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CNN Sunday Morning

Violence Continues Between Israelis, Palestinians

Aired January 20, 2002 - 10:14   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: One day after Israel blew up a Palestinian broadcasting center, in a retaliatory move, Palestinians took to the streets today in protest. That situation in the Middle East seems to be spiraling out of control.

And here is CNN's Jerrold Kessel with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "No military solution," the rather forlorn chant at a small -- a very small demonstration of Israeli peace advocates near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence. Their call for renewed negotiations, consumed by the latest violence. Likewise, no real critical debate within Israel to contest Mr. Sharon's strident policies.

Not unsurprising, perhaps, when this, for Israelis is the dominant image of relations with Palestinians: a Palestinian gunman killing six Israelis who were celebrating a 12 year--old girl's coming of age party.

It was revenge, the gunman said in a tearful video he'd left behind -- revenge for the killing of a prominent member of his Al Aqsa brigade, an aggressive, grass-roots offshoot of Yasser Arafat's own Fatah movement.

The second presiding image: Israeli tanks perched ominously just over a hill from Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters, where Ariel Sharon has kept the Palestinian leader marooned for more than six weeks.

Mr. Sharon's promised strategic reappraisal within his government to write Yasser Arafat off, even as a potential negotiating partner has not taken place. The prime minister has not, however, been shy about spelling out his objective: that Washington should lead a strategic shift that would make Yasser Arafat irrelevant.

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I believe that there are several organizations that there should be included or should be declared terrorist organizations. The Fatah is the party of Arafat, and under full control. And the Tanzim, that's the military arm of the Fatah, they should be declared a terrorist organization; and the same should be done when it comes to the presidential guard Force 17. MARWAN BARGHOUTI, FATAH LEADER: I think that all the Palestinian factions are committed to that cease-fire. But it's impossible to -- for this cease-fire to last for a long time under these circumstances, under these new Israeli comprehensive war against our people. I think the Israeli government took final decision to topple Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.

KESSEL: Yasser Arafat is on the spot. The unrelenting pressure from the United States and Israel; the latest Israeli action, the demolition of Palestinian Broadcasting House, matched by contrasting pressure from within his own people.

Some trying to march on his headquarters were held up there by police as they demanded the release of radicals whom the Palestinian police have detained. There were similar marches over the weekend, before the protesters peeled off to clash with Israeli troops.

All that the two sides now seem to agree on is that a bleak situation is threatening to explode even more violently.

(on camera): It's here at Jerusalem's holiest sites for Muslims and Jews alike where the current violent confrontation was sparked back in September 2000, erupting after Ariel Sharon, then in the Israeli opposition, insisted on visiting the contested site. Now at this precarious moment, there are reports that the Israeli authorities are again preparing to permit Jews to visit the site freely. They've been barred from doing that for fear that it would worsen the clashes ever since that fateful day 16 months ago.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

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