Gilead sher was Interviewed in CNN's New Day
Search Underway for Missing Air Algerie Flight; Calls for Middle East Cease-Fire Growing; Flow of Illegal Immigrants Has Slowed; FAA Lifts Ban on Flights to Israel (Aired July 24, 2014).
(Transcript)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting live from Jerusalem.
The FAA has now dropped its 36-hour ban on flights to and from Tel Aviv by U.S. carriers. Delta, United and U.S. Airways will now decide when to resume their service.
Meantime, the rocket fire certainly hasn't stopped. Earlier in the day it slowed down a bit. In the last hour or two, it's picked up over central Israel, including the Tel Aviv area.
Efforts, meanwhile, are under way to try to achieve some sort of cease-fire. Israel is continuing its military operation, primarily going after those Hamas tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel.
Joining us now is Gilead Sher. He was the one -- one-time, he was the chief of staff to then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the chief peace negotiator back in 2000.
You guys got pretty close then when Bill Clinton at the end of this term was there. But it wasn't close enough. Is a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, still viable?
COL. GILEAD SHER, CHIEF OF STAFF TO FORMER ISRAEL PRIME MNISTER EHUD BARAK: Very much so. I believe that's only way to secure Israel's future as a democratic nation station of the Jewish people. There's no other way but to disengage from the Palestinians into a two-state reality, having one Israeli Jewish democratic state and one Palestinian demilitarized state, living side by side to one another.
BLITZER: Because you know a lot of your fellow Israelis are increasingly, given what's happened over the past couple of weeks, saying that maybe the two-state solution is not acceptable. They say they can't trust the Palestinians.
SHER: Well, I believe that, well, if they don't trust the Palestinians, let's do it on our own and let's delineate the boundaries in order to encompass a Jewish democracy within those boundaries. I believe that's --
BLITZER: Unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, you would support that?
SHER: While leaving the doors wide open to resume negotiations and negotiate a permanent status agreement which is, you know, as I believe, has very long odds.
BLITZER: You know, this stop of U.S. and European service, a lot of European service flying to and from Tel Aviv. It was a real jolt to the Israeli public over the past couple of days. The last time the U.S. recommended no flights into Ben Gurion Airport was back in 1991, when Saddam Hussein was launching Scud missiles into the Tel Aviv area.
So, that was a real victory, though, for Hamas.
SHER: It's not a victory for Hamas. It's just an unfortunate decision taken by the FAA I believe that, you know, it's much safer to fly out to Tel Aviv and from Tel Aviv than it is to fly over Ukraine, and as we just heard about the Air Algerie plane that is missing right now.
BLITZER: But if rockets are going towards Ben Gurion Airport, and I spoke yesterday with one of the Hamas spokesman, he said they are targeting Ben Gurion Airport because Israel uses it for military purposes as well. You can't blame the FAA and others for being concerned about the commercial traffic coming in and out of Israel.
SHER: Well, we have excellent means to make these flights safe into and out of Israel.
BLITZER: So the cease-fire right now, is there going to be a cease- fire? John Kerry is working hard, Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary- general, I know Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Egyptians, Qatar, Turkey. They all seem to be working, but I don't see a cease-fire.
SHER: Eventually, there will be a cease-fire. But there are two diverging time lines here. Israel needs a tad more time in order to clean up the tunnels and to get hold of the arsenal, the huge arsenal of missiles and rockets. This is the military time line and there is the political time line which does not converge with this one that requires to stop the operation and start rehabilitating the -- the whole region. But there will be eventually in a couple of days, maybe in a couple of weeks, there will be a cease-fire.
BLITZER: And Israel will withdraw all of its forces. Thousands of Israeli troops are still on the ground.
SHER: Well, it depends. It depends on the contents and parameters of such a cease-fire. We cannot allow anymore, you know, kind of a truce for 18 months or so and then once again being threatened to -- on our civilian centers and our -- and our civilians all together.
BLITZER: You see the horrendous pictures coming out of Israel. All the civilians, the children who have been killed.
SHER: That's very regrettable and it's a lot of sorrow, but this is collateral damage that is caused because we have to counter Hamas' terrorism. There's no other way but to fight it in their -- in their areas of operation, and that's what we do. We do it very carefully, very responsibly, but we have to do it.
BLITZER: Gilead Sher, former chief of staff to the Prime Minister Ehud Barak, thanks very much for joining us.
SHER: Thank you, Wolf.
The FAA has now dropped its 36-hour ban on flights to and from Tel Aviv by U.S. carriers. Delta, United and U.S. Airways will now decide when to resume their service.
Meantime, the rocket fire certainly hasn't stopped. Earlier in the day it slowed down a bit. In the last hour or two, it's picked up over central Israel, including the Tel Aviv area.
Efforts, meanwhile, are under way to try to achieve some sort of cease-fire. Israel is continuing its military operation, primarily going after those Hamas tunnels leading from Gaza into Israel.
Joining us now is Gilead Sher. He was the one -- one-time, he was the chief of staff to then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the chief peace negotiator back in 2000.
You guys got pretty close then when Bill Clinton at the end of this term was there. But it wasn't close enough. Is a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, still viable?
COL. GILEAD SHER, CHIEF OF STAFF TO FORMER ISRAEL PRIME MNISTER EHUD BARAK: Very much so. I believe that's only way to secure Israel's future as a democratic nation station of the Jewish people. There's no other way but to disengage from the Palestinians into a two-state reality, having one Israeli Jewish democratic state and one Palestinian demilitarized state, living side by side to one another.
BLITZER: Because you know a lot of your fellow Israelis are increasingly, given what's happened over the past couple of weeks, saying that maybe the two-state solution is not acceptable. They say they can't trust the Palestinians.
SHER: Well, I believe that, well, if they don't trust the Palestinians, let's do it on our own and let's delineate the boundaries in order to encompass a Jewish democracy within those boundaries. I believe that's --
BLITZER: Unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, you would support that?
SHER: While leaving the doors wide open to resume negotiations and negotiate a permanent status agreement which is, you know, as I believe, has very long odds.
BLITZER: You know, this stop of U.S. and European service, a lot of European service flying to and from Tel Aviv. It was a real jolt to the Israeli public over the past couple of days. The last time the U.S. recommended no flights into Ben Gurion Airport was back in 1991, when Saddam Hussein was launching Scud missiles into the Tel Aviv area.
So, that was a real victory, though, for Hamas.
SHER: It's not a victory for Hamas. It's just an unfortunate decision taken by the FAA I believe that, you know, it's much safer to fly out to Tel Aviv and from Tel Aviv than it is to fly over Ukraine, and as we just heard about the Air Algerie plane that is missing right now.
BLITZER: But if rockets are going towards Ben Gurion Airport, and I spoke yesterday with one of the Hamas spokesman, he said they are targeting Ben Gurion Airport because Israel uses it for military purposes as well. You can't blame the FAA and others for being concerned about the commercial traffic coming in and out of Israel.
SHER: Well, we have excellent means to make these flights safe into and out of Israel.
BLITZER: So the cease-fire right now, is there going to be a cease- fire? John Kerry is working hard, Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary- general, I know Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Egyptians, Qatar, Turkey. They all seem to be working, but I don't see a cease-fire.
SHER: Eventually, there will be a cease-fire. But there are two diverging time lines here. Israel needs a tad more time in order to clean up the tunnels and to get hold of the arsenal, the huge arsenal of missiles and rockets. This is the military time line and there is the political time line which does not converge with this one that requires to stop the operation and start rehabilitating the -- the whole region. But there will be eventually in a couple of days, maybe in a couple of weeks, there will be a cease-fire.
BLITZER: And Israel will withdraw all of its forces. Thousands of Israeli troops are still on the ground.
SHER: Well, it depends. It depends on the contents and parameters of such a cease-fire. We cannot allow anymore, you know, kind of a truce for 18 months or so and then once again being threatened to -- on our civilian centers and our -- and our civilians all together.
BLITZER: You see the horrendous pictures coming out of Israel. All the civilians, the children who have been killed.
SHER: That's very regrettable and it's a lot of sorrow, but this is collateral damage that is caused because we have to counter Hamas' terrorism. There's no other way but to fight it in their -- in their areas of operation, and that's what we do. We do it very carefully, very responsibly, but we have to do it.
BLITZER: Gilead Sher, former chief of staff to the Prime Minister Ehud Barak, thanks very much for joining us.
SHER: Thank you, Wolf.