Netanyahu: Fighting terrorism 'first condition for peace'
March 23, 1997
Web posted at: 2:33 p.m. EST (1933 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said Palestinian authorities must do more to combat terrorism
if the peace process between the two sides is to continue,
but stopped short of saying he was ready to suspend all
talks.
"I am putting the first condition for peace on the table, and
that is I want them to start fighting terrorism as they
promised," Netanyahu said Sunday during an interview on CNN's
"Late Edition." "They've given the green light to terrorism.
The traffic light hasn't changed yet. I want to see a red
light there ... Then we can discuss many other issues."
(407 K / 37 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
The prime minister said the two sides were still talking,
despite an Islamist suicide bomb attack that killed
three women in Tel Aviv Friday. But he indicated that future
progress would be dependent upon whether Palestinian
authorities take decisive action against Hamas and other
militant Islamic groups.
(247 K / 23 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Netanyahu said Israel had evidence that the leadership of the
Palestinian authority had met with leaders of Hamas before
Friday's bombing at a cafe in Tel Aviv.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for that attack, which
killed three Israelis.
(244 K / 23 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
"We have solid information that those organizations left
those meetings understanding they have a green light and soon
enough, after a year when there was no green light, they
proceed to act on it and they bombed these women, these
babies, in downtown Tel Aviv," Netanyahu said.
In response, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told
CNN that it was the sense of desperation among Palestinians
caused by Netanyahu's hard-line policies that has led to the
renewal of violence.
(229 K / 21 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
"He and he alone bears the responsibility," Erakat said.
(252 K / 24 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Netanyahu again defended his government's decision to build
housing for Jewish settlers in an historically Arab section
of East Jerusalem, which critics view as the provocation that
sparked the current round of violence.
(145 K / 13 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
The Israeli leader said his country would not have its
decisions dictated by terrorists, and he likened the
situation to an American government backing down if a
terrorist group made demands about what could be done in
Washington or Oklahoma City.
"If we started accepting these terrorist dictates, there
wouldn't be an Israel," he said, noting that even though the
previous Israeli government was more conciliatory on the
issue of settlements, terrorist acts still took place.
"(Terrorists) can always find a reason. That's not the point.
You can't begin the course ... of saying, 'Maybe if we don't
do this or don't do that, they'll leave us alone.' We have to
tell the terrorists ... 'no go.'"
(185 K / 17 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
He also said American disapproval would not alter his
government's decision to build new settlements in Jerusalem.
"Among the best of friends, there can be serious
disagreements," Netanyahu said. "Jerusalem for us -- for
Jewish people everywhere, for me as a Jew -- is the rock of
our existence
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