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Ramallah: Arafat's Next Step
Aired May 02, 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: A new push for Mideast peace. An international peace conference is in the works.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is the time for prompt action, to take advantage of this new window of opportunity that has been presented to us, and we intend to do just that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Stepping out and taking sides. A smiling Yasser Arafat emerges from his compound, and surveys the scene in war-torn Ramallah. He's no longer surrounded by Israeli tanks, but how far can Yasser Arafat go?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The end of a long siege, Arafat is now free to travel where he wishes. The question is yet unanswered by the Israelis, if Arafat leaves the Palestinian territories, will he be allowed to return?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Battle in Bethlehem. A war of words over the fire and firefight at the Church of the Nativity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Palestinians have planted bombs, and we know that some doors have been booby trapped by the Palestinians in the church.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can Palestinians do that to the church while they're inside?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: LIVE FROM RAMALLAH: Arafat's next step. Now here's Mike Hanna.
MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time in five months, Yasser Arafat is able to leave this West Bank city of Ramallah and travel wherever he will. And perhaps his travels will take him to a newly announced international peace conference on the Middle East. The date, the place, and the agenda are still to be worked out, but in announcing the conference a few hours ago U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared to indicate that the West is able to work with Yasser Arafat one more time.
From Washington, I'm joined by senior White House correspondent John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Mike, the improving situation where you are in Ramallah. One of the reasons Secretary Powell says there is now a window of opportunity. Others might dispute that. Still a stand off in Bethlehem, still no cease- fire. A war of words between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership. Yet one tool of diplomacy is to hold out the prospect for progress, that with the administration, working with the United Nations, the Russians and Europeans doing today and announcing it plans for its conference -- the hope for dramatic progress between the Israelis and the Palestinians early this summer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): The president huddled with European leaders to discuss the next steps in Middle East diplomacy. A summer peace conference is one part of the puzzle, positive thinking another.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In this world there are people who think the glass is either half-empty or half- full. I tend to look at it as half-full. I'm optimistic we're making good progress.
KING: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is now free to roam the Palestinian territories. And one White House worry is that his labeling the Israelis as racist and barbarians will encourage violence.
BUSH: He has been disappointing, he's disappointed. He's had some chance to grab the peace and hasn't done so in the past. And therefore, he's let down the Palestinian people. Now's a chance to show he can lead.
KING: Secretary of State Powell called Mr. Arafat late Wednesday, and told him his words and actions over the next several days will be closely watched in Washington.
POWELL: Mr. Arafat, I hope, will understand that he doesn't have many more chances to seize this kind of an opportunity.
KING: A message to Israel, as well. Mr. Bush called for a negotiated end to the occupation of Palestinian lands. And the White House said that the Palestinian leader wants to travel to Arab capitals, Israel must guarantee that he can return home. ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yasser Arafat is now free to travel, and that includes to return to Ramallah, or to the Gaza Strip, as part of the agreement.
KING: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Jordan's King Abdullah come calling on the White House next week. A key goal of those talks is to make sure a peace conference, most likely at the foreign minister level, is worth having.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And the target for that peace conference would be in early June, we are told, most likely in Europe. The agenda would include security issues, as well as economic and humanitarian aid to the region, especially the Palestinians. But the main goal would be to discuss an accelerated timetable for negotiations, to put to the test whether, after nearly two years of deadly violence, the Israelis and the Palestinians are ready, once again, to sit at the same table and talk peace -- Mike.
HANNA: John, there appears to be a real desire to seize on the momentum that appears to have been created by Arafat's release from confinement. Is that very much the sense that you feel in Washington?
KING: It is the sense to seize on what little momentum there has been, remember, still the big issues to be resolved. But the hope here is by holding out the prospect of a conference, economic aid, humanitarian aid, security cooperation and perhaps the grand bargain, peace negotiations, that that will serve as an incentive to the parties to simply behave, if you will.
The White House is worried what Arafat says and does in the days ahead. Mr. Sharon is coming here next week. The president wants concessions from him, including a lifting of the economic restrictions on the Palestinians. By holding out the prospect of this major international gathering they hope it serves as a stick, encouraging the parties to make more progress, and certainly not to do anything that would encourage setbacks -- Mike.
HANNA: John King in Washington, thank you very much.
Well, here in Ramallah, Arafat's release from confinement is the result of intricate negotiations that were sparked off by a proposal from the U.S. president. Six Palestinians wanted by Israel, who Arafat had refused to hand over, were transported to a prison in Jericho where they are being guarded by U.S. and British security officials.
The Israeli troops withdrew from around this compound, and within hours Yasser Arafat was once again walking the streets of Ramallah. Here's CNN's Rula Amin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yasser Arafat emerged from his confinement with a victory sign, surrounded by bodyguards and many others who were able to get close to him by pushing their way through the crowd. His first stop: Ramallah Hospital. Among the wounded were some of his bodyguards, injured during the standoff around his compound. At the hospital he all paid his respects at what's called the martyr's grave. Palestinians who were killed during Israel's latest incursion and couldn't be buried at the cemetery because of the curfew, so they were buried at this mass grave.
At the Education Ministry, Palestinian school children met him there. They chanted, "we will sacrifice our souls and blood for you." He responded, "We sacrifice it for Palestine." They repeated after him. The main focus for the Palestinian leader was to assess the damage from Israel's incursion and start the rebuilding process.
YASSER ARAFAT, PRESIDENT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: My message for the whole international community. They have to come and to see the big crimes, which have been done every place, all over Palestine.
AMIN: The most significant stop of the day was here, where Yasser Arafat came face to face with the damage to his power structure. This is the headquarters of the Palestinian Preventive Security Division, built with millions of dollars financed by Europe and the U.S. with the CIA help. Very badly damaged during an Israeli siege on it last month.
(on camera): Conflicting pressure mounting on Yasser Arafat. On the one hand, the U.S. and the Europeans expect the Palestinian leader to crack down harder now on Palestinian militants to end attacks against Israelis. On the other hand, one of his most effective tools against such attacks had been severely damaged.
(voice-over): The chief of security speaks of the limitations.
JIBRIL RAJOUB, WEST BANK SECURITY CHIEF: I don't think that the security institutions could prevent anything because blood drags blood.
AMIN: Rula Amin, CNN, Ramallah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA: Everywhere he went Thursday, Yasser Arafat was surrounded by well wishers. But beyond the fringes of the crowd, parts of Ramallah and certainly this compound itself were left in shambles.
CNN's Matthew Chance took a look around.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after, at Yasser Arafat's battered compound.
The extent of damage sustained here, staggering to the hundreds who have come to see.
(on camera): Let's take a look at the devastation left behind, now that this siege of the presidential compound has come to an end. This, the building Yasser Arafat was holed up inside for more than a month, with several hundred others. Conditions inside pretty appalling.
The clear up operation is under way here. Here we can see a couple of members of the Palestinian Security Forces clearing away what looks like an armored shield which they stood up or used as protection against the Israeli military.
Behind that, an indication of the ferocity of the fighting that took place in this compound. Scorched buildings. Bullet holes in the wall. Inside, the clear up operation is underway.
(voice-over): We gained access to the buildings in the hours after the siege came to an end.
Palestinian guards, holed up with Yasser Arafat in these destroyed quarters, showed us how Israeli troops, in their words, have ransacked the offices inside.
SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: I don't think we have command centers anymore. I don't have a communication center anymore. I don't have vehicles for the Security Forces anymore. I don't think we have buildings or headquarters -- it's totally destroyed. Total devastation. Anyone tells you otherwise, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
CHANCE (on camera): Israel's intention may have been to isolate Yasser Arafat and to make him irrelevant.
But many ordinary Palestinians have come here to see for themselves how much damage has been sustained, and what their leader has had to endure. And that has made a man, who to many was an ineffectual politician, turn back once again into the hero of the Palestinian cause.
Matthew Chance, CNN, at the presidential compound in Ramallah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA: No doubt we'll see the pictures of Yasser Arafat flashing a V for victory sign time and time again. But he's been through a very long ordeal here, much longer than the weeks that he spent pent inside the compound itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't know he was free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First time we're hearing about it.
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I work for CNN. I'm doing a story about Arafat being released today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arafat what? OK, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). For now, it's not the issue, it's not the real issue, to say (UNINTELLIGIBLE) children play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA (voice-over): Palestinians take to the streets of Ramallah, celebrating an end to the Israeli restrictions on the movement of Yasser Arafat, restrictions which have effectively confined the Palestinian leader to the West Bank city for the past five months.
The restrictions initially imposed by Israel in the most direct of ways. On the 3rd of December, Israeli helicopters launched a missile attack on Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City, destroying beyond repair his Russian-made helicopters, which had been his primary mode of transport in the region. This just one in a series of Israeli military strikes launched in the wake of Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians.
In a 12-hour period, 25 Israelis have been killed and some 300 injured in two separate suicide bomb attacks in Israeli cities. Arafat was stranded in his Ramallah headquarters; Israeli forces blockading the city preventing the Palestinian leader from traveling by land.
On the 16th of December, Arafat made his strongest public call yet for a cease-fire, insisting that Palestinians end all attacks against Israeli civilians, but still no end to his confinement.
The assassination of an Israeli government minister weeks before now being linked for the first time to the restrictions on Arafat's movement. Rehavam Zeevi has been gunned down in an East Jerusalem hotel at the end of October, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly announced that Arafat would not be allowed to leave Ramallah as long as Zeevi's killers remained at large.
Christmas arrived, and Arafat was not even allowed to make the short journey to Bethlehem to attend the traditional midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity.
Then a new explosion of violence. A group of Israeli soldiers were killed in a Palestinian attack. A senior Palestinian militant leader was killed in a bomb blast. His followers insisted it was an Israeli assassination. And a few days later, a Palestinian gunman killed six Israelis celebrating a bat mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ritual for a young girl.
On January the 18th, Israeli tanks moved to the very edge of Arafat's Ramallah compound, narrowing the area in which he could move to the few hundred square yards of the compound itself.
Some international visitors came and went. Among them, U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. But while at one stage the Israelis withdrew back to the edges of Ramallah, Arafat remained confined to the city even as an Arab summit took place in Beirut on March the 26th. Then on March the 27th, the bloodiest Palestinian attack in 19 months of conflict -- 28 Israelis celebrating the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday in Netanya hotel were killed in a suicide bombing.
(on camera): The tanks moved back in, this time not stopping outside the compound but battering down the walls as Israeli forces seized control of a large part of Arafat's headquarters.
(voice-over): The Palestinian leader, now restricted to a single office wing in the compound, was declared an enemy by the Israeli cabinet.
Holed up along with Arafat, six men that Israel said were wanted terrorists. Among them, the killers of the Rehavam Zeevi.
Last week, the four involved in Zeevi's killing were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment by a makeshift tribunal in Arafat's besieged office. The bizarre legal proceeding dismissed out of hand by Israel, which in recent weeks has been demanding not only that the men be put on trial, but also that they be put on trial in an Israeli court.
The siege of Arafat's compound ending only after these four, along with another two wanted by Israel, were placed in a jail in Jericho, under U.S. and British supervision.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA: If, as we saw earlier, Yasser Arafat is again a hero among the Palestinian people, what have recent events done to his image among Israeli citizens? CNN's Jason Bellini went looking for answers on a Tel Aviv beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't know he was free. Arafat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first time we're hearing about it.
BELLINI (on camera): I work for CNN. I'm doing a story about Arafat being released today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arafat what? OK. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for now it's not the issue; it's not the real issue to say that is he free or not, because it's like to play -- children play, to release him, not to release him. They close his house, they didn't close it. You know, it's not the real thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe this gesture will bring the conclusion that there's no other way but for him to really dialogue with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I think? Well, I am not sure it's right idea, you know, to let him go, you know? It's going to be the same as it was before. You know?
BELLINI: Same as before. What do you mean?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I mean, terrorism acts in Tel Aviv, in Israel, you know, all around the country. It's going to be the same.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't put the blame of all what's happening on one man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crazy man. Very crazy man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't use him like the symbol of evil.
BELLINI: I have come here to the Tel Aviv beach front, because here you'd expect to find -- and you do find -- some of the more moderate Israelis and a real diversity of views. Even some close friends I have met disagree with one another on the question of whether Arafat should be free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone is right. And everyone is wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that's not the question he's asking -- if to release him. I mean, he is not the one that we should negotiate with him. He's not. That's for sure. I can't trust him. No way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But what leader, you want to speak with whom?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. Somebody else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But there is none. I don't know. It's very complicated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let him go, and just, you know, keep an eye on him or something. But that's it.
BELLINI: What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't agree.
BELLINI: You don't agree with your boyfriend, or whoever he is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't agree.
BELLINI (voice-over): Jason Bellini, CNN, Tel Aviv, Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Next, we'll speak with Israeli and Palestinian officials about today's major developments in the Mideast.
Plus, the confrontation and finger-pointing on holy ground. The latest from the Church of the Nativity.
And later, Yasser Arafat's nemesis. Can Ariel Sharon go from confrontation to peacemaking?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the time to make concessions when you are on top. And we are on top.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNA: Welcome back to "LIVE FROM RAMALLAH."
Within the last few minutes, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has formally disbanded the U.N. fact-finding commission on Jenin. The commission had been formed to investigate what happened in the West Bank town when Israeli forces moved in. However, ever since its announcement of its formation, there has been an ongoing dispute with Israel as to its composition and as to the work it was going to do -- the dispute now ended, with the U.N. Secretary General formally announcing that that some 20-member commission has been disbanded.
Well, now, for the point of view from inside Israel on the prospect of peace, dealing with Arafat from here on, and the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush, I'm joined from Jerusalem by a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Gideon Meir.
Thank you very much for joining us, Mr. Meir.
GIDEON MEIR, SENIOR ISRAELI GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: My pleasure.
HANNA: Firstly, we have a situation here where now this U.N. committee has been disbanded. Your comment on that? Do you think Israel has got a victory here?
MEIR: I will not talk in terms of victory. Israel was very much concerned that we will be the only one who will be blamed for something which we never committed.
Everyone knows now there was no massacre. So, there is no reason for a fact-finding mission, unless, really, the fact-finding team would like also to check: What was the cause that had Israel to go into Jenin? We know, yes, there was devastation in 10 percent of the camp; 130 builds were destroyed, unfortunately. But, you know, to destroy buildings is much better than to kill people.
There were very little casualties there, almost no civilians. And this is what is important. So, if the secretary decided to abandon the team, I think it's something which Israel will be blessed here, because the committee wanted to check only on Israel, on what Israel's performance in Jenin. I think this was wrong. I think the composition of the team was wrong, because we were expecting that there were experts on infantry in urban areas, experts of terror, because there was a reason why Israel went into Jenin. And it's not just enough to check the result. It was very, very important that also the cause will be checked. HANNA: Mr. Meir, we've heard the U.S. secretary of state announce an international peace conference. What is Israel's reaction to this announcement?
MEIR: I don't know at this moment, because the announcement was only a couple of hours ago. And we didn't have time yet. It's very early morning here in Israel. And we didn't have time yet to check this proposal. And I don't know what the details are.
I assume the details will be talked between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon in their meeting this coming Monday. There is a proposal by the Israeli prime minister to have a regional peace conference. And, as I said, both will be discussed between the president of the United States of America and Prime Minister Sharon.
HANNA: A last question, Mr. Meir. And that is, now that Yasser Arafat has been released from confinement, what is Israel looking to him to do?
MEIR: Now that Arafat is free, he is free to fight terror. And, actually, Israel made it easy for him, because we had to fight terror. We had to crack down on terrorist organizations. We arrested many of the terrorists. Some of them were killed. Some of them were arrested.
So, actually, it's much easier for him right now to fight terror. And if Yasser Arafat will make the necessary strategic change, I really think it is a window of opportunity. I think we might start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Even though it's a very small light, I think maybe this opening and that he will start to fight terror will bring us, both parties, together in order to start to implement the Mitchell report, and finally to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people, as well as us here in Israel from the vicious terror attacks which we experienced.
It's a new opportunity. It's a new window. It's a new light at the end of the tunnel.
HANNA: Gideon Meir, senior Foreign Ministry official, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.
In a moment, we'll talk to the Palestinian minister of information.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Ramallah is one of the largest cities in the West Bank. More than 220,000 people call the city and the surrounding area home. Ramallah was once a popular resort destination and cultural center.
HANNA: Here at the compound, Palestinian leaders have been meeting throughout the day to discuss what happens next, and a few hours ago I heard from the Palestinian Minister of Information that there are calls for international help in rebuilding this wrecked area. However, I also put to him that the U.S. administration in particular is expecting things from Yasser Arafat, and I asked him is Yasser Arafat going to clamp down on terror.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YASSER ABED RABBO, PALESTINIAN INFORMATION MINISTER: We need, in fact, and this is what we had told the Americans, the Europeans and others, we need the presence of international forces, at least at the beginning of the presence of international observers in order to monitor the situation.
We can not here start building once again our security services and the whole city as all other Palestinian cities are under siege. The Israeli tanks are a few hundred yards away from here, and any Palestinian policeman, even if he is a tourist policeman you see, is threatened to be attacked by these Israeli tanks. So we need the international protection at this moment.
HANNA (voice over): You mention an international monitoring force. The deal whereby this has come about was the fact that Palestinians have been put under guard by U.S. and British security officials. Do you see this as the first step to that kind of international participation that you are demanding?
RABBO: We hope so, in fact, and we feel that there is an understanding for this demand in all the talks we had whether with American officials or with other European and international officials, and they know that in the present circumstances without the interference of a fair party, not only as diplomats but even as observers on the ground, the situation might deteriorate more and more and then the whole area will be affected and international peace as well will be in danger.
HANNA: Given at present the lack of Palestinian effective services, given the lack of full international monitoring, given the activities of the Israeli army as you point out, leaving all that aside, what is the Palestinian Authority itself going to do in order to insure that a peaceful situation remains to allow that kind of political process to begin again?
RABBO: Well, in fact, as some Americans pointed in the past few weeks, they discovered that pure security measure will not help in bringing security and peace to this region. There is a need for a quick political process, and that's why there are talks now about international conference.
We believe that this should be a priority, side by side with the presence of international monitors, because with the international presence, with the international conference here, this will give hope for the people.
This will show them that there is some light at the end of the tunnel, and this will enable us and help us to convince everybody here that we should give a chance for this peaceful attempt once again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA (on camera): That was Palestinian Minister of Information Yasser Abed Rabbo speaking to me a few hours ago. There will be more in LIVE FROM RAMALLAH coming up right after this.
ANNOUNCER: Our next stop, Bethlehem, assessing the damage at the Church of the Nativity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR HANNAN NASSER, BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK: There are some damages, but of course we can not now submit how much the damage is unless we go inside and see that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: And later, a Middle East specialty, the war of words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arafat is a terrorist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing more terrorist than taking people's hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity is the oldest church in the Holy Land. Construction ordered by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine started in 323. The church was rebuilt in the mid 500s on orders of the Emperor Justinian.
HANNA: The lengthy siege of Yasser Arafat's compound has ended, but some 20 miles away another dangerous standoff is still to be resolved. Israeli forces there surround another compound, that of the Church of the Nativity as they have for the past month, and in the early hours of the morning, Manger Square once again echoed with the sound of gunfire.
Throughout the day, Israelis and Palestinians have traded accusations about who was responsible for fires set around the compound. Here's CNN's Senior International Correspondent Walter Rodgers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was these explosions in Manger Square triggered by the Israeli army, which Palestinians cite to back up their claim Israel was responsible for the two fires in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, except look in the lower left corner. The main fire in the Franciscan's priory is already burning, lending plausibility to the Israeli claim Palestinians deliberately started the fires.
COLONEL OLIVIER RAFOWICZ, IDF SPOKESMAN: We know for sure that the fire is a result of the Palestinian action in the church.
RODGERS: Still, Palestinians are ever willing to believe the worst about the Israelis.
NASSER: Those bombs, lightning bombs that have been thrown into the sky of the Church of the Nativity, these bombs have caused the burning of the dormitory of the Greek Orthodox and the reception hall at the Franciscan side.
RODGERS: Israel did fire three different flares near the Church of the Nativity, but a check of CNN videotapes indicates they fell away from where the fires were ignited. An examination of these Israeli-supplied photos of the fire damage reveals no evidence of any flares, nor other ordinance hitting the church roof. Indeed, the Israelis claim the glass chards lying outside the building reinforces their claim the fires were started within. Palestinians reject the photographs.
ZIAD AL BANDAK, BETHLEHEM DEPUTY MAYOR: They are experts in giving the fact its opposite side.
RODGERS: Still, one Israeli charge against the Palestinians, if true, has chilling implications for the church built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth.
RAFOWICZ: They planted, the Palestinians planted bombs and we know that some entrant doors have been booby-trapped by the Palestinians in the church.
RODGERS: In Manger Square outside the church, there was little external evidence of major fire damage, but the human toll from this standoff rose again as two more Palestinians in the church compound were felled by Israeli snipers.
Since the standoff began a month ago, the Israelis have been steadily revising downward the number of people they say remain inside the Church of the Nativity. Now they say it's in the neighborhood of dozens. Eighty people have been freed, released and the Israelis say their snipers have killed five Palestinian gunmen inside the church.
The numbers inside the church jumped again later, however, when more than half a dozen peace activists, sympathetic to the Palestinians' plight rushed the door to join those inside, leaving more than a few embarrassed Israeli soldiers who let them slip by. Walter Rodgers, CNN, Bethlehem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA: In a moment, an old military commander of Ariel Sharon's says what he thinks the prime minister should do next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNA: In Jerusalem Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he'll present a new peace plan to U.S. President George W. Bush, one that includes a critical buffer between Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Sharon travels to Washington next week, but some in the region may wonder if the prime minister is truly ready to trade confrontation for peace making. CNN's Jerrold Kessel takes a look at whether there are any hints in Mr. Sharon's past.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) enclave Israel's border with the West Bank. In the middle of the valley lies this old British built fort, now an Israeli war memorial, but an unusual memorial. In the 1948 Arab-Israel war, this valley was the site of a rare hammering that the forces of the fledgling Jewish state took from Arab forces.
ASHER LEVY, SHARON'S WAR COMPANY COMMANDER: We lost this battle and we lost four more battles, trying to capture this same fort.
KESSEL: Businessman Asher Levy, a retired brigadier general was a company commander in that failed assault, a formative battle in the evolving psyche of the new state, under Levy's command, a 19-year-old who was wounded in the battle, Second Lieutenant Ariel Sharon.
Fifty-four years later, a reunion of the two war veterans on Israel's National Memorial Day at the National War Cemetery. He has my company commander, Asher Levy" says Prime Minister Sharon.
For many Israelis, there's a link between that last battle to the modern bitter confrontation with the Palestinians, a battle now under the supreme command of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon's former commander has his own clear-cut views of where Israel should be going.
LEVY: After we showed the world and the Palestinians that we can crush them, that we can win the battle, now I think is the time to make the concessions. It is the time to make concessions when you are on top, and we are on top.
RODGERS: But is Ariel Sharon the kind of man who can be magnanimous when he's winning' There may be some clues in a conversation we had with the Prime Minister during a recent visit to his home ranch in southern Israel. Mr. Sharon points to family photographs on the wall of his farmhouse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARIEL SHARON, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL: Our parents were stronger than ourselves, I'll say.
RODGERS: Which was were they stronger?
SHARON: They never had any doubt whatsoever. Never had any doubt.
RODGERS: And you think having doubts is a sign of weakness?
SHARON: No. No. No, but not having - no. No. No. I don't regard myself as a weak man, but they were so determined. They were so determined.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RODGERS: Sharon too has determination a plenty says his former commander, but he adds that Sharon's career demonstrates that being constant is not the only way to show strength.
LEVY: He was always a leader of people. He was courageous. He was very stubborn, but he was also unconventional in his military operations.
KESSEL: And that's what you hope he will build on?
LEVY: And I hope that even today he's going to do the unconventional thing, which is expected of him and be our De Gaulle.
KESSEL: Usher Levy's reference to France's President Charles De Gaulle who against expectations gave up France's colonial claim to Algeria. Translated into the current Middle East idiom, that would mean, he says, Israel giving up almost all the West Bank to the neighboring Palestinian State.
LEVY: Even though he was extreme in his deed and so forth, he always had somebody above him that would make the final decision. At this time, there's nobody above him. He has to make the decision. It's not easy. It's not easy to change, but if he is a leader, and I think he is a leader, then he has to take the steps that maybe not accepted from him but will change the destiny of the people.
RODGERS: Intriguing it was in a speech made at this very memorial that Mr. Sharon last year evoked his vision of an Israel- Palestinian peace, including for the first time acceptance of an independent Palestinian State.
Through his long military and political career, Ariel Sharon's reputation or notoriety has often been built on the fact that he did things his way, though some called it a tendency towards insubordination.
KESSEL (on camera): Now as Ariel Sharon prepares to grapple with a new range of diplomatic ideas in the international arena about how finally to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, some in Israel are questioning, some like Asher Levy, whether this might not be perhaps the moment of change for Ariel Sharon, a moment when in effect Ariel Sharon proves insubordinate to himself, reversing his whole long public record and career. Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Latrone (ph), Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNA: Language is much more than a form of communication. Words can be used to bend opinion or defend a cause. Nowhere is this more evidenced than in the Middle East where meaning depends on who says what. CNN's Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: In the Middle East, fighting words are just that. People kill each other over words. Here are some verbal battle lines.
SCHNEIDER (voice over): Terrorism is the intentional killing of unarmed civilians. That's straightforward, right? Not in the Middle East. To Israelis, Palestinian militants who blow themselves up to kill Israeli civilians are terrorists, along with those who Israelis say sponsor such attacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arafat is a terrorist.
SCHNEIDER: To Palestinians, Israeli soldiers who fire on military targets but kill unarmed Palestinian civilians are terrorists.
SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: There is nothing more terrorist than taking people hope, taking people's lives, and that's what the Israelis have been doing.
SCHNEIDER: But the Israelis say those deaths are not intentional. To Palestinians, ending Israeli occupation is a top priority.
HASAN ABDEL RAHMAN, CHIEF PALESTINIAN REPRESENTATIVE TO THE U.S. We are the only people in the world who live under foreign military occupation today, and Israel is the only colonial power that is occupying our people.
SCHNEIDER: But there's disagreement on what land is occupied. To some Palestinian groups, the issue is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. More radical factions say the entire State of Israel is occupied territory, and the Jews must be expelled. To the Israelis, the word occupation is misleading.
SHARON: Keep speaking about occupation. We never occupied any Palestinian land.
SCHNEIDER: They claim Jews can live anywhere in historic Palestine, but the Israeli government acknowledges that Palestinians also "entertain legitimate claims in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip." To Israelis, Jerusalem is one city, the capitol of Israel. Ahud Omert is the mayor. Not to Palestinians.
RAHMAN: He is not the mayor of all of Jerusalem. He's the mayor of half of Jerusalem because the other half is occupied illegally.
SCHNEIDER: The other half, east Jerusalem is seen by Palestinians as their future capitol. To Palestinians, a ceasefire without political concessions means surrender. To Israelis political concessions without a ceasefire means negotiating under the threat of terrorism. The United States has an answer, just don't use the word. COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: And so cease-fire is not a relevant term at the moment.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): We?re told President Bush hates nuance. Don't nuance this to death, Bush Administration officials caution reporters. But in the Middle East, nuance can be everything. Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA: To repair the damage all around here will take months, if not years. The sad truth though is that to repair the trust between Israelis and Palestinians will take far, far longer. That's it for LIVE FROM RAMALLAH. I'm Mike Hanna. Good night.
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