: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Kofi Annan are calling for that international peacekeeping force. But according to the U.N. resolution, Hezbollah was to disarm two years ago.
BOLTON: Yes, the G8 leaders have asked the Security Council to look at the possibility of this kind of force. You know, the U.N. has had a force in southern Lebanon for 28 years, a so-called interim force that has not succeeded in doing that. The questions that we should be looking at, we are looking at now with respect to a possible new force are really will it be empowered to disarm Hezbollah? That's the source of the problem. Will it go to the root cause of this terrorism or will it not?
DOBBS: The root cause of this terrorism is a conflict decades long, about 60 years between Israel and its Arab neighbors. There is an absolute incompatibility between the two on the issue of whether Israel should exist and whether or not the Arabs should tolerate the existence. How does the United States come up with a new approach and the United Nations, if possible, to establishing what has been decades of failure?
BOLTON: I think the question is whether we're going to eliminate these terrorist organizations, whether they renounce terrorism themselves or whether they're dealt with in a different way. I think also we have to be concerned about the people of Lebanon who are aspiring to a Democratic society. The U.N. has given a framework to proceed in resolution 1559 to extend control over Lebanese territory. We should support them.
DOBBS: Ambassador John Bolton, thanks for being here.
BOLTON: Glad to be here.
DOBBS: A reminder now to vote in our poll. Do you believe that Israel is justified in what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called war waged at full strength, with all determination, courage and sacrifice? Yes or no. Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. Results coming up here later.
Up next, the latest on tonight's news. Israeli airstrikes against the suburbs of Beirut. Also we'll be joined by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and three leading authorities on the Middle East. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: We'll be updating you on these most recent attacks by Israel against targets just outside Beirut in just a matter of moments. We're going to turn now to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger joining us here to assess what is happening and to give us a, if you will, a more expansive view of what is happening geopolitically around the world. Let me ask you at the outset, the United States opposing a cease-fire. Israel pursuing its right to defend itself. What do you expect to be the outcome here?
HENRY KISSINGER, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: I expect that the capacity of Hezbollah to attack Israel will be reduced. And I think there's a possibility even that the two prisoners will be released. Although that would be an unusual thing for Hezbollah based on its previous practices.
DOBBS: Their previous practices, of course, made changes --
KISSINGER: To trade them for an exchange. I do believe that the Iranians and Hezbollah made a miscalculation. They thought that the Americans in Iraq would be so complicated and the Israeli position was also difficult, that they could get away with doing this as a demonstration of western weakness. And you have to remember it happened in a week in which there was an attack on the Bombay subway system, not that that was done from Iran, but it's part of the general mood of aggressive Jihad.
DOBBS: Let's turn to that issue. Because the United States finds itself, it's easy to overlook the fact that the United Nations Security Council this weekend passed a unanimous resolution condemning North Korea. At the same time, within a week of Mumbai, 200 people dying in separate attacks on the rail station there and the train. The United States' policy seems to be ad hoc, disjointed, against what is a global effort on the part of radical Islamist terrorists to take on new targets. It is that an incorrect representation?
KISSINGER: I think I look at the events of this week, painful as they are, as a kind of a turning point. We have this U.N. resolution on Korea.
DOBBS: Right.
KISSINGER: And I think that should be a landmark on the road to bringing the Korean issue to some conclusion because we've been negotiating now for two years. Now we have a unanimous United Nations resolution on the missile issue. But the missile issue is only the tip of the iceberg. What we really have to deal with is the nuclear issue. And it seems to me that the nations that are involved in this negotiation now have to face the choice of whether they want to demonstrate their impotence and demonstrate that we're living in a lawless world. And the same I would apply to Iran. Everybody's arguing whether we should have, which kind of sanctions we should have, but the fact of the matter is six nations have said there should be no enrichment. Now, if this enrichment program is not stopped in a reasonable time, what is the conclusion that the world can draw?
DOBBS: The world can draw a number of conclusions and, as you suggest, without an effective foreign policy, particularly on the part of the United States and those nations with whom it finds itself allied. But is there in your judgment, an intelligent, well centered, and by centered I mean an expression by U.S. interests in our geopolitical policy globally. Because these events, they seem disjointed, but they're united, except in the case of North Korea, by radical Islamist terrorists.
KISSINGER: There's never been a period in history in which so many changes were taking place simultaneously. And it's not easy to form an overriding geopolitical concept. I think we've done very well getting the Iranian negotiation to this point in which we have united the six countries. We've got the Korean negotiation to that point. This I consider a good design. Now, the question is can we go from here to the next step, which is to implement the design? And that is going to be the tough decision.
DOBBS: Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, good to have you with us, professor. Still ahead, we'll have some of your thought and the results of our poll tonight. Stay with us.
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DOBBS: This just in: More explosions in Beirut. Israel tonight has launched a new wave of airstrikes against targets in Lebanon. Israeli aircraft targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut for the second time today. There are reports of at least three large explosions this evening. Southern Beirut is, of course, the stronghold of Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital. Earlier, Israeli air raids hitting the homes and offices of leaders of Hezbollah.
We'll have much more as we learn more on these developments. And coming up at the top of the hour here on CNN, "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Lou. We're following the breaking news coming out this hour. Also, new Israeli airstrikes, not only in the Beirut area but elsewhere as well.
Plus, is a diplomatic solution any closer after more attacks on both sides of the Israeli/Lebanese border? We're going to have a closer look at what role Washington could play.
Anxious family members waiting and worrying as thousands of Americans are caught in the crossfire in Lebanon's capital. Is the U.S. moving fast enough to try to get its citizens out of harm's way?
And I'll speak with top U.S., Israeli and Lebanese officials about what they think can be done to try to cool the deepening crisis. Lou, all that coming up at the top of the hour.
DOBBS: Thank you, Wolf. Looking forward to it.
I'm joined now by three leading authorities on the Middle East. Stephen Cohen, esteemed expert at the Israeli Policy Forum. The IPF an American non-profit organization supporting peace efforts in the Middle East. Ambassador Richard Murphy, former assistant secretary of state, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Syria and the Philippines. And from Washington tonight, James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, internationally regarded observer of U.S.-Arab relations, with family roots in Lebanon.
Good to have all three of you here tonight.
Let me begin with you, if I may, Ambassador. This conflict, the United States says no cease-fire. It looks like the United States is giving Israel the go-ahead to pursue whatever its tactical and strategic aims are here against Hezbollah.
RICHARD MURPHY, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Says within the limits of not damaging the fragile government of Lebanon and its infrastructure. But that's impossible. There's a lot of people being hurt. The southern suburbs may be the headquarters of Hezbollah, but there's an awful lot of Lebanese Shiite living in that area.
DOBBS: And a lot of Israeli citizens living in northern Israel.
MURPHY: Absolutely.
DOBBS: And that really gets to the problem, doesn't it, Jim Zogby? This strike by Israel, the terrorism on the part of Hezbollah, what is the proper course here?
JAMES ZOGBY, ARAB-AMERICAN INSTITUTE: Well, I think the United Nations is moving in the right direction. There has to be a cease- fire. I think our U.N. position is wrong. I think there has to be a cease-fire, a cessation of the bombing, and an empowered envoy from the United States to help bring about a resolution to this matter.
We will not see a military defeat of Hezbollah in this instance. Israel tried to do it with the PLO in '82, and out of that Hezbollah was born, and the intifadah ultimately came into being in the West Bank and Gaza.
And so when there is a source, a cause of extremism, trying to squash it without resolving the issues at stake only causes it to morph into a different form. And I fear that, as Ambassador Murphy notes, that the situation in Lebanon is going to be far more difficult after this bombing than it has been to date.
DOBBS: Do you believe Israel was justified in its response?
ZOGBY: I think that Hezbollah was wrong with its provocative act. It was reckless, and it put people at risk. But I think Israel's response has not been self-defense. I think it has been far disproportionate to self-defense, and it's put Lebanon, people of Lebanon at risk, and it has exacerbated this conflict, bringing death to hundreds of Lebanese and many Israelis as well. I think it could have been solved very differently if we'd been smart about this.
DOBBS: Stephen Cohen, your thoughts?
STEPHEN COHEN, ISRAELI POLICY FORUM: Well, I think, first of all, it's important to note that Israel hasn't done everything that one could be afraid that it could do. It has not yet had a major ground invasion of Lebanon. And I hope that that will happen.
DOBBS: Although there was a brief incursion.
COHEN: There was a brief incursion last night, but not a really substantial military invasion. And I think that's important. And I think that that would be the destructive act for the future of Lebanon and its government and the ability of the society to rebuild after this.
It is a terrible thing for Lebanon, that just after Syria was finally moved out of Lebanon by the pressures of the international community and of the local community, that this situation has set Lebanon back so far. And it is very sad for Israel. This is a summer in which not only so many Lebanese-Americans have been traveling to Lebanon, but so many Americans have been traveling to Israel, and there are many people who have been caught in this crossfire and their hopes are being dashed.
DOBBS: In the crossfire, hopes dashed, that is a litany from the past 70 years, Ambassador Murphy, in the conflict between Israel and the Arabs. What in the world -- is there an approach that has not been taken? Is there a path that is productive? Or is this area consigned to perpetual conflict and violence and blood?
MURPHY: No, we've gotten closer, much closer than we are today to solutions by -- as a result of vigorous American diplomacy. I think today we're not interested in the solo role anymore. I hope we will find a way to cooperate with the quartet and perhaps with the broader grouping, the Europeans, Russia, the G-8 group that just assembled, because I don't think we really want to play the role that we once did in the Middle East.
DOBBS: Is that good or is that bad for the interests of Lebanon and for the Arab states and Israel in your judgment, Jim Zogby?
ZOGBY: I think it's bad. I think that sustained American leadership is very important. It not only helps, I think, create restraint for the various parties in the region, it keeps people talking.
It's also good and important for our interests. We have 130,000 troops right now in Iraq. We have enormous interests in the broader region. And despite what some on the neoconservative side say, we have an interest in stability and in an evolution toward a more progressive society in the region. All of this goes out the window when we are absent from the scene, as we've been in a diplomatic way for far too long. DOBBS: Jim, let me interrupt. We're showing video now that's just come in of more airstrikes that are taking place. The Israeli air force carrying out strikes in southern Lebanon. We know of three strikes so far over the last just about half hour. So those strikes continue.
Let me ask you, is there in all of this any sense, any room for a continuation of this faux stability? Or is this -- will there be ultimately a bloodletting? Are both sides -- I'm sorry?
COHEN: There are two good signs in the last few days. One was what Saudi Arabia did in the Arab meeting in Cairo, where the Saudis were willing to break a long Arab tradition and criticize a group that was being attacked by Israel. They indirectly and in a very clear way criticized Hezbollah. And I think that that's...
DOBBS: We should point out, did so in far clearer terms and stronger terms than did the government of Lebanon.
COHEN: Yes. And I think that that's a very important step. Because I think that what has happened here is that some of the key states of the region -- Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia -- the key Sunni states, are not happy to see this radicalism of Iran so strengthened by what Hezbollah is doing, what Hamas is doing, and what had happened in Iraq.
DOBBS: Jim Zogby?
ZOGBY: Yes?
DOBBS: Do you agree?
ZOGBY: I think absolutely. The situation is not just, though, Iran and Shiism. It's a question of whether or not provocative actions outside of the reign of government can be allowed to take place. And what these guys did and what the folks in Gaza did I think was provocative and wrong.
DOBBS: Jim Zogby, we than you for being here.
ZOGBY: Thank you.
DOBBS: Richard Murphy, thank you very much. Stephen Cohen, we appreciate your thoughts.
Results of tonight's poll: 61 percent of you say Israel is justified in what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called "war waged at full strength."
We thank you for being with us here tonight. For all of us, thanks for watching. Good night from New York. "THE SITUATION ROOM" begins right now with Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
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