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CNN Sunday Morning

Bush Continues to Watch Middle East Violence from Ranch in Texas

Aired March 31, 2002 - 18:08   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well President Bush is closely watching developments in the Middle East from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett is in Crawford with the President.

Good morning, Major, what can you tell us from there with regard to reaction to this?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning, Kyra.

Let me set the scene for you here in Crawford. The President of the United States, along with the First Lady, Laura Bush, and the first Bush first family, President George Herbert Walker Bush, wife Barbara, are attending church at this moment, about a mile from the president's Crawford ranch. Easter services, a time when Christians not only here but around the world celebrate what they believe, the resurrection of Jesus Christ on this day. A very holy day on the Christian calendar, a very holy day for President Bush.

We have no official word that he has been briefed about this suicide bombing attack in Haifa, but I'm pretty confident that the president has been. He gets regular updates from his national security team here in Crawford and White House advisers. As for reaction, well I'm sure you can well expect the president would condemn this latest suicide bombing attack, as he has every one to date.

The president yesterday talked to reporters about the overall situation and the crisis in the Middle East, and again emphasized his sense of revulsion at Palestinian terrorist attacks. Said they were fundamentally responsible for the current crisis. Did not in any way particularly criticize the Israeli defense forces' incursion into Ramallah, and said he understands what military activities the Israeli government is undertaking, because the president believes it too is under siege.

(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 come into the hearts of their cities and killing some people. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: Well the Bush administration's support for Israel is not completely without limits. The United States government, with the White House active involvement, supported a U.N. Security Council resolution passed yesterday that calls for Israel to eventually withdraw from Ramallah. But that resolution, only one U.S. backing, after a date certain for that withdraw was removed from that resolution, as was any language condemning Israel for its military activity.

And one point, Kyra, picking up on Miles' earlier conversation with Marc Ginsberg about whether or not the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had adequately prepared his people for whatever concession might have to be made in an ultimate agreement with the Israelis. That is a point the Bush administration reminds itself of all the time. And the president yesterday, when he talked about the Israeli government being able and properly defined to protect itself, defined it as a democratically elected government.

It's a key point, because the Palestinian Authority is not a democracy. And the Bush administration privately often says that Yasser Arafat has done nothing through any diplomatic channels -- democratic channels rather -- to prepare those people in the Palestinian movement for necessary concessions with Israel. And until that happens, Bush administration officials often privately say it's going to be very hard to achieve any time of long-term political settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Major, as you can imagine, we've been receiving email nonstop. Miles and I are working both computers here, and I printed out a few. Miles is working on getting some up on screen. But I just want to throw out a few of these if you don't mind responding.

This one comes from Dale. And his question is, "Why not send in peacekeepers? If there were anywhere else other than Israel, we'd be supporting the use of peacekeepers to keep the Israelis and Palestinians apart. Why aren't we insisting that Israel accept a peacekeeping force?"

GARRETT: Well the general answer to that is that the Bush administration essentially said as long as the Israeli government is opposed to having an international security force there the administration is going to respect that wish. And the administration believes that this is something that can be resolved by the Israelis and the Palestinians. That's why these security talks, basically led by the president's person envoy, Anthony Zinni, are underway. The administration believes that it is possible for Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a cease-fire, and that that cease-fire can be implemented and can be handled by both sides if there is goodwill and effort placed by Palestinians and Israelis.

It would be the preferred method, because the Bush administration calculates that putting together this international security force would be somewhat of a distraction. It would be a numbers game. Who is in, who is out, what nations are represented?

The Bush administration would prefer not to go into all of that and have the Israelis and Palestinians commit themselves to a cease- fire. Because if they can commit themselves to that and it can be implemented, then possibly they can commit themselves to the much harder political concessions down the road. That's the Bush administration approach.

PHILLIPS: This one another email, Major. This one coming from Canada, Venu (ph). I hope I'm saying that name correctly. "The current situation in Israel is the outcome of greedy American foreign policy that looks at only its commercial interests and supports all kinds of dictators around the world." And add to that now, "... have put Israel in a situation caught in the crossfire and is just a pawn in U.S.A. self interest. Who's dying? Palestinians and Israelis. When will U.S.A.'s greed be fulfilled? Maybe very soon after all anything that goes around comes around."

GARRETT: Well I can pretty much tell you the Bush administration would place that category in the screed column. I mean, first of all, Israel is not a dictatorship, it is a democracy. The Palestinian movement is not a democracy, it is a rough coalition of forces that are trying to create a Palestinian state, something the Bush administration, unique in American presidential history -- it is worth pointing out -- has said is a part of its vision for solving all of this.

The Bush administration often says in reaction to criticism that has been disengaged on this entire issue, "Listen, this is the first White House that has ever said there should be a Palestinian state. It is the first White House that has ever put forward a resolution before the security council with U.S. backing calling for a Palestinian state." And it is that larger vision that the Bush administration keeps saying is part of what should be achieved and what can be achieved.

Now what often comes back to the Bush administration is criticism from the Palestinian and the Arab world saying, "Yes, that's a vision, but you need to be engaged." And there's a great dispute about what engagement at the U.S. level means. To many Arabs and Palestinians, that means pressuring Israel to make concessions.

Well that's not how the Bush administration defines engagement. The Bush administration defines engagement as setting forth a vision that is sympathetic to what it considers to be legitimate Palestinian aspirations for a state and political grievances against the Israeli occupation. But it also says you can't pursue this vision by terror. And until you -- meaning the Palestinians -- we are not going to turn a blind eye to what Israel must do as a democracy to defend itself.

So that's basically the contours, the definitions of the way Bush administration approaches the Middle East situation. Set out a broad vision, tell the parties that it is up to them to come to the rough decisions either on first achieving a cease-fire, and then on far more difficult political concessions that have to follow. But not be there day in and day out twisting arms to try to achieve that. Now some have said that simply can't work. But right now, the Bush administration's approach is a broad vision urging the two parties to come to the table and make their own concessions without twisting arms on a daily basis.

PHILLIPS: Major Garrett, with the latest from the president's ranch there in Crawford, Texas. Thanks for fielding some of those emails with us. We'll continue to check in with you obviously in the next couple of hours. Major Garrett, thank you.

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