Interview With Israeli Ambassador to U.S.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Want to get back now to the story breaking out of northern Israel, the city of Afula. We have on the phone with us now Gil Kleiman, he is the spokesman for the Israeli headquarters -- Israeli police, actually, and he is joining us on the phone right now from Jerusalem -- hello.</s>GIL KLEIMAN, ISRAELI POLICE: Hello, hello.</s>KAGAN: Can you tell us the latest about what is taking place in Afula?</s>KLEIMAN: About 5:00 in the evening our time, a suicide bomber enters a shopping mall -- or tries to enter the mall. A guard at the entrance stops the suicide bomber. The suicide bomber blows himself up at the entrance. As a result of that, we had two dead on the scene. Unfortunately another victim died later in hospital, brings our total to three. We have about 46 wounded, some of them seriously, some of them moderately. This is -- we're in the middle of a wave of terror. We saw a suicide bomber on Saturday, two on Sunday. Today we had one in the morning on a bicycle, and now we have this one in the northern part of the country in Afula. So basically, we're in the middle of something now. We hope it will be over very quickly.</s>KAGAN: Do the three dead, does that include the bomber?</s>KLEIMAN: No. It doesn't include the bomber. We don't usually count the bomber. But three victims. Three victims, three innocent victims. Two died on the scene as a result of the explosion, and one died later in the hospital.</s>KAGAN: So that would be a total of four dead.</s>KLEIMAN: Well, three innocent victims and one dead murderer, yes.</s>KAGAN: OK. And anybody claiming responsibility so far?</s>KLEIMAN: The responsibility hasn't come out to us. We have our own ways of investigating. We find time and time again that the terrorist organizations take credit for things they don't do, so we don't take their claims at face value. We have our own investigative purposes. Right now, as far as I know, there's no official claim. Even so, we have our own investigative methods, and we won't place much in their claim.</s>KAGAN: All right. Mr. Kleiman, thanks so much. Gil Kleiman, spokesman for Israeli police in Jerusalem joining us from Israeli police headquarters. Let's get more on this now and bring in the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, who is joining us now, I believe, from Washington, D.C. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us.</s>DANIEL AYALON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Good morning.</s>KAGAN: I don't know if you were able to hear that last report coming from police headquarters in Jerusalem, but if there's anything you can add to what you have been able to learn about what took place today in Afula?</s>AYALON: Yes, I could hear that, and that's another tragic day in Israel. Palestinian terror is relentless. And unfortunately, we don't see any cooperation from the Palestinian Authority. We don't see any work plan. We don't see any concrete steps to change the atmosphere, to stop incitement, and to take steps on the ground to stop the terror. You know, we looked at the appointment of Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister, as a good step in the right direction. In fact, Israel was very serious. We made concrete gestures. We increased the work permits for Palestinians to work in Israel, and we are transferring regularly funds to the Palestinian Authority. We opened road blocks. But every time we do this, the terror springs back in killing us. Until we do not have a work (ph) plan, until we don't (ph) have seriousness on the other side to stop it, there's no way we can move ahead.</s>KAGAN: Mr. Ambassador, let me just jump in here for a second because I wanted to see if we can get some more information about what took place today. We are getting word that Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility. Have you heard anything similar to that?</s>AYALON: Well, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Al Aqsa Brigades, which are under direct control of Arafat, all of them are forming a coalition of terror, whereby they try to destruct, they try to kill, they try to destroy any hope, any ray of hopeful peaceful negotiations. We must defend ourselves, we will keep defending ourselves, and we will still demand, on the Palestinian side, that they, in order to become a real partner, will have zero tolerance for the terror and would fight it themselves and they are fully capable of doing that.</s>KAGAN: And let's get back to the conversation of trying to get this road map going once again. It sounds like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon coming out and repudiating this international road map for peace, that in the current atmosphere with these five suicide bombings taking place in the last 36 to 48 hours, the Israelis believe it's just not possible to take part in that road map.</s>AYALON: No. It's not a matter of repudiating. We are very much supporting the vision of President Bush as was put forth in his speech 24th of June. There was another important speech in South Carolina of last week. We would like to concentrate on the ground. In the absence of any action, in the absence of any progress, in the absence of any anti-terror activities by the Palestinians, no matter progress or plans are devised, nothing can move forward, and this is what we say. It's not enough to have the commitments...</s>KAGAN: So in this -- I'm sorry, Mr. Ambassador, our time is short. In this current atmosphere, is it possible, once again, for Mahmoud Abbas to sit down again with the prime minister and continue talk, or is that just not possible?</s>AYALON: It is possible, and the prime minister would very much like to keep the negotiation with him and talk to him about how to stop the terror. He has met with him before, he met with him only last Saturday, and he's willing to meet again. But, without any action taken by the Palestinians, there is no chance for any program to move ahead, because no country, but no country, can tolerate killing of its citizens having this rampage of terrorism.</s>KAGAN: Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador here to the United States. Sir, thank you for your time. Appreciate you coming on with us today.