CNN INTERNATIONAL HOUR INTERVIEW WITH ISRAELI AMBASSADOR
                              ITAMAR RABINOVICH
                        (Interviewed by Hilary Bowker)
                           Wednesday, April 6, 1994


MS. BOWKER: Ambassador Rabinovich, what is this going to do to the peace 
process? Do you think it's going to slow it down even more?

AMB. RABINOVICH: We hope it won't. We continue to negotiate in London with a 
view to reaching an agreement on implementing the Gaza Jericho plan. We have 
interrupted the discussions for a day and a half because of Holocaust Day that 
is marked in Israel.

But in the long range, I think in order to stabilize the peace process, in 
order to give it depth and strength, it is very important that our Arab 
counterparts, one, take very concrete measures in order to put an end to such 
attacks and, secondly, condemn this particular act in the most clear of terms.

MS. BOWKER: Ambassador Rabinovich, certainly the condemnation, I can 
understand you're waiting for that, but in terms of what do you think the PLO 
can do at this stage to stop this kind of attack happening; they have no 
police force. It's very difficult, don't you think, for them to control 
members of Hamas who are actually against the PLO and against -- very much 
against the peace process.

AMB. RABINOVICH: Well, indeed, I've not asked for any direct action by the PLO 
now because they are still not there. We would like to conduct the 
negotiations in order to enable the PLO to take charge in Gaza, which is the 
source of most of this violent activity, and then to impose law and order in 
Gaza and to prevent terrorism. But for the time being, I think that it's very 
important for the PLO and the chairman, who speak in the name of the 
Palestinian people, to send a very clear message that this particular act and 
any other similar act do not belong in the web of relations between Israelis 
and Palestinians.

MS. BOWKER: Ambassador Rabinovich, one complaint that the Palestinians have 
made recently is that there is a vacuum, if you will, a power vacuum being 
created in the occupied  territories, specifically Gaza and -- where -- now 
because the Israeli army is pulling out they yet have not been able to put a 
police force on the ground, that this is creating a very dangerous power 
vacuum. What would you say to that?

AMB. RABINOVICH: We recognize that a vacuum need not be and must not be 
created. We are discussing with the PLO practical arrangements. We have 
allowed the early arrival of the nucleus of a Palestinian police force in Gaza 
and in Jericho precisely in order to prevent the emergence of such a vacuum.

MS. BOWKER: Ambassador Rabinovich, the other thing I would have to say is you 
-- your government right now is saying you want the peace process to go ahead, 
you want the Israeli withdrawal to go ahead. There are, nonetheless, people on 
the ground who are very, very upset by this attack, who were already against 
the peace process, who are now against it even more. What are you going to do 
to convince the people on the ground that this is the way to go? I'm talking 
about Israelis here.

AMB. RABINOVICH: There are two ways to proceed about it. One is to proceed in 
the peace process to reach agreements, to implement them, to produce results, 
to bring change about on the ground, and to persuade those who need to be 
persuaded that the peace -- or the road of peace is not a perfect road but 
it's the best, it's the only road.

Second is -- and this is an appeal directed to our Palestinian interlocutors 
and to our other Arab interlocutors -- Syrians, Jordanians and others -- that 
they can show no ambivalence about such acts, that they need to signal very 
clearly to their own constituencies and to the Israeli public at home that 
there's been a change of heart on the side of the Arab world; that the Arab 
governments, as distinct from Hamas and other such organizations, have made a 
strategic decision to pursue the peaceful road with Israel. This will help 
with Israeli public opinion, including the opponents of the peace process 
inside Israel.

MS. BOWKER: Ambassador Rabinovich, thank you for joining us. 

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