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Crisis in the Middle East: Violence Extends Into Lebanon; Arab Nations Protest Israel's Actions; U.S. Works to Preserve Peace

Aired October 8, 2000 - 6:00 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FRANK SESNO, CNN ANCHOR: In the Middle East, Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli representatives meet to try to defuse the extraordinary tension that has exploded into widespread violence and resulted in more than 80 deaths. But as the two sides talk, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reiterates his demand to the Palestinians: stop the violence by sundown Monday.

CNN's Mike Hanna reports, leaders around the world worry the day of atonement, already under way in Israel, could be the last day of the peace process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Israeli forces demolish buildings in the Gaza Strip. This aerial video footage provided by the Israeli military shows the destruction of buildings overlooking an Israeli outpost, the outpost protecting the Jewish enclave of Netzarim, which has been the flashpoint of numerous confrontations in recent days. Israel says the buildings were being used by Palestinians in attacks on the enclave.

To the Palestinians, the destruction yet another example of what they regard as excessive Israeli force in dealing with the protests. Some 80 people have been killed in this conflict, virtually all either Palestinians or Arab Israelis allied with the Palestinian cause.

Tensions continue to run high in the north of Israel following the capture of three Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas, and demonstrations at the Lebanese border by Palestinians refugees living in south Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak traveled to the region to make reassure Israeli residents, and reiterated his ultimatum, Palestinians end the violence by sundown Monday.

EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If we see there is no partner, that will indicate that we need to construct a broader based infrastructure.

HANNA: Mr. Barak apparently referring to the possibility of forming a coalition government with the opposition Likud Party, a move that, given the Likud Party's opposition to Barak's peace moves, would most likely mean an end to negotiations. From the Palestinian side, deep anger at the ultimatum, and the insistence that Israel has the power to end the violence.

NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER: If he really wants to go toward peace instead of threatening, he should pull out of our cities and our heavily populated areas, pull out like he did in Lebanon.

HANNA: At sundown in Jerusalem, the horn sounds, signaling the beginning of the solemn Yom Kippur holiday, the day of atonement.

(on camera): Among those urging an end to the conflict, the hope that sunset Monday will not signal a final closure on attempts to secure a negotiated peace.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESNO: Now we have new reports of clashes. This time, officials say violent exchanges have broken out in an area north of Jerusalem.

CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us by telephone from the region now with details -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Frank, I'm outside the Jewish settlement of Navi Yakov (ph), north of Jerusalem. There have been running battles here between Palestinian youth on the one hand and Jewish settlers and Israeli army soldiers on the other. At the moment, they -- the Israeli -- the Palestinian youth are just on the ramparts of the Jewish settlement of Navi Yakov. You may be able to hear them, they're chanting slogans and one of the -- now they're saying that the soldiers are coming this way. They're running back. It's a very tense situation here.

We were in other areas of the West Bank just an hour ago where another group of Palestinian youth were clashing with Israeli settler youth. So very much street battles going on in this part of the West Bank -- Frank.

SESNO: Ben, can you see anyone in charge, anybody in command of these groups?

WEDEMAN: No. No, definitely not. This looks like very much a -- it is a group of teenagers going on a bit of a wild night. No chain of command here. It's very much just a bunch of boys.

SESNO: Ben, one other question if I can, and that is the reaction from the Palestinians you speak to on the street to the comments from Ehud Barak today.

WEDEMAN: Very much one of defiance. Basically, they brush it off. Many of them angrily tell us that as far as they're concerned the peace process is over and therefore Mr. Barak's ultimatum -- they just have complete defiance for it -- Frank.

SESNO: All right, Ben Wedeman on the streets north of Israel, take care there.

And the crisis in the Middle East also extending to Lebanon, where tensions with Israel have been escalating for days now. In Beirut, thousands of mourners attended the funerals for two Palestinians killed during violence along the border on Saturday. Two others were injured earlier Sunday by Israeli gunfire during a stone- throwing incident.

CNN has confirmed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will meet Monday in Egypt.

Meanwhile, the unrest in the Middle East has spread to other Arab nations. Thousands marched in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday to condemn Israel, while in Cairo, students protested in support of Palestinians. Later this month, Arab League members plan to hold a summit in the Egyptian capital to address the current crisis.

CNN's Jane Arraf has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Cairo, riot police beat back thousands of university students protesting against Israel. The students had tried to leave the grounds of Cairo University and carry their pro-Palestinian demonstration beyond the campus.

Egypt has signed a peace agreement with Israel, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa said the recent killings of Palestinians was intolerable.

AMR MOUSA, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The Arab street and mind are furious over what we're seeing. We're reacting against what is happening and taking decisive political action because there are things happening that we cannot accept.

ARRAF: That political action: an emergency summit of the Arab League called for later this month.

ESMAT ABDUL-MAGUID, SECY. GENERAL, ARAB LEAGUE: There is certainly unanimity about the condemnation of what has been committed by Israel against the Palestinians, and there is indignation also in the Arab public opinion about what we are seeing, watching.

ARRAF: The last time Arab heads of state met was 1996. It was six years after Iraq's short-lived occupation of Kuwait. But to get Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to come, Baghdad wasn't invited. This time, everyone is invited and the Gulf states coming.

Abdul-Maguid says Israel is making a dangerous mistake.

ABDUL-MAGUID: If they think that because they have certain military superiority they can control the area, they are committing a big blunder. They could never control Syria by force.

ARRAF: As seen on the streets in Cairo, Israel's use of force has outraged many Arabs and at least briefly united their governments.

(on camera): Arab leaders have been deeply divided since the 1991 Gulf War. But this crisis with Israel promises to at least bring them together for the first time in years.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESNO: And CNN has learned that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will head to the Middle East tonight. In Washington, President Bill Clinton is doing all he can to resuscitate the Mideast peace process. He called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak again Sunday afternoon.

CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace looks at what else Mr. Clinton has been doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before leaving the White House for New York, President Clinton worked the phone some more, calling Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and asking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to use his influence on Hezbollah to seek the release of the three captured Israeli soldiers.

Saturday, he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. CNN has learned, in those calls, Mr. Clinton discussed the possibility of bringing the leaders together in Egypt to get peace talks back on track, but that so far there is no agreement for such a summit.

Meantime, the president's aides hit the airwaves, urging Israel to exercise restraint and calling on Chairman Arafat to end the rock throwing by the Palestinians.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We expect him to be able to control it. We want him to be able to control it. He is the leader of the Palestinian people.

WALLACE: The Clinton administration reported some progress: under agreements reached in Paris last week, joint operating centers with representatives from both sides' security forces were initiated Saturday evening to improve coordination, with the U.S. playing a facilitating role. Publicly though, both sides were still pointing fingers. Mr. Barak reaffirmed his 48-hour for Chairman Arafat to stop the violence.

EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We know that he can stop it, so if he doesn't, we cannot but draw the conclusion that he doesn't want to make peace.

WALLACE: Palestinians continue to rebuff what they consider an ultimatum, and blame the recent clashes on the Israelis.

HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN COUNCIL MEMBER: President Arafat cannot give orders to a people, to a whole nation that is being killed every day and being asked to lie back and to die quietly, not even to defend themselves.

WALLACE (on camera): U.S. officials do their best to stay out of the blame game and hope both sides conclude that the risks of more violence are too great not to make their way back to the peace table.

Kelly Wallace, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESNO: Palestinians want Israel to accept the U.N. Security Council's call for an international commission to investigate the violence. The Palestinians say Israel has the means to end the conflict quickly and easily.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AFIF SAFIEH, PALESTINIAN DELEGATE TO THE U.K.: All the battles are taking place, all the confrontations are taking place around Palestinian urban centers. Only Israel has to do is to withdrawal 300 meters so that there is no confrontation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: Joining us now for more perspective on this fast-moving situation is Daniel Pipes, founder and director of the Middle East Forum. Thanks very much for coming in today, appreciate your time.

You have heard over these last few minutes the latest snapshot of the situation there, as well as the positions being staked out by both sides. Do you see a way out of this?

DANIEL PIPES, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Frank, it's going to be a tough few days ahead. The only way it's going to stop is if the Palestinians stop their assault on the Israelis, and that doesn't look likely at this time. I have a sense that there is a feeling of exuberance, of excitement among the Palestinians that we haven't seen in a generation, if not more. They feel they've got the Israelis on the run, they've got the backing of the Arab world, and I would be very surprised if we see a real decline in this kind of violence.

SESNO: Where does all this leave Chairman Arafat? He is the one to whom Barak and President Clinton have turned to issue the order to stop this violence.

PIPES: Well, I don't quite agree with Barak that Arafat is in a position to start it and stop it. I think it's a much more complicated situation. Arafat -- yes -- does have real power, but at the same time he is feeling pressed by the exuberance of the Palestinians to go along with it, and if he were to get in the way of it, he might get rolled over by it. The key point is that the Palestinians over recent years have grown and grown in their sense of excitement and ambition as the Israelis have been giving them one benefit after another and not really making any demands in return. I think the Palestinians feel Israel is on the run, now is the time to go and get it. But lo and behold, the Israelis seem, the first time since 1993 to be saying, well, no, this isn't working, we have to rethink the Oslo process. So it's a time of turbulence, of rethinking. I would hesitate to predict, but I think the Arab-Israeli relationship is going to be different after these few days from what it was before it.

SESNO: If the ultimatum that Barak set out comes and goes, if the peace process is effectively over at that point, what is the situation on the ground? You cannot have an urban war, if you'll pardon the expression.

PIPES: You can have a urban war. This has happened before. There was an Intifada that lasted for six years. Before that, in the 1930s, there was an Arab revolt that lasted for three years. It can happen. There is no reason to assume it can't.

SESNO: And would it be confined to the Intifada as the Intifada was confined, or would it perhaps because of this Arab world equation that you lay out extend beyond Israel's borders?

PIPES: It could well be larger than the Intifada. It could well include guns, it could well include Lebanese, it could well include Israeli Arabs. It could be much larger, there is certainly every possibility. This is a very tense time and the key point, again, is are the Palestinians willing to go back to the negotiating table with Israel and talk and -- you know, talk -- or are they fed up with talking and feel that there's no need for talking and violence is the way to proceed. I think, personally, that it's the season of violence now, but I hope I'm wrong.

SESNO: All right, Daniel Pipes, appreciate your time, thanks very much.

PIPES: Thank you.

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