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CNN Live Sunday

Suicide Bomber in Israel Injures 20

Aired August 12, 2001 - 16:00   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with more turmoil in the Middle East. It's been another day marred by a bloody act of retaliation. A suicide bomber set off a blast at a cafe outside Haifa today, killing the bomber and injuring 20 people. The Islamic Jihad says it's behind this attack.

It's the second suicide bomb blast in Israel in four days. Last Thursday, a blast at a Jerusalem pizza restaurant killed 16 people, including the bomber. CNN's Jerrold Kessel describes the growing tension in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jerusalem streets still tense, flooded with emotion. Memorial candles outside the pizza parlor where a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 15 people. Amid the pain, Israelis are also angry.

"Why," asks this woman after watching the Israeli police scrutinize the identity of a Palestinian man, "should they be allowed to walk freely on our streets? And I can't walk freely without fear in my own city."

The focus, however, of Palestinian and of much Israeli attention has shifted across town here, just about a kilometer away, where Israel denies access to the Orient House, the Palestinian representative presence in the city, which in the wake of the suicide bombing Israel seized, along with several other Palestinian offices within and on the outskirts of the city.

Another office in the village of Abu Dis on Jerusalem's Eastern outskirts was taken over on Sunday, as Israel entrenches and seeks to diminish the official Palestinian presence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to protest against this cynical, opportunistic move by this government, using the incident on Jeffa (ph) Street, abusing actually the feeling of the Israeli public in order to implement (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to close the Orient House and other Palestinian symbols.

KESSEL: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is adamant he won't back down, saying the action was designed to show the Palestinians they risk losing their past political gains if their intifada continues.

Palestinian leaders say they won't flinch.

AHMAD QUREI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL: Now since the Israeli opened the battle in Jerusalem, we are ready for this battle. And Jerusalem now is the first, Jerusalem is the priority. Jerusalem is the resistance, and we will resist here this new aggression.

DORE GOLD, SHARON'S ADVISER: When the Palestinian Authority is storing explosive devices and weaponry in buildings in and around Jerusalem, which are being used as a part of wave of terrorism against Israeli civilians, the struggle for Jerusalem has already begun.

KESSEL: It's now also a battle for the world opinion, but the Israeli leader has some persuading to do on another front, to convince his senior colleague, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. He had opposed the Orient House takeover and he restated strongly his argument at the Israeli cabinet meeting, that Israel should drop its policy of not talking under fire.

"Without talking to the Palestinians," Mr. Peres said, "there will be no halt to the violence and no possibility of restarting peace efforts."

(on camera): Prime Minister Sharon may initially have wrongfooted his adversaries by this political move in the wake of the suicide bombing, but if the battle of Jerusalem is reignited, it could well go beyond the political.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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