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CNN Live Sunday

Some Within Bush Administration Push to Cut Ties With Arafat

Aired January 27, 2002 - 18:18   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: In the Middle East today, a Palestinian bombing attack in west Jerusalem left one Israeli man dead, more than 110 other people injured, and the Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the attack. But at the White House, patience is wearing thin, and some are pushing for the U.S. to end its long relationship with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Here's CNN White House correspondent, Major Garrett.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More dead, more wounded, more mayhem in Israel and a White House seriously debating whether to cut all ties to the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not going to get a handle on the peace process, until somebody gets control of those terrorist activities and that's Yasser Arafat's responsibility. He has not fulfilled those responsibilities.

GARRETT: The White House accuses Mr. Arafat of failing to halt terror attacks. It also says Mr. Arafat knew of a shipment from Iran to Palestinian Authority of 50 tons of weapons aboard this vessel, the Korean I, weapons like missile launchers and plastic explosives often used by terrorists. The arms cache came via the known terror group, Hezbollah. As for Mr. Arafat's denials about the shipment...

CHENEY: We don't believe him. He has been implicated now in an operation that puts him working with a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, and Iran, a state that's devoted to torpedo in the peace process.

GARRETT: To administration hawks on this issue, among them Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, these reported connections prove Mr. Arafat is aiding terrorists and that means the Palestinian leader must be isolated, punished even, if the Bush doctrine on terrorism is to retain the global credibility it currently enjoys.

But more cautious voices, among them Secretary of State Colin Powell fear even more bloodshed, chaos, and regional instability if the U.S. gives up on Mr. Arafat.

Former national security advisers to Presidents Bush and Carter agree.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think severing the relationship with Arafat would help the extremists, both among the Palestinians, and among the Israelis, and would make things much worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until you figure out where you are going, getting rid of him seems to be kind of counterproductive.

GARRETT: These and others analysts accuse the Bush White House of failing to offer the Palestinians a vision of peace, more enticing than random violence designed to break the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

(on-camera): But the White House says Mr. Bush was the first U.S. president to explicitly call for a Palestinian state, and that bold gesture, they say, was merely followed by more Palestinian violence. It's not a new vision, these aides say, that's missing; it's a Palestinian commitment to negotiations without terrorism.

Major Garret, CNN, the White House.

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