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American Morning

Shaky Cease-Fire Still Holding in Middle East

Aired June 04, 2001 - 10:09   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to the Middle East, where a fragile cease-fire is caught in the crossfire of the renewed fighting between Palestinians and Israelis. Christiane Amanpour is in Jerusalem. She joins us this morning with the very latest from there -- Christiane?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, this cease- fire is under the microscope as the Israelis test to see whether Yasser Arafat is able and willing to stop the violence and to do the things that he has to do, according to the Israelis, to avoid a massive retaliation for that suicide bomb that exploded on Friday night.

As this testing is underway, the Israelis continue to bury the victims of that suicide bomb. Today, a 15-year-old girl who was killed on Friday night was buried near Tel Aviv. Twenty people now are victims of that bomb attack, 20 young Israelis.

In the meantime, the Israelis keep up the pressure on the Palestinians, tightening the closures on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as having internal restrictions on movement inside the Palestinian territories. In the last hour or so we heard about an exchange of fire between Palestinians and Israelis down near Rafah crossing point near the Gaza Strip. Both sides are blaming each other for having started that and we wait to see whether that develops into a large situation -- it seems to have now come under control -- and whether that makes the Israelis think that the cease-fire is not holding.

Certainly this cease-fire is being looked at very, very carefully to see whether it does hold -- Leon?

HARRIS: All right, thank you very much, Christiane Amanpour reporting live this morning from Jerusalem.

Let's now take a closer look at the diplomatic mine field that looms in the path of Middle East peace. Our next guest is an expert on this troubled region. Richard Murphy is a former assistant secretary of state. He now serves as senior fellow for the Middle East on the Council of Foreign Relations. He joins us in our New York bureau.

Mr. Ambassador, good to see you again. Thank you for coming in and talking with us this morning. RICHARD MURPHY, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Thank you.

HARRIS: Are you optimistic that this cease-fire is actually going to not just hold, but actually lead to some substantial developments there?

MURPHY: I don't think it's clear yet, Leon. I think Arafat has gotten the message through his main militia commanders to refrain from shootings from Palestine, Palestinian controlled territory into Israel. I think there's still resistance to him from the extremists, the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad factions. They're the ones that have been pushing the human bombers.

HARRIS: But what do you make of the balancing act that is going on with those particular different factions? As I read it this morning, there are some 13 or 15 different organizations that have said that they will not call of this Islamic jihad.

MURPHY: Yeah, it's not a highly centralized operation. I think that's been made particularly clear during this moment of great tension. But on the other side, Sharon's options are also not great when you talk. He has to consider what form of retaliation Israel might make.

HARRIS: What do you make of Sharon's actions to this point? Many Israelis when they voted him into office were hoping that he was going to be the lion that they had asked for for so long who would strike hard and often. And he has shown amazing reticence in recent weeks. What do you make of his performance?

MURPHY: Well, I think he has the memory very clearly in mind of the problems that gathered around his reputation back in the early '80s around the invasion of Lebanon, that he got Israel into a mess which it took them years to get out of. So I think he has been guided by that memory to being very careful.

But as I say his options, he can use more force. He can do more off camera pressures on the Palestinians. He can do nothing for a while, and that's what he appears to have chosen in these last two weeks as pressure builds up on the Palestinians from the international community and from within the Palestinian community itself.

HARRIS: What do you make of the U.S. involvement to this point? Many observers have said it's clear that by now the Clinton administration would have been involved and would have had someone there, some high level official there on the ground talking to either side in this matter by this particular point. What do you think of this administration's performance thus far, this low key approach?

MURPHY: So far I think they've got it about right because I believe their goal is to make both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, really hungry for American intervention and ready to react in a positive way when America finally does move at a more senior level, that is, bringing the secretary of state directly into the game.

HARRIS: The best of Richard Murphy. We thank you very much, as always.

MURPHY: Thank you.

HARRIS: We hope to talk with you later on.

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