DATE=05/08/02

TYPE=INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

TITLE=STEPHEN ZUNES/M.E. TERRORISM

NUMBER=3-178

BYLINE=VICTOR BEATTIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=

/// Editors: This interview is available in Dalet under SOD/English News Now Interviews in the folder for today or yesterday ///

HOST: After a deadly suicide bombing attack in Israel, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has ordered his security forces to prevent all terrorist operations against Israeli civilians by any Palestinian. The order came as Israel vowed a tough response to the attack, claimed by Hamas, that killed 17 people and injured more than 50 in a pool hall south of Tel Aviv. Stephen Zunes is a Middle East analyst with the University of San Francisco in California and VOA's News Now's Victor Beattie asked him about the effectiveness of a military response:

MR. ZUNES: There seems to be a belief on both sides that if violence doesn't work, just try more violence. And clearly that has not helped either side. It has not brought the Palestinians any closer to achieving their rights, and it hasn't brought Israel any closer to achieving security. And unfortunately, the level of distrust, the level of anger, on both sides is so great that there probably will be further retaliations and counter-retaliations and further escalation without bringing things any closer to the peace and security that both sides want and deserve.

MR. BEATTIE: What happens to the peace process now?

MR. ZUNES: In many ways, I was not as enthusiastic as some people were about this latest effort -- the refusal to include Yasser Arafat who, for better or worse, is the Palestinian leader, and the fact that Sharon did not seem serious about moving toward a viable Palestinian state -- it made it seem more like gestures to placate the growing anti-American sentiment in the Arab world as a result of the Bush administration's support for Israel's offensive this past month. But, unfortunately, the whole problem we've been having these past few months is that the peace process has kind of been held hostage to terrorists. When people like Ariel Sharon and President Bush say we cannot return to the peace table as long as there is terrorism, it in many ways gives license to these Islamic extremists and others who don't support the peace process in the first place and want to sabotage the peace process.

So, unfortunately, the reality is that while I can understand why the Israelis find it quite difficult to go to the peace table when terrorism is taking place, to refuse to go until the terrorism stops just encourages the terrorists.

HOST: Mr. Zunes says he remains skeptical that either Prime Minister Sharon, with his record of advancing Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and opposing peace treaties with Arab states and President Arafat, with his alleged links to terrorism and autocratic rule, are seriously interested in peace.

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