Interview with Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich on CNN March 3, 1996

              INTERVIEW WITH AMBASSADOR ITAMAR RABINOVICH ON CNN 
                        March 3, 1996 - 9:41 a.m. EST 

 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, Anchor: Here now with Israeli reaction to the bus bombing 
is Itamar Rabinovich, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., and he is joining us 
from Washington.  Thanks for being with us, this morning. 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH, Israeli Ambassador to U.S.: Thank you. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: I'm sure you just heard Hassan Abdul Haman's [sp] comments 
just moments ago saying that Shimon Peres, his actions were actually 
unfortunate, taking action along the border and I believe he also said that 
Peres was acting in a panic.  Your reaction to that?   
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: I think it's a regrettable reaction to Prime Minister 
Peres. Prime Minister Peres has been reacting a week later after the second 
consecutive attack on a bus in Jerusalem, killing more than 50 Israelis.  He 
did not take these measures after the first attack on the Israeli bus.  He 
took it after a second.  It's now past midnight, and very close to midnight, 
and definitely it's not a panicky reaction.  It's an attempt to look directly 
at what is a mortal danger to the fabric of Israeli society and to the whole 
peace process. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: I could tell you do seem quite exasperated about this Mr. 
Rabinovich.  Can you tell me exactly how these measures will be implemented? 
Can you explore them a little bit for us?  And, you know, are they going to 
work?  When you're talking about suicide missions, that would seem almost 
impossible to control. 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: Yeah, let me say something about suicide.  Mr. Abdul Haman 
said earlier, what can you do about a single person who takes five or ten 
pounds of explosives and blows themselves to pieces with the others?  Indeed, 
it is very difficult to respond to that, but we have to remember one thing.  
These individuals are not acting alone.  There is a whole supply network, 
there is a network of preachers who inside them poison the minds of the young 
men who go and do that, there's a whole support network.  And what needs to be 
done is to address this whole network and then you are not looking for a 
single individual in a haystack, but you are looking at a network that is 
easier to identify and to fight against. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: Shimon Peres was actually booed this morning when he 
toured the scene.  What position- he's in a precarious situation here.  What 
can he do next? 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: We're all faced with a dilemma.  We are engaged in this 
peace process because we believe that the only way in which Israelis and Arabs 
can live is in peace.  The only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is 
peaceful. And in the long run, this is obviously correct.  In the meantime, 
the average Israeli looks us in the eye and says, 'you're my government, I 
voted for you, or if I didn't vote for you I still trust you, and I need your 
implementation on the most basic needs of the human being including security 
for me and my family. And what is the use of this peace process for me if I 
cannot send my son, my daughter, my wife on a bus in the middle of Jerusalem 
or in the middle of Tel Aviv?  If this is the case, sorry, I'm not 
interested.' 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: Your opinion of Palestinian President Yasir Arafat's 
comments and the action that he is taking now.  Is this sufficient? 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: The comments are fine, the action is not sufficient. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: What would you like to see done? 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: I would simply like to see Chairman Arafat do precisely 
what we have done.  This morning, the government of Israel declared an all-out 
war against the organization of Hamas and against the phenomenon of 
Palestinian fundamentalist terrorism.  I think Chairman Arafat, if he wants to 
remain Chairman Arafat, if he wants this peace process to survive, he needs to 
do precisely the same.  He needs to define Hamas and all other manifestation 
of terrorism as public enemies number one, and not just to declare that but to 
draw the right practical conclusions from this and conduct an all-out war.  
Terrorism is like cancer.  Either you deal with it and you cut it out, or it 
eats you up. It's as plain as that. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: And the next two weeks or the next few weeks, rather, 
would seem very important on the future of the peace process.  Do you agree? 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: The next few weeks, the next few days, because everything 
is in the balance now, and not just decisive action but effective action is 
what we all are required to produce right now. 
 
CATHERINE CALLAWAY: Itamar Rabinovich, thank you very much for joining us this 
morning. 
 
ITAMAR RABINOVICH: Thank you for having me. 
 

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