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American Morning
Israel Now Says It Will Send Its Own Troops to Arrest Suspected Terrorists
Aired December 13, 2001 - 08:10 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Dramatic developments in the Middle East to turn to now. Israeli tanks have moved into the West Bank. Its air force has attacked Palestinian security positions in Gaza. It comes after the Israeli government called Palestinian Chief Yasser Arafat irrelevant and cut off contact with the Palestinian authorities. The retaliation comes after two terrorist attacks on Wednesday. This one a suicide bombing in Gaza that injured four Israelis and an ambush on a bus in the West Bank that killed 10.
Israel now says it will send its own troops to arrest suspected terrorists. The Palestinian authority meanwhile says it is closing the offices of Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bus attack and the offices of Islamic Jihad. But as far as Israel is concerned, it may be too little, too late.
Joining us right now is the Consul General of Israel, Alon Pinkas. Good to have you back sir.
ALON PINKAS, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL: Good morning Paula.
ZAHN: Good morning. So the Palestinians continue to say what Israel did yesterday amounts to a declaration of war. They allege that Israel, although Israel denies this, that you're out to kill Yasser Arafat or if not kill him, destroy the Palestinian leadership.
PINKAS: I think the Palestinian leadership destroyed itself politically in the last year and they have rendered themselves - I'm sorry - irrelevant. We're not out to get Arafat. We're not out to get the Palestinian leadership. In fact, by rendering or characterizing them as irrelevant, we are still leaving some room for Arafat to operate. This is not irreversible, but it is too little. It is too late, and it is too futile - the things that he has done in the last 12 hours.
ZAHN: Let's go back to how the Palestinians perceive this though. Yesterday a missile came within 100 yards of Yasser Arafat's headquarters. He apparently had just left the building.
PINKAS: Right.
ZAHN: Do you understand when they look at that attack, how they might think that despite what you say here this morning, you are out to kill him. PINKAS: But we're not out to kill him, and it's very simple. First of all, we're not in the business of killing leaders. It's not our job. It's not our intent, and there's nothing for us in doing something like that.
ZAHN: So what was the point of that yesterday?
PINKAS: Number two, tactically had we wanted to do so, we could have done so. Yet we haven't and we have not killed any other Palestinian political leader. We are still looking at Arafat as a source of authority. Does he have authority - yes. Does he have the power - yes. Did he exercise authority last year - no. Did he exercise sovereignty - no. Does he do anything in terms of being a leader and stopping terrorism - absolutely not. But we're not - absolutely not in the business of killing him.
ZAHN: Would you acknowledge, though, that in the process ...
PINKAS: Right.
ZAHN: ... he has been destroyed politically.
PINKAS: Yes, but that's self-inflicted.
ZAHN: But it has not helped, has it, to destroy what you say are symbols of the Palestinian authority's power. That hasn't gained him any support over the last several weeks.
PINKAS: No it hasn't, but let me tell you something. He has basically outlived his usefulness as a political leader. In terms of being a credible and serious and viable interlocutor with which we can negotiate. A comprehensive deal, he has rendered himself entirely useless and unuseful.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: If he's unuseful, then who do you deal with now?
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: You still say he has a source of power.
PINKAS: Yes.
ZAHN: A source of authority - excuse me.
PINKAS: Right. Well he's assembled to the Palestinians and I'm not arguing with that. But he is not an effective leader. He is not a statesman. In fact, since declining or rejecting the deal at Camp David, he has done nothing but perpetuate terrorism or look the other way when others perpetuate terrorism. For all I know make him an honorary CO (ph) of the Palestinian cause, but have someone else deal on behalf of the Palestinians.
ZAHN: Does Israel know who they want to deal with right now?
PINKAS: No.
ZAHN: Who in this ...
(CROSSTALK)
PINKAS: No, the ...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Change of, you know, calling him cutting ties and calling him irrelevant, who you will deal with.
PINKAS: No. Well we're cutting ties and we're calling him irrelevant Paula, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a few more days to get his act together decisively ...
ZAHN: And what does that mean?
PINKAS: And overwhelming.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: What does he have to do from the Israeli point of view?
PINKAS: He needs to dismantle Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: They just closed the office.
(CROSSTALK)
PINKAS: If I close - if I close this studio, it doesn't mean that I closed CNN. Closing an office does not mean dismantling Hamas, and I'm talking about the infrastructure -- dismantling the Islamic Jihad, which is a front organization for Iran; declaring in Arabic, as the European Union incidentally employed him to do; declaring in Arabic that the intifada is over; and making it abundantly clear in all the Palestinian media that he will no longer accept violence; that he will no longer tolerate any actions - any violent actions originating from territories under his ...
ZAHN: Now let me get this straight before I let you go. You say he has a couple of days to turn this around and yet, there isn't another person the Israeli government has in mind to deal with now.
PINKAS: It's not a democracy, and they don't have a constitution and it doesn't say that the vice president will replace the president, and I wish I knew what point - be able to point out to you that this reduction (ph) are the people that we like to negotiate. Number one, they don't have too many Thomas Jeffersons over there that we can really talk to.
Number two, it's not really our position or our job to point or determine who their leaders are going to be. I think it's their job. It's their responsibility to look seriously at Arafat and ask - I'm talking about the Palestinian people. What did he deliver for us? What did he do for us - except inflict tragedy (INAUDIBLE) in the last year and last decades, for that matter.
ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Alon Pinkas, thank you very much for joining us ...
PINKAS: Thank you Paula.
ZAHN: ... and we will get the Palestinian side of all of this in the next hour. Our guest will be Hasan Abdul Ramon (ph), Chief Palestinian Representative to the U.S.
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