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CNN Sunday Morning

More Violence in Middle East

Aired February 17, 2002 - 07:07   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: There has been more violence in the Middle East. Israeli warplanes and helicopters struck today Palestinian Authority targets in the West Bank town of Nablus, including the office of Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat. Israelis say that was done in response to terror attacks, including a suicide bombing. Jerrold Kessel has more about the cycle of violence in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was soon after the end of the Jewish Sabbath when the bombers struck. Many young people from the settlement had come out for a pizza in their shopping center. This was the first such suicide bombing in the West Bank settlement. The grizzly scenes though, the same Israelis had come to recognize from previous such attacks in the heart of their cities, death and destruction, anger and pain. The attack capped a day teaming with violent incidents.

In the Palestinian town of Jenin, of course, the revenge as a crowd gathered following the killing of a prominent activist of the radical Islamic group, Hamas', military wing. An explosive ripped through his parked car as he approached it.

Israel maintains a steadied silence on this incident. Palestinians have no doubt it was Israel's work, another assassination of a man on the Israel army's wanted list.

Israel is threatening further escalation after it says Hamas upped the stakes by launching more rockets of the kind showed here in a Hamas promotional video of its homemade Qassam missiles. The latest rockets again landed harmlessly in an Israeli communal farm close to the Gaza border.

Inside Gaza, three Palestinians, two teenagers and a policeman were killed in shooting exchanges after another Israeli incursion into a Palestinian controlled area. This time the take-over of a regional security headquarters.

Each Palestinian attacks reshapes the simmering dissent with Israel, but increasingly, there are questions now about military tactics and over the Sharon government's strategy of pushing for a military solution without a parallel political agenda. For now, the demand is for urgent political action instead of more military action. Several thousand left wing Israelis marching through Tel Aviv and calling for the end to the occupation, the first serious protest since the start of the bloody confrontation a year- and-a-half ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's the demand from the government to come up with a real plan or a real negotiating plan because if they don't do it, I think that more and more Israelis are not going to accept the policies of this government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KESSEL: Yes, I think, Miles, Jeanne, there is those doubts that are growing among Israelis and it could be that they will be making those demands of their government. But I think at the same time, while it was significant that this rally took place in Tel Aviv, that to believe that this is the start of something absolutely dramatic might be going a little bit too far.

To think that it is significant, the turn out there, that shows that something has happened to some Israelis in their conception of how this war ought to be fought, this battle against the Palestinians. But it's a long way -- a long way from this becoming the dominant voice in Israel especially given the current climate of the conflict -- Jeanne.

MESERVE: Jerrold, is there any current polling that let's you quantify it all, just how serious the deterioration and support for Sharon there may be?

KESSEL: It's very interesting that you get a sense of questioning that's coming out, of doubts that are arising, both about the military tactics that are being adopted and about the fact that perhaps Mr. Sharon doesn't have the kind of strategy of a political agenda down the line, which many Israelis are saying ought to be there. And yet, you don't see a dramatic drop off in support for the prime minister.

Now, lets' look at that rally in Tel Aviv. At the very same time that it was taken place, there was that suicide bombing in the West Bank against one of the Jewish settlements, at that shopping center when two young Israelis were killed. Well, every time there's such an attack that spills the doubts. It nukes the misgivings. It reduces the kind of level of questioning that there is about the Sharon government strategy.

And by and large, you could say that the polls indicate Mr. Sharon still has very much the upper hand and is likely to have the upper hand. He, this morning, was talking about Israel being in a state of war, being able to win this war. He said that Israel has won all its other wars. And I think, in a time of war, if that's the way many of the Israelis are feeling their situation is, dissent is a very difficult task to follow through on.

MESERVE: Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com