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American Morning

Political Leaders Call For Greater U.S. Role in Middle East

Aired April 01, 2002 - 07:40   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: And we are going to turn our attention back to the conflict in the Middle East now. Over the weekend, the political leaders from both sides of the aisle have called for the U.S. to take a more active role in trying to bring peace to the Middle East. As the current crisis grows, the U.S. role in the Middle East becomes an even more delicate diplomatic balancing act.

Joining us now to talk about the president's Mideast policy, CNN senior political analyst, William Schneider, we call him Bill, who joins us from Los Angeles this morning. You are such a good guy to get up at this hour of the morning for us, Bill -- thank you.

All right, Bill, let's talk about some of the mounting criticism of President Bush's policy. It was, after all, two-and-a-half weeks ago that the president publicly rebuked Prime Minister Sharon, saying his military intervention in the occupied territories was not helpful. But this is what he had to say over the weekend in some of the strongest language in support of Ariel Sharon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I fully understand Israel's need to defend herself. I respect that. It's a country that has seen a wave of suicide bombers coming into the hearts of their cities and killing innocent people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Now, what was interesting about this, Bill, is the president said this after the U.S. joined other members of the U.N. in voting for a resolution for Israeli forces to withdraw from the occupied territories. What's the message here?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The message is that this terrorism crisis in the Middle East has brought the U.S. and Israel closer together emotionally. The language that the president used was very resonate of America's experience on September 11. And a lot of Arabs believe that what essentially he was doing was giving Sharon a green light, urging caution, it was actually a yellow light. But it's seen as a green light to go ahead and do whatever he thinks is necessary.

If the United States can go into Afghanistan and remove the Taliban government, then the idea is that the United States was saying to Sharon and the Israelis, you have a green light also to go in and make war on the Palestinian Authority, and it has the Arab countries outraged.

ZAHN: There was an interesting piece in "The Wall Street Journal" on Friday that touches on exactly what you are talking about here, and I'm going to read a small portion of that to let you further drive home your point here.

It says: "Whatever harm this does in Palestine, the greater damage is being done to Mr. Bush's war on terror. By condemning one kind of terror but appeasing another, the president undermines the clarity of his own anti-terror case. And all of the focus on Palestine merely diverts valuable U.S. time and attention away from al Qaeda and Iraq."

Is the president backed into a corner on this one?

SCHNEIDER: Well, in a way he is. You know, the American policy has always been to give primary emphasis to the war on terrorism and to try and line up Arab support or at least forbearance for U.S. engagement against Iraq. The Israeli-Palestinian crisis has been secondary.

I mean, this tells the whole story. The United States sent Vice President Dick Cheney to try to marshal Arab support for an action against Iraq, a very high ranking official. No. 2, it sent Anthony Zinni, a much lower ranking official, to try to mediate the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, which shows in some sense the order of priorities.

The result, as I indicated, was No. 1, Arab outrage, because they believe the United States has given a green light to the Israelis, and also look what happened at the Arab League summit in Beirut last week. The Arab states, No. 1, endorsed the Saudi peace plan, but No. 2, as a price for that they made a common front with Iraq. And they said, an attack on Iraq by the United States will be seen as an attack on all Arab states. So it has undermined the main purpose of American policy.

ZAHN: Talk about this Arab outrage for a moment within the context of how this conflict is resolved. There are many people who believe that the president now has no other choice but to continue to support Ariel Sharon, which means maybe Anthony Zinni can't be such an honest broker at all.

SCHNEIDER: Well, the United States is, of course, in a terrible bind here. I think the United States and the Israelis have to understand a rather difficult reality. The reality is that to the Palestinians, terrorism works. It's the only way they convey their message. It's the only leverage they have in the process. It's a tragic and terrible thing, but they are not going to give up violence. Violence they see is in their interests, until they see a clear political future for themselves.

The United States and Israel have always supported a policy of, first, a cease-fire, and then, we'll talk about a political solution. But I think their only way out -- it's becoming increasingly clear, the only way out of this tragic cycle of violence may be to pursue both of those tracks simultaneously, because then the Palestinians will feel some incentive to sign onto a cease-fire. The problem is Ariel Sharon says he is not going to give any concessions in return for a cease-fire, because that would be giving into terrorism. It would be rewarding terrorism.

ZAHN: Bill Schneider -- as always, appreciate your thoughts. You make a lot of sense for a man that we dragged out of bed at 3:00 in the morning L.A. time -- appreciate you joining us this morning.

SCHNEIDER: OK. Sure.

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