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Jerusalem: Suicide Bomber Strikes at Tel-Aviv Cafe; Great Britain's Queen Mother Dies
Aired March 30, 2002 - 20:00 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.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, amid calls for a cease-fire, another bomb goes off in Israel. This one rips apart a Tel Aviv cafe.
The attack comes a day after the Israeli army stormed Yasser Arafat's headquarters, trapping him in his office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: I am appealing to the whole international world to stop this aggression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Washington supports a call for Israel to withdraw, but also says the time has come for Arafat to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They have got to do a much better job of preventing people from coming into Israel to blow up innocent people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Plus, once reluctant to enter the royal spotlight, England's Queen Elizabeth rallied her country in the dark days of World War II, refused to flee when Buckingham Palace was bombed, and remained a symbol of strength for decades afterward. Tonight, the Queen Mum is gone.
Now, LIVE FROM JERUSALEM, Bill Hemmer.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: And hello from Jerusalem, where it's already Easter Sunday, a day where Christians recognize as the resurrection day for Jesus Christ.
But today there is very little life apparently in the peace process. We have seen more tit-for-tat violence today in what was supposed to be a holy week. It has been anything but. It has been nothing but a bloody week throughout the region here.
Again the violence struck today in the heart of Tel Aviv.
CNN's Ben Wedeman was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just hours after the end of the Jewish Sabbath, a suicide bomber walked into the My Coffee Place, a popular Tel Aviv coffee shop on Allenby Street. Inside, he blew himself up, leaving 29 people at least wounded, one critically injured, a woman, and six seriously wounded.
According to Palestinian sources, the bomber was Mohammed Salahad (ph), 22 or 23 years old, from the Nablus area in the northern West Bank. According to those sources, he was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a group affiliated to the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
This, as Israel ends its second day of what it is calling an extensive military operation against Palestinian terrorism.
This operation, however, doesn't seem to be working.
I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: That is one hot point today. The other one still continues in Ramallah in the West Bank, where Yasser Arafat remains holed up, surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks now for the second straight day.
Inside that compound, sections have been destroyed and demolished by the Israeli military. We're told three rooms remain inside where Arafat and others are inside. The compound, built by the British back in the 1930s, originally designed as a prison. Arafat confined inside since the month of December.
And clearly, it was another tense day in Ramallah. Another day that we saw Arafat appealing to his people from inside.
Michael Holmes has been there. He's there once again today with our report in the West Bank.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Israeli soldier tells these women, "Go home." They're here in the city of Albeera (ph) because all the men aged 15 to 45 were rounded up Saturday. In all, hundreds were. Under heavy Israeli guard, one at a time they filed into a school for questioning. Some released, some detained, others still waiting hours later.
A child waits in the street for his father's return.
In Ramallah, the shooting lessened, but it did continue. In a corridor on the third floor of an office building, the bodies of five Palestinian men, four in military-style clothing, shot at very close range, three of them in the head. Two of the men appeared to have been shot from directly above in the back and side of the head after they had fallen to the ground.
Israeli military sources said the men had thrown grenades at soldiers, who then fought back in a close-quarter gun battle. CNN did not see any evidence of grenade explosions inside or outside the building.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers took up positions around the city, including overlooking preventative security headquarters, a key Palestinian facility.
Throughout much of the night, sounds of battle. At dawn, both sounds continued.
An ambulance siren competes with the guns. Ambulances not allowed near the scene of the fighting, a building in the heart of Ramallah. Inside, a group of Palestinian gunmen, and also civilians.
(on camera): The battle raged for hours. Tank shells and heavy machine gun fire from the Israeli side, return shooting from inside the building. And then a fire broke out.
(voice-over): Smoke could be seen across the city. Eventually, a dramatic surrender, Israeli troops taking no chances confusing the innocent with the fighters. Everyone who came out told to kneel and lay down amid the refuse of the battle, glass, bullet casings, used tear gas canisters. Another routine precaution, forced to lift their shifts to prove they did not have explosive belts, proved they were not suicide bombers. None were.
There were the injured too, numbers difficult to ascertain, perhaps a dozen.
Inside the building had been hard-core fighters armed with AK- 47s, no match for Israeli firepower.
But amid the fighters and the youthful faces of Israeli soldiers, an old man emerges, bewildered by his night in the crossfire.
In the street, glass, bullet holes, and well after the shooting stopped, fire. On the sidewalk, the personal effects of those arrested.
At the Palestinian Authority headquarters, Israeli troops in complete control, although early in the day several gunshots could be heard from inside. Late in the day, the body of a Palestinian security force member taken out.
Yasser Arafat still confined to a two-room office, no end in sight to his isolation.
Michael Holmes, CNN, Ramallah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And Israel government indicating that it will keep its tanks and troops there as long as it takes, whether that is days or weeks or possibly even longer.
Let's talk about the Israeli position with Ra'anan Gissin, a senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
Good evening to you, thanks for staying up very late with us tonight.
As long as it takes, is the statement, we are told, as long as it takes for what, in terms of Yasser Arafat?
RA'ANAN GISSIN, SHARON ADVISER: You know, Yasser Arafat really left us with no choice, because for 18 months he launched a campaign of terrorism against us based on a strategy of terror and built a coalition of terror.
After 10 cease-fire that were violated and after 400 men, women, and children who lie dead as a result of the suicide bomber attacks and terrorist attacks, the Israeli public and the Israeli government said, Enough is enough.
HEMMER: But more to the point, what do you want Arafat to do at this point? What can he do to end this siege 10 miles from here?
GISSIN: It's not the question of Arafat. Arafat had to do in the past, and he failed. He didn't do what he promised to do. He didn't stop terrorism. And all those suicide bombers were incited by Arafat's speeches and continue to roam our streets and kill our men, women, and children and babies. I mean, maybe someone should be concerned about them and less about the fate of Mr. Arafat.
Now we have isolated Arafat, and that's for a purpose, because by isolating him, he doesn't have the contact with his coalition of terror, and by doing that, we can go step by step and dismantle that coalition of terror, and we start right at the center from Ramallah. That's where it is.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you are in top-level meetings among the Israeli government here. Is there talk among those circles that Israel would prefer if Yasser Arafat were out of the picture?
GISSIN: Well, look, this is not the question of us, and I think after all the assessment that we've done, Yasser Arafat is irrelevant. He's not the person that...
HEMMER: Clearly he's not irrelevant from an Israeli military position.
GISSIN: Well, he's -- he's...
HEMMER: He's surrounded by tanks and he's taken the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
GISSIN: That's -- that's because...
HEMMER: ... the world's attention for two days now. GISSIN: Yes. That's because he made himself only relevant terrorism, not relevant to peace. And to those among his people -- and I'm sure the majority of the Palestinian do want peace, and we offered peace, we had a peace plan. And the Palestinian could have had a state of their own maybe today, or on the way to a state of their own, had they accepted that proposition 18 months ago, which offered them 97 percent of the territory.
No other government is going to offer that generous offer. And yet Arafat rejected it, because he chose a strategy of terror. Now he's got to be isolated so that we can do the job that he himself said that he would do...
HEMMER: How long would that job...
GISSIN: ... dismantle the terror.
HEMMER: How long would that job take?
GISSIN: That depends very much on how long will it take for the Palestinian people and their leaders, whoever they may be, to come to the point, to come to the point and realize that this strategy of terror doesn't pay. And that it's leading them to destruction. The suicide bombers more than they're killing our people, they are destroying Palestinian society.
HEMMER: Could you negotiate with someone else better than Yasser Arafat?
GISSIN: Look, I think there are people, and the Palestinian people, you know, it's very tough to be a Palestinian. But there are people among the Palestinian leaders who understand very well that they have to come to a compromise solution and live alongside Israel. They can't replace Israel.
HEMMER: You know...
GISSIN: Yasser Arafat still belongs to the school that thinks that you can replace Israel by means of violence, terrorism, and incitement.
HEMMER: You said that your effort here is to eradicate terrorism and stop the threat to the Jewish people here in Israel. Yet even though you have tanks around Yasser Arafat's compound, there still was another bombing today in Tel Aviv, which tells a lot of people, despite what you do, maybe you can't stop it after all.
GISSIN: This is an unprecedented new type of terrorism that we have faced and no other nation, maybe with the exception of the United States on September 11. This brand of suicide bombers that has developed, by the way, originating with the Palestinian Authority here, with the instigation of Yasser Arafat, there is, there is a way to deal with it.
It's not going to be easy, it's going to be hard, long, and arduous. But the point is, it doesn't come from God or from heaven, it comes from leaders, and from teaching, and incitement, to teach young kids that they could be martyrs, glorifying their death.
That is -- there is a way, when you put pressure on the leaders, to stop it.
HEMMER: Well, Anthony Zinni's still in the region, and he is, by many accounts, the only game in town, we are told here, based on Israeli officials and conversations with them. Would you encourage Anthony Zinni to go inside that compound, possibly tomorrow or Monday, and sit down with Arafat?
GISSIN: Well, Anthony Zinni is a free agent. He's free to go wherever he wants.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
GISSIN: Well, look, we will help -- we said from the beginning that we'll do whatever effort it takes to help Anthony Zinni achieve a cease-fire. And we've done our part. And since Anthony Zinni came here, we paid heavily for that, 42 Israelis are dead, innocent civilians, which were targeted by the...
HEMMER: Is he ineffective, then, is that what you're suggesting?
GISSIN: I'm not saying. I'm saying that as long as he's here, and he is trying to put diligent effort into it -- and look, he's a professional military man with a lot of capabilities, and we appreciate all that he's doing. We will try to assist him.
But I think one must realize that if the pressure is not (UNINTELLIGIBLE) brought on Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to comply with it, there can't be a cease-fire.
We will continue this state military operation until such time that the Palestinian understand that their political horizon lies with compromise and negotiating with Israel, and there's no political compromise -- there's no political horizon whatsoever if they continue with suicide bombing.
HEMMER: Ra'anan Gissin, senior adviser to the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, thanks for your time again early this morning.
GISSIN: Thank you.
HEMMER: In a moment, we'll have the Palestinian perspective on our list. Also, the president today, President Bush speaking out from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. U.S. strategy, how is that impacted now? We'll have that for you when we come back here, live in Jerusalem.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: In the last 18 months of violence in the Middle East, more than 1,000 Palestinians and nearly 400 Israelis have been killed.
HEMMER: Palestinian leaders and Arab leaders in the region say they have been absolutely humiliated by the latest moves of the Israeli military in surrounding Yasser Arafat's compound, destroying parts of it and keeping him holed up since the month of December.
We just heard from the Israelis, now the Palestinians. A legislator in the Palestinian delegation, Hanan Ashrawi, is our guest now by telephone. She is here in Jerusalem as well.
Can you hear me OK?
HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR (on phone): Yes, I can, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HEMMER: OK. We had just heard from Ra'anan Gissin, who says that the terrorist sweep, in his words, will continue throughout the West Bank and Gaza until Israel believes it has satisfied its mission here. There was another suicide bombing today in Tel Aviv, 29 people injured there.
Why not get on the highest mountain in the Middle East and tell all the Palestinians and all the militant followers to just knock it off?
ASHRAWI: Well, why not start by telling the Israelis to stop their campaign of terror against the Palestinians and to stop producing suicide bombers daily as a reaction?
But I will tell you that repeatedly the Palestinians have refrained from responding to Israeli incursions, Israeli assassinations. They've repeatedly refrained from any kind of retaliation. And yet every time there's such a period, Sharon manages to find a way to escalate.
It is his policy, when will the world...
HEMMER: Wait a minute, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), wait a minute...
ASHRAWI: ... understand that...
HEMMER: ... you saying they have...
ASHRAWI: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- Sorry.
HEMMER: You're saying that the Palestinians have refrained from retaliation?
ASHRAWI: Yes.
HEMMER: Clearly that has not been the case this past week.
ASHRAWI: No, this past week has been a definite response, as much as we condemn the killing of innocents, the Palestinians have been killed in silence without the moral outrage throughout the world daily. We have close to 2,000 Palestinians, innocent people in their own homes and lands, massacred by the Israelis. And yet we don't see this moral outrage.
However, the last two weeks have seen another qualitative escalation, launched by Sharon himself, when he carried out incursions into the refugee camps, when he humiliated the whole nation, he collected all the young men of camps, towns, and villages who are already under siege. He placed numbers on their arms, and then they took them away. In addition to all the other deprivations of cutting off electricity, water, food.
This is a whole nation being held captive, and demanding to be guaranteed safety as -- from the consequences of its actions.
I think it is about time that people...
HEMMER: Mrs. Ashrawi...
ASHRAWI: ... address the occupation itself.
HEMMER: ... what makes -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE). What makes -- we're limited on time here, I apologize for the interruption. But what makes civilians at Passover dinner, what makes people going out to movie theaters and cafes and supermarkets, legitimate targets as Israeli civilians in this case?
ASHRAWI: No, they are not legitimate targets at all, and I said we condemn the killing of any innocents and any civilians. And that's why we say the killing of Palestinian innocents and civilians should be condemned as well.
The terrorism is not a Palestinian monopoly. Terrorism started with the Israeli occupation and the Israeli army has become a group of terrorists. They're carrying out some of the executions, they are killing people in cold blood. They're terrorizing a whole nation. And yet the term "terrorism" is used for Palestinians exclusively.
We are saying this insanity has to stop, and it stops only when you address the cause. And Sharon is the one who has thrown the whole region into this dangerous period of escalation and mutual killing.
We do not want to see civilians killed.
HEMMER: But...
ASHRAWI: We do not want to see our young people turn their bodies into weapons because they feel helpless and they have no weapons.
This shouldn't happen. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
HEMMER: What about this policy, then, what about this idea? Yes, what about this idea? Why not take the lead in this case, then? If indeed you believe Ariel Sharon is to blame, why not stand up an be counted and stick up and be very public about it?
ASHRAWI: We did, and we were very public. The question is, how can you tell people who are besieged, who cannot move, who cannot get out of their homes, whose leader is being deliberately held hostage by Sharon, that they have to issue orders? The people are not an army. You have to create a logic, a logic, a popular culture. And Sharon has created a logic of violence. We have tried repeatedly, but every time we speak out against these things, Sharon thwarts all our efforts. The Israeli army is in our towns, in our homes and our streets. The tanks are shelling our homes. We are not in their homes and streets.
Now, the important thing is not to keep reacting to the latest escalation, but to deal with the causes themselves. And these are the occupation and Sharon's futile and morally bankrupt policies of targeting a captive civilian population and thinking that he can get away with it.
HEMMER: Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian legislator here by telephone in Jerusalem, thanks for your comments tonight. It's very late tonight, we appreciate you staying up for us.
President Bush, meanwhile, was in Crawford, Texas, speaking publicly again, scolding Yasser Arafat and also telling the Israelis the current campaign right now to continue pushing for a path for peace.
This has been a major distraction for the White House when it comes to the war on terror, but right now the White House finds itself knee-deep in the Middle East peace process.
Major Garrett, traveling with the president, updates us from Crawford.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As much of the world protested Israel's attack on Yasser Arafat's headquarters, President Bush said Israel was acting in self-defense and blamed Arafat's siege on his refusal to curb Palestinian terror.
BUSH: I can understand why the Israeli government takes the actions they take. Their country's under attack. Every day there has been a suicide bombing. And every day the government sees the loss of innocent life.
GARRETT: As the president spoke, stretchers ferried the wounded in Tel Aviv, casualties of the third suicide terrorist bomb in four days.
BUSH: I think that Chairman Arafat can do a lot more. Truly believe that. I believe he needs to stand up and condemn in Arabic these attacks.
GARRETT: But U.S. support for Israel was not without limits. Earlier Saturday, the White House backed a Security Council resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Ramallah, but only after forcing the deletions of sections condemning Israel and setting a date certain for that withdrawal.
Eager to dispel any impression that his Easter vacation was occupying more of his time than the Middle East crisis, Mr. Bush called several world leaders Saturday, among them Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. He then summoned reporters to this double-wide trailer near his ranch, stunning aides who had only moments before said the president would spend a quiet day relaxing with family and friends.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell called Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, urging calm.
For his part, the president dismissed the need to speak, as other world leaders have, with Arafat himself.
BUSH: Mr. Arafat, he doesn't need a phone call from me. All he's got to do is react to what I just said.
GARRETT (on camera): White House critics say calls for Arafat to stop terror are meaningless while he is under siege. Top White House officials counter that cease-fire talks can't survive repeated suicide bomb attacks, and, then add somewhat icily, if Arafat has time for media interviews, he has time to condemn terror.
Major Garrett, CNN, Crawford, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And there is this now from the U.N. In a marathon session that went well into the night Friday night and early into the morning Saturday morning, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution, 14-nothing, unanimous vote there, Syria the only abstention. It calls for Israel to remove its tanks immediately around Yasser Arafat's compound and work immediately toward a cease- fire.
Clearly, this vote was met with separate reactions by the two sides in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NASSER AL-KIDWA, PALESTINIAN DELEGATE TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Fourteen-zero-two is an important step, which could contribute in achieving certain goals, including, of course, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah. And we said that we are ready to implement the provisions of the resolution.
YEHUDA LANCRY, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We didn't expect precisely the outcome of this resolution. We do believe that in a way, this resolution distorts the very foundation of the Israeli military operation based on our right to settle difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Again, the U.N. Security Council passing that resolution. We will see what sort of impact that may have in the coming days here in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, as one can imagine, Palestinian anger runs deep here. And in fact, in the old city of Jerusalem, in the Arab quarter, you can also find a great deal of depression and sometimes despair at the current situation.
Ben Wedeman today took the pulse of the Palestinians.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN (voice-over): European activists play what they say is a tune of peace at an Israeli checkpoint north of Jerusalem, a gesture appreciated by the residents of this Palestinian neighborhood, but not one that inspired optimism.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don't think peace will ever come here till the coming of Jesus Christ.
WEDEMAN: In Jerusalem's old city, a quiet day. Most stores shuttered in protest over Israel's occupation of Ramallah.
With the Palestinian leader confined to just a few rooms in his headquarters, the feelings here are of despair, but also defiance.
"Israel now occupies Ramallah, and maybe will occupy the whole West Bank," says this man. "Israel can do whatever it wants, but we will not be broken. We will fight back."
A sore point is the failure of Arab leaders to do little more than issue empty declarations of condemnation.
"Those leaders are garbage," says this young man. "We shouldn't call them leaders of the Arabs. They are the garbage of the Arabs. They all work for the Americans."
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The Arab leaders are an employee under the American administration, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), all of them want to comply with American wishes.
WEDEMAN: The United States, widely perceived by Palestinians as siding with Israel, is also the object of anger here.
"Colin Powell says America understands why Israel invaded Ramallah," says this man. "But when two weeks ago 50 or 60 Palestinians were killed in one day, Powell said nothing."
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I don't like it, America, I don't like it.
WEDEMAN (on camera): The events of the past few days, especially Israel's occupation of Yasser Arafat's headquarters, have left many Palestinians bitter, angry, and humiliated, humiliation that won't be easily forgiven or forgotten.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Once again, it is early in the morning on Easter Sunday here in Jerusalem, 4:30 local time. In about 90 minutes' time, the sun will be back up once again. A new day will dawn. And just like the past two days, it is anyone's guess which way the region will tilt once the day comes again here in the Middle East.
The tension is here, that is quite apparent. It's also quite apparent that a peace process is far removed.
In a moment, Carol Lin comes back. We'll go live from London. Britain mourns the death of the Queen Mum, 101 years young, and what a life she lived. We'll have that for you when our coverage continues.
In the meantime, I'm Bill Hemmer. We'll see you again tomorrow, LIVE FROM JERUSALEM.
ANNOUNCER: Next, a day of mourning and remembrance in England.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: She wasn't just loved and revered by the British people, but throughout the world she was held in the most enormous affection and respect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Britain loses its beloved Queen Mother.
LIVE FROM JERUSALEM WITH BILL HEMMER is back in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: She became a queen and gave birth to a future queen, and in the process became beloved by the British people. The queen mother died in her sleep today at the royal lodge in Windsor after weeks of fragile health.
She was 101 years old.
Britain is mourning the loss of the most beloved member of the royal family, the queen mother. After years of bad health, the queen mum died peacefully in her sleep today, months shy of her 102nd birthday.
Our senior international correspondent, Walt Rodgers, takes a look at her extraordinary life and the legacy she leaves behind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): For the better part of a century, she waved to the British people, first as the duchess of York, then queen, then later as queen mother.
Now it is Britain's turn to wave goodbye. Few alive today recall that it was the queen mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who actually rescued the British monarchy before the Second World War, rescued it during the 1936 abdication crisis. For that, she earned the undying gratitude of the British people.
KITTY KELLY, AUTHOR: We especially love her because she turned her husband into a king and helped him stand up and help Britain win the war.
RODGERS: In 1936, Britain's crisis was not war, it was the decision of King Edward VIII to give up the throne. He wanted to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, and chose to abdicate to do it.
One journalist called the abdication "the greatest news story since the resurrection." At that time, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon was the duchess of York, sister-in-law of Edward the abdicator. He stepped down because, he said, he could not reign without the woman he loved. To marry the woman he loved, Edward had to give up the British throne.
Elizabeth was married to Edward's brother George, who was next in line. By all accounts, George dreaded the thought of becoming king, dreaded the spotlight. So did his wife, Elizabeth. She was angry. This absence of choice was thrust upon her and her husband. She knew her husband was ill equipped, feared he would not make it.
BEN PIMLOTT, ROYAL BIOGRAPHER: He faced this appalling prospect for a very shy, very nervous, very stuttering, and not very intellectual young man to suddenly have to take on this astonishing role, and she had to support him. And she felt protective towards him, and furious with the man and the woman who'd forced this to happen.
RODGERS: There were very real concerns George VI could not cope. His hobby was needlework. At the time, England was headed for war with Hitler. Some feared he would not make it through his own coronation.
It was Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, the woman who then became queen and mother to the current queen, who gave her husband courage, strength, and spine. Scots blood coursed through her, the steel of Macbeth, some said. If her husband was not ready, reluctantly, she was.
SALLY CARTWRIGHT, ROYALS WRITER: What she saw was the huge, unbelievable burden that had been imposed on her husband and her children because of Wallis Simpson. They could have grown up, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, in a relatively normal fashion. Her husband would probably have lived for many years longer had it not been for Wallis Simpson.
RODGERS: Wallis Simpson simply was not acceptable in Britain or to the Commonwealth in 1936. She was divorced, she was American, she was a commoner. Worse, she had made an enemy of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, the woman who became queen and later queen mother.
PIMLOTT: The reality of the situation is that Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother as she became, did not particularly like Wallis Simpson, felt that she had led her brother-in-law astray, resented her for the fact that she had catapulted her husband onto the throne which he did not want.
RODGERS: And there lies one of history's great riddles. Why would the queen mother so dislike the woman who paved the way for her to become queen? One theory, jealousy. Elizabeth was one of the many women that Edward passed over before falling in love with Wallis Simpson.
KELLY: He had sad blue eyes, and wherever he went, people wanted to be in his presence. She too fell under that spell.
RODGERS: In subsequent decades, the royal family came to dismiss that as mere rumor.
If truth be told, however, Edward VIII may have been unsuited to be king -- foppish, feckless, privately sympathetic to Adolf Hitler.
So Edward abdicated, gave up his throne. His brother George VI didn't want it, but his wife, herself a commoner, saved the royal family in this crisis.
KELLY: It was the best thing that ever happened to the royal family. It saved the House of Windsor. It took somebody, a commoner, a Scottish aristocrat but nevertheless a commoner, to really put some tough fiber and sensibility, and she became very royal as she went on.
RODGERS: On that one issue, nearly everyone agrees.
PIMLOTT: I think the queen mother provided a great ballast of stability. She was a strong woman, and who strengthened, reinvigorated, the dynasty. And in a sense, her legacy is to be found in Queen Elizabeth II, who is also a considerable monarch.
RODGERS: Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, mother to a queen, wife to a king, sister-in-law to another king. Not considered the intellectual equal of the first Queen Elizabeth, but certainly her equal in force of will.
It was that will that rescued the British monarchy in the great abdication crisis, that will which strengthened her husband during the Second World War, and it was her will power which helped hold the British monarchy together through two more generations, through the divorces of Charles and Diana, Ann and Mark Phillips, Andrew and Fergie.
Now one can only guess how the royal family will manage without her.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: One of the queen mother's passions was horse racing. She was called the first lady of the steeplechase, and one of England's greatest races was named after her, the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
LIN: Scores of mourners, many bearing flowers, have gathered outside Buckingham Palace in an outpouring of grief over the death of the queen mum.
Our Richard Quest is live at the palace right now.
Richard, it's very late there. Is there any activity right now?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... in the middle of the night in London, well and truly (AUDIO GAP). No, the last stragglers, the tourists and the visitors, have now left the palace. The gates behind (AUDIO GAP) all empty. Only the sign, the official (AUDIO GAP) put up after the death of the queen mother is there. It basically says that the queen, with great sadness, announces the death of her beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, and that other members of the royal family have been informed.
Several hundred people here were here at earlier parts of the evening, and many of them left flowers and wrote notes of tribute. They're being kept just at the side (AUDIO GAP).
Let me, Carol, read you one or two of the notes, because I think more than anything else, they do sum up the mood of the nation. After all, the queen mother was 101, so something that was going to happen and was going to happen sooner rather than later.
The fact that it's happened has created great sadness. One person wrote, "The nation's ground (ph), a remarkable lady." And perhaps, Carol, the most important thing is, remember, here in Britain she wasn't known as the queen mother, she was just known as the queen mum.
That's the most fitting tribute.
LIN: It certainly is, Richard, and what a rich life indeed, 101 years old. I think a friend of hers said she was not simply an historical figure, she was history, her life spanning so many events in the 20th and 20th -- 21st century.
Thank you very much, Richard Quest, reporting live from London.
Well, the death of the queen mother, Queen Mother Elizabeth, ends a long and often dramatic chapter in British royal history. Throughout the half-century reign of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, the queen mum has been a beloved and reassuring presence.
Gerald and Deborah Strober are the author of "Monarchy: The Oral Biography of Elizabeth II," and Anne-Marie O'Neill is a senior editor for "People" magazine. And they all join us from New York.
Good evening to all of you.
ANNE-MARIE O'NEILL, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Good evening.
Anne-Marie, I'm wondering if I could start with you. "People" magazine obviously done so much coverage with the royal family. But the queen mum was not exactly your typical cover girl, at least here in the United States.
What is it about her that you're going to miss?
O'NEILL: I'm sure, if there was a "People" magazine in the '40s, '50s, and even perhaps the '60s, she may have been a cover girl, because she really was the fun woman of her times. She was in a way the Princess Diana of her times. She was someone who is lots of fun, she was always out and about, and if Diana was the people's princess, then she was the people's queen.
And I think that's what most people will miss about the queen mum.
LIN: Really? So she was rather spunky in her time, you're saying. She always looked so prim and proper...
O'NEILL: She really was.
LIN: ... to us Americans.
O'NEILL: Oh, really, well, she seems prim and proper, and she certainly was very regal, and make no mistake, she was very regal. But in the '20s, she was known as the best dancer in London, and as she got older she liked to have a gin and Dubonnet every day. That was her favorite drink. She liked to have a tipple on the ponies, and she was known as someone who could really make you laugh, among her friends.
And even her grandsons, William and Harry, love to be around her, because she's just -- was considered so much fun.
So while she had this public face that was very regal, she was also able to have a joke and have a drink and play the ponies.
So, you know, she really was a fun person to be around, apparently.
LIN: Gerald and Deborah Strober, we understand that Queen Elizabeth, the queen mum's daughter, was at her mother's bedside when she passed. What was their relationship like?
DEBORAH STROBER, ELIZABETH II BIOGRAPHER: They were very, very close. The king, King George VI, had coined the term "we four" to describe the small family unit, and the queen was really her daughter's tutor in the was of reigning, and imbued her with a sense of tremendous duty.
LIN: So why is it that the queen mum did not pass on -- I don't know, it sounds judgmental on my part, but did not pass on that sense of regalness to the current generation? I mean, obviously, the royal family plagued by so many scandals in the last 10, 15 years.
GERALD STROBER, ELIZABETH II BIOGRAPHER: Well, obviously it's a dysfunctional family. I think you have two sides of a coin in the mother and the daughter. The mother was the gregarious person, loved by the masses of people both in Britain and in the Commonwealth and around the world, indeed. The daughter, very regal, tremendous attention to duty, at times austere, having difficulty communicating with the masses.
And I think the great problem for the monarchy as a result of this tragic passing of the queen mother today will be how Elizabeth will be able to relate to the larger number of people, both within Britain, the kingdom, and the Commonwealth.
She will have to adopt, perhaps, some of the techniques that made her mother so loved and so famous.
LIN: Do you think the queen mum expressed any opinion to her daughter about the succession question, whether Charles in fact should be king, or whether William should take on that responsibility?
DEBORAH STROBER: I do -- we are not privy to those types of family discussions. She, the queen mother, was very close with Charles. She admired him, he admired her. So I can't imagine that she would have had any negative feelings about his succeeding.
GERALD STROBER: I also think, Carol, that in your story before, and Walter Rodgers mentioned the whole question of abdication. We are convinced that Elizabeth II will not retire or abdicate. That whole sense of abdication is a rather pejorative thing within Britain.
So Charles will be king if he should outlive his mother, and let's face it, there is longevity on the female side of the family.
Beyond that, it is William, and that is the great question. How will William take on his role as king. The future of the monarchy surely lies with him.
LIN: Yes, and Anne-Marie, I mean, I think even your magazine has been reporting that William has been reluctant, even scorning the fact that he may becoming king one day, that he really wants to just lead a very normal life. So in the passing of the queen mum, is that the passing of a traditional generation of royals?
O'NEILL: I think you're seeing the passing of the royals as we knew them in the '50s, '60s, '70s. I think that change already occurred in the royal family with Diana and with Sarah Ferguson coming in and kind of shaking up the ship a little bit. But I think that William has shown himself to be extremely regal in his behavior for an 18-year-old. If you compare William and Harry, for instance, you know, Harry's been up to some mischief. But William has always been very, very, you know, quiet, has not made a fool of himself in public by any means.
At one point, was saying things like, you know, he did not want to take the throne, he didn't want to be king of England. But he's even stopped saying things like that as he's matured. I think he realizes he has this really important responsibility ahead. And he's right now living his life as someone who will one day have to be king of England if the monarchy survives.
LIN: So Anne-Marie, what do you think the next big story is going to be with the royals, then? O'NEILL: The next big story? Well, well, with the passing of the queen mother, I think maybe Charles and Camilla may have a story in the works. I think, you know, if it -- they ever get to the point where the public accepts them being married, and if the queen accepts them being married, they may finally take that step. That's all very up in the air.
And after that, I guess, we'll be watching William.
LIN: You bet. All right, and watching them on the pages of "People" magazine, I'm sure.
Anne-Marie O'Neill, thank you very much.
O'NEILL: Thank you.
LIN: Gerald and Deborah Strober, thank you for joining us this evening.
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