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Marking One Year Since The Hamas Terror Attacks; Fighting Still Rages One Year After Hamas Attacks; IDF Issues Fresh Evacuation Orders For Parts Of Gaza. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 07, 2024 - 10:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:49]
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, where
the time is 6:00 in the evening.
And today, one year on from the October the 7th, Hamas terror attacks, I'm talking to you from a region in more peril than ever before, with multiple
ongoing conflicts, and no clarity about how much further they will escalate or how and when they will end.
This is how it looks today at the site of the Nova music festival in Israel, where Hamas militants massacred hundreds of young people and
hundreds more in and around a nearby kibbutz.
Raw emotions, as families of the victims remember the dead, and the more than 100 people still held in Gaza.
Well, the Hamas terror attack set off Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, where more than 41,000 people have been killed, many of them women and
children, and living conditions are dire.
And Israel hitting more Hezbollah targets. In Lebanon, more than 2000 people reported killed there, and more than 1 million displaced.
Jeremy Diamond now takes a look back at the horror and sorrow of that day one year ago and the ongoing death and destruction in Gaza through the eyes
of two mothers. A warning, his report contains disturbing images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want her back alive, not in a bag.
I want her alive that I can hold her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (text): At night, I wish to hug my son, Jude. I always hug his pillow all night. This is all I have left of him.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Words alone cannot capture a mother's pain, but the anguish on their faces paints a devastating
picture of the countless lives upended by Hamas's October 7th attack and Israel's war in Gaza.
One year later, Faten Meraish (PH) is still grieving the loss of her two sons killed in an Israeli airstrike this summer.
Simona Steinbrecher doesn't know her daughter's fate. She is being held hostage by Hamas. Stepping inside the home where she was abducted is like
going back in time.
SIMONA STEINBRECHER, MOTHER OF OCTOBER 7TH ATTACK VICTIM: They broke the windows. They come from the window.
DIAMOND (voice over): Shards of glass still crunch under foot, in a home upturned and uprooted from the peace it once provided. And in the bedroom,
a mother recounts her daughter's abduction.
STEINBRECHER: She was very afraid, because you can hear from the voice that she said, they take me, they take me. She was really afraid.
DIAMOND: She was on the phone with you when she was being taken.
STEINBRECHER: Yes, and we don't know nothing about her. What happened with her. We don't know if she is alive. We don't know nothing.
DIAMOND (voice over): Doron Steinbrecher's cry for help captured in one final voice note.
DORON STEINBRECHER, KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS (text): They have caught me. They have caught me. They have caught me. They have caught --
DIAMOND: She was one of 251 people taken hostage on October 7th, 2023. After Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most
of whom were civilians.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history, carried out at a music festival in people's homes and against those who fled into bomb
shelters.
In Kfar Aza, this small kibbutz on the Gaza border, Hamas kidnapped 19, including Simona's daughter, Doron.
DIAMOND: Did you ever imagine that you would be sitting here a year later?
S. STEINBRECHER: No.
DIAMOND: And she would still be in Gaza?
S. STEINBRECHER: Never. But now we see that there is another days, another weeks, another month, and nothing.
[10:05:01]
DIAMOND: The first sign of life came nearly four months later. Doron, gaunt and pale, appears in a Hamas hostage video.
S. STEINBRECHER: I was happy that I can see that she is alive. But then, I can -- I look at her, and I can say the difference.
DIAMOND: What does the government tell you?
S. STEINBRECHER: They tell us the family that they make everything that they will come back. But they are still there, so something is wrong,
something is not working.
DIAMOND (voice over): Those frustrations shifted into overdrive in August, after Hamas executed six hostages, families like Dorons, now fearing the
worst.
DIAMOND: You feel like, the longer she is there, the less likely it is that she could come back alive.
S. STEINBRECHER: Yes. They don't have time.
DIAMOND (voice over): For nearly 10 months, Faten (PH) managed to keep her family safe, fleeing from one place to another as Israel pummeled the Gaza
strip with bombs and missiles, a school, a relative's home, a tent.
FATEN MERAISH, MOTHER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN GAZA (text) (PH): We tried as much as possible to create an atmosphere in which there was no terror, no
bombing. Wherever there were safe areas, I would take the children there.
DIAMOND (voice over): But nowhere in Gaza is truly safe. CPR cannot bring her 5-year-old son, Jude, back to life. But Faten cannot believe it. She
had only just left the tent they were living in to buy Jude, Indomie, his favorite instant noodles.
But as she cradles her youngest her eldest son's body arrives at the morgue. Muhammad (PH) is dead too. His mother and father in agony. Amid
their unspeakable grief, there is also anger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
DIAMOND (voice over): -- at Israel, at Hamas, and at a world she feels has abandoned them.
This is all that is left of the tent where Mohammad (PH) and Jude were staying when a missile struck just a few feet away, where their mother now
asks what her children did to deserve this fate.
MERAISH (text): They are more precious to me than the light of my eyes. When I lost them, I lost a piece of my heart.
DIAMOND (voice over): Jude would have turned 6 years old last month.
MERAISH (text): We used to celebrate his birthday every year with a cake, and invite the loved ones, because he is the youngest in the family. But
this time, Jude was not with us. There was only a box of Indomie that I was handling to children his age.
DIAMOND (voice over): More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military over the last year, and at least 11,000 are children like
Jude and Mohammad (PH), according to Oxfam, making it the deadliest conflict for children in a single year this century.
DIAMOND: How much is too much, Sir? At what point is it time to end this war?
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL (through translator): Well, we'll end the war when we achieve our war goals over the -- making sure
that Hamas can't repeat such atrocities. That I'm not going to change my policies, humanitarian policies, vaccination policies, combat policies to
minimize civilian casualties.
DIAMOND (voice over): But is Israel any closer to achieving its war goals?
AMI AYALON, FORMER HEAD OF SHIN BET: Even if we shall kill all Hamas activists and all the political leaders, and we shall destroy all the
military installations, on the day after, two Palestinian children that lost their families, will try to achieve to get a knife and to kill
Israelis, unless you will defeat the ideology. And the only way to defeat the ideology is to present a better ideology.
DIAMOND: And so, one year later --
(CROSSTALK)
AYALON: Yes.
DIAMOND: Is Israel safer than it was?
AYALON: No, no way. Israel is not safer because if you look on the day of tomorrow, no one can tell you that we shall not face a regional war, in
which Hezbollah and Iran, and the West Bank, and Syria, and the Houthis will not fight. It will be a regional war with a global impact. So, nobody
can tell you today that we are safer than on the 6th of October,
DIAMOND (voice over): But for two mothers at the heart of this painful conflict --
MERAISH (text): Who knows when it will end, or what else I might lose? Would I lose my sister, my brother, or some relatives, or someone dear to
me? God knows. We don't know.
DIAMOND (voice over): A plea for it all to end.
S. STEINBRECHER: There is no time for someone to finished wars or something like this.
[10:10:03]
They don't have time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Jeremy Diamond, joining me now from Tel Aviv and the pain absolutely palpable there.
Your piece really underscoring, you know, the effect of conflict, which really does not seem to have any resolution inside, Jeremy, any time soon.
DIAMOND: No doubt about it. And that is evidenced by what we have been seeing on the ground today. Not only the scenes of mourning, the pleas of a
former hostage, whose husband is still being held hostage that we brought you just last hour. But also, the fact that we are still seeing across
Israel today, rockets being fired, not only by Hamas, but also by Hezbollah.
My alerts are actually going off as we speak right now, with rockets being fired towards Northern Israel.
And, of course, the Israeli military itself is intensifying its military campaign in Gaza, forcing the displacement of tens of thousands of
additional people. It is continuing to push into Lebanon as we are seeing that ground operation expanding. And of course, there is the threat of Iran
And following that ballistic missile barrage of nearly 200 rockets earlier this week, the Israeli military -- or last week, I should say, the Israeli
military, the Israeli government, still vowing to strike back.
I spoke with the Israeli defense minister yesterday, who told me that everything is on the table as it relates to a retaliation against Iran.
Close coordination still with the United States over what that response will look like.
But of course, this is a region very much on edge, and one where the prospect of peace doesn't seem to be any closer one year into this war.
Becky?
ANDERSON: Jeremy Diamond is on the ground there in Tel Aviv in Israel, and alluded to the fact that his alerts are going off on his phone as he was
speaking, I just checked mine and sirens indeed sounding in northern Israel.
And as of 5:00 p.m. local time on Monday, the IDF says approximately 135 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
So, the numbers are there for all to witness. This war rages on, on a number of fronts, not least on Israel's northern front.
Of course, Jeremy, thank you.
Well, a large blast rocked Beirut's southern suburbs. An hour or so ago, part of the expanding war in Lebanon, Israel pounded the region with
intense strikes over the weekend, as it goes after the militant group Hezbollah. More than 2,000 people have been killed in that bombing
campaign.
CNN's Ben Wedeman, following this for us from the Lebanese capital.
And Ben, what is happening on the ground where you are now certainly learning about that huge blast. Our teams, including you, heard now or so
ago, as I understand it.
WEDEMAN: Yes, an hour and a half ago, there was a very large explosion to the south of me in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the closest we believe,
to Beirut's airport.
And, of course, now, as it has been throughout the day, a very noisy, low flying Israeli drone overhead. This comes as Israel is intensifying its air
strikes and artillery barrages on southern towns and villages in Lebanon.
We have reports from the national news agency, the official news agency here, that 10 Lebanese firefighters were killed when they were preparing to
go out on a rescue mission in the south of the country.
This comes as the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military put out yet another series of evacuation orders for 25 villages in southern Lebanon.
At this point, the total number of villages that have received those orders is around 150. They are being told to go north of the Awali River, which is
about 50 kilometers north of the border with Israel. And told not to go back to their homes until further notice, and for nobody to drive south in
from the Awali River.
Clearly, Israel is until now, they have been launching whether they are calling limited, localized and targeted raids in South Lebanon. But
clearly, if they are telling so many people to move, we're talking about a quarter of the total area of Lebanon. Clearly, they are preparing for some
sort of major ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Becky?
ANDERSON: Ben Wedeman is on the ground for you reporting there from Beirut on the city and the widest story in Lebanon.
Still to come -- Ben, thank you.
[10:15:01]
As Israel unleashes some of its most intense bombing on the country, I speak to the former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, who tells me
that even before this war, the country was facing misery.
More from him after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: One year on from the Hamas attacks on Israel, and this is what northern Gaza looks like today.
Israel's military offensive in the Palestinian enclave has killed more than 41,000 people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NABEEL ABU AL FAHIM (through translator): Two of my nephews have been murdered, and five members of my family have been murdered. My wife,
daughters, and children have been killed, and one of my children is still missing. The house was destroyed by two missiles, and the number of murders
in the house is around 30.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, meanwhile, Israel has issued fresh evacuation orders to residents in parts of the north and the south of the enclave. The military
says its forces are responding with, "extreme force" to Hamas terrorist actions, they say in those areas.
Nada Bashir, following developments for you. And Nada, a new operation in northern Gaza. What are we learning about that and its impact on the
civilian population?
NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: Well, we've been seeing strikes ongoing in northern Gaza, around the Jabalia refugee camp area. This is
somewhere where many civilians had returned to given the lack of security in other parts of Gaza, where they have been forced to flee time and time
again.
And the Israeli military has said that it is planning to target Hamas militants and infrastructure in the area in northern Gaza. They believe
that there has been a build-up, a resurgence of Hamas militants on the ground in this particular region of northern Gaza, and have now said they
have encircled the Jabalia area with troops on the ground ahead of a planned operation.
But as you can imagine, this is a deeply distressing situation for the civilians in this area. They have been ordered to evacuate once again, and
we have been seeing video emerging of civilians fleeing with whatever belongings that they still have in an attempt to reach the so-called safe
zones that have been outlined by the Israeli military, namely the Al-Mawasi coastal area.
But of course, we are also now seeing similar messaging in the south. As you mentioned. The Israeli military has said that it will be, in its words,
responding with force to Hamas activity they believe to be taking place in and around neighborhoods surrounding the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Again, another area we have seen a huge amount of displacement amongst Palestinian civilians who had taken shelter there. There are still
significant encampments for the displaced in parts of southern Gaza, particularly around the Khan Yunis area, and they are being told also to
evacuate to the Al-Mawasi coastal area.
As you can imagine, the vast majority of Gaza's 2.2 million strong population have now been internally displaced, forced to evacuate time and
time.
Coastal area. But as you can imagine, the vast majority of Gaza's 2.2 million strong population have now been internally displaced, forced to
evacuate time and time again. There is simply no safe zones, according to multiple U.N. agencies for civilians to turn to.
And, in fact, while these so-called humanitarian zones have been established, namely that Al-Mawasi coastal zone, what we have seen over the
last year is these outlined zones getting smaller and smaller, shrinking in size.
We've also seen these safe zones actually being targeted, coming under attack and being struck by the Israeli Air Force. So, a huge amount of
concern for Palestinian civilians, who are once again being told to evacuate. And of course, signals of an expansion of, perhaps deepening, of
the Israeli military's operations on the ground, as well as in the air.
And of course, it is troubling to think about the fact that this is now a year on, we are still seeing these widespread strikes in areas that are
known to be densely populated by civilians. Just over the weekend, we've seen a series of strikes in central Gaza, one of the most troubling
incidences over the course of the weekend was perhaps the targeting of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital compound.
Again, this is one of the very few hospitals remaining in Gaza still able to treat patients. The compound is somewhere where civilians had taken
shelter in tents, and this was struck by an Israeli drone strike, as confirmed by the Israeli military itself, which has said it was targeting a
Hamas command and control center, something that they have said in the past with regards to other areas, as well as hospitals, but again, with no
evidence of this.
So, a hugely worrying situation. And as you've been outlining, Becky, at least 41,000 people have been killed over the course of the last year, and
as the strikes continue that death toll is only set to rise.
ANDERSON: Yes. Nada Bashir on the story for you.
We are just hearing from Palestinian officials who say, a 12-year-old boy was killed during an Israeli incursion into a West Bank refugee camp today.
They say the boy arrived at a local hospital with a bullet wound to his abdomen. The refugee camp lies near the main checkpoint, linking Ramallah
with Jerusalem. The Palestinian Red Crescent says its crews attended to eight people who have been injured by live bullets, and one person who was
shot in the head with a rubber bullet.
Let me get you back to Lebanon now. Israel's military tells evacuees that they should not return to their homes until further notice. As Israel
continues to pummel the suburbs of Beirut, the IDF says it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in the evening there on Sunday.
Meantime, Hezbollah says it launched rockets towards an Israeli military base, near Haifa on Sunday, with the IDF saying that several hits were
identified.
Well, a short time ago, I spoke to the former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, about what this war is doing to a country already in crisis. He
has written in the UAE newspaper, The National, an opinion piece, "Titled the Lebanon we know cannot survive another war." Referring to a host of
problems, including the country's economic crisis, its political stalemate, and a very different Arab support system from days of yours.
I began by asking if what we are seeing now in Lebanon was inevitable?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOUAD SINIORA, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF LEBANON: Lebanon now is, is facing the seventh war that Israel is waging against it. The -- this thing cannot,
cannot be sustained by Lebanon. The problem, as everybody knows, is this, the own, what we are seeing are practically symptoms of one most important
problem, which is the continuation of that's the Palestinian problem without a solution.
You know that the world has issued so many resolutions and so many agreements and so many conferences, but none has been implemented. It's
true that some resistance was really expressed by some groups in the Arab world, but the problem is that Israel has not manifested in any manner that
it is really serious in finding a resolution to the problem.
To the contrary, I think Israel is still continuing to invade other parts of Palestine, which is the West Bank and Gaza, and now it is doing the job,
completing its job as what is doing in Lebanon.
ANDERSON: We do it seems stand on the brink of all-out war in this region. What do you expect Israel to do?
SINIORA: I know there is a big problem having this group of very extremist politicians in Israel now. But it is high time for the -- for the, let's
say the brave men, and the brave leaders around the world to state to Israel that it is high time to find that there is a way and there is a
possibility for creating real peace in the region.
[10:25:14]
This is the time when people like the president of United States and other presidents in the in Europe, as well as Russia and China, because all of
them are silent up until now. This is not something that can help real safety and the real peace in the region and in the world.
ANDERSON: I want to talk about the political disunity, effectively --
SINIORA: Yes.
ANDERSON: -- the Lebanese state, which is just simply not functioning at this point. You accuse Nasrallah of acting like a shadow government before
he was assassinated by the IDF. Do you see the Hezbollah leadership vacuum as an opportunity to find political unity in Lebanon at this point?
SINIORA: Well, I don't accuse him. He has been doing it. He actually kidnapped the government, together with Iran behind them. So, that is what
we have been having, some sort of failed state. So, here, I think what really happened, and with all the miseries that we have already been
facing, I think it is very important now to see how we can convert such a crisis into an opportunity of bringing back the state to be in full control
of the country. And one of the real ways how to do that is by starting electing a president and to have a full functioning government.
Saad Hariri condemned Nasrallah's killing, despite Hezbollah elements being found linked to his father's assassination. What is the view on the Sunni
Street today? Is there relief at Hezbollah's decapitation? Or has Israel's invasion united the Shiites and Sunnis against the common enemy, as it
were.
SINIORA: Well, actually, that was some sort of humanitarian, let's say expression about the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah. It's not a matter,
actually, whether he condemned or what really represents that, what Hassan Nasrallah has been doing at Hezbollah, it was sheer kidnapping of the State
of Lebanon, and this has been going on for a long period of time, and that what really manifested itself in the failure of the Lebanese states in
every aspect, not only on the security and in the sovereignty of the state, but the economy of Lebanon is in shambles.
All of this that was the result of the lack of the presence of a full, functioning, able government to be in real control.
ANDERSON: Let me ask you this back in 2006, you know, during the war then.
SINIORA: Yes.
ANDERSON: And you, you were the prime minister. At the end of that, there was a rush to help Lebanon.
(CROSSTALK)
SINIORA: Yes.
ANDERSON: Mainly from Gulf States, although, of course, there were other international initiatives as well.
(CROSSTALK)
SINIORA: True.
ANDERSON: But mainly from Gulf States. Saudi Arabia today seems to have washed its hands of Lebanon. Some time ago, Riyadh always opposed to
Hezbollah interference. Have relations between your movement and Riyadh. And Lebanon as a state in Riyadh changed at all since Israel ramped up
these attacks and knocked out the Hezbollah leadership.
SINIORA: Let me tell you what are the differences in that? One, is that on that day, on the 12th of July, 206, I convened the Cabinet, and the Cabinet
issued a statement that we didn't know about this thing, and we have not been informed, but we disavow what really Hezbollah did.
And that what really allowed us to keep a great distance between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.
Unlike what we did in -- at that time, the Lebanese government in the -- on the -- on the -- on the eighth of October 23 did not make any statement to
indicate that there is a big distance between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah and the resistance.
Now, here we are. The thing that was not done anyhow, it can be done. Even late, but it is very important to create that distance and at the same time
address the Arab world and the international community that it is high time to save Lebanon by leaving Lebanon to its fate as it is now. It is under
great destruction.
It doesn't help the moderates out to the contrary, it helped the extremists, and it will be creating more problems in the region and in
Lebanon.
ANDERSON: Is the opportunity for diplomacy, though, over do you think?
[10:30:04]
SINIORA: It is better to be late than not to come all together. It is definitely possible, very possible. And I think everybody is now should
realize what are the risks that might really ensue if we ever leave things as is without really addressing the situation properly and trying to bring
the -- to bring everybody towards the negotiating table.
ANDERSON: You have written yourself, Lebanon cannot survive another war. You said, the Lebanon we know could disappear and a far more dangerous
entity may emerge. You wrote that in a comment piece back in July. What did you mean by that?
SINIORA: I do believe that if we ever leave Lebanon like this without really trying to save them, that will be a place for spreading
instabilities in the region.
ANDERSON: Provide me some further detail. What do you mean by that?
SINIORA: Like any disease, it spreads, you know, the bird's flu, it spreads without really needing to get -- to get a visa from anybody. It spreads.
And there is a problem that is mounting, and that is a problem that has proven to be an impossible. To be -- to be just erased. I mean, the
Palestinian cause. And Lebanon as well. It is a situation where, if we don't address it, then it becomes probably additional problem in the
region.
And that, by itself, can create more and more problems. That's what I'm saying. And this has been proven all the way through. What we have, what we
have done by not being effective in finding the solution. We have let Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, to be hijacked by Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Fouad Siniora there speaking to me earlier. We will be right back. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: And in Israel today, anguish and anger. Families of Israeli hostages sounded a siren outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home
in Jerusalem. They are pushing for a ceasefire deal that would secure their loved one's release.
Well, my next guest Gershon Baskin. He's a peace activist and former hostage negotiator, and he has been preparing and promoting a hostage
release plan.
[10:35:09]
He says it lays it out in a letter to Mr. Netanyahu asking the Israeli prime minister to look it over, then forward it to Joe Biden along with
Qatar and Egypt. "I prepared the letter for you." He tells Mr. Netanyahu. All you have to do is sign it. Gershon Baskin joining me now. Has he?
GERSHON BASKIN, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: No, he hasn't signed it. He has it. He's had it for quite some time. There's a deal that Hamas told me that
they agreed to, and I worked at this deal with a number of Israeli generals in order to give it credibility, they went over the text, and they helped
write the text. And Hamas leadership approved it. And the deal is for three weeks to end the war, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
A return of all 101 hostages, living, undead, civilian and military, in exchange also for the release of a significant number of Palestinian
prisoners, which has to be agreed on. And Hamas said they're willing to transfer the governance of Gaza to a civilian, non-Hamas technocratic
government.
ANDERSON: Let's be quite clear about this. You say Hamas has agreed to it. Who in Hamas has agreed to this 21-day ceasefire?
BASKIN: Look, everyone knows that I've been talking to Hamas leadership for 18 years. There are about seven or eight different people in the Hamas,
Politburo that I'm in contact with. The longest relationship that I have is with Razzy Hamad who is a member of the Shura Council. Leadership, the
Politburo and a member of the Hamas negotiating team. He's one of the two Hamas leaders who are from Gaza, who left Gaza before the war and represent
Gaza within the negotiating process. And it was Razzy Hamid that these conversations took place.
ANDERSON: So, tell me why it is that you believe this has gone nowhere at this point, because we've had this other deal on the table for months now,
the Biden-Israel deal. Call it what you will. It's a deal that was being thrashed out over, as I say, months and months, and has gone absolutely
nowhere.
BASKIN: When I heard President Biden presented at the end of May, I remember my first thought was, this is a bad deal. It was talking about two
periods of six weeks where President Biden said the ceasefire would continue, even if there's no agreement on a ceasefire. Israel immediately
responded that they would renew the war after the first six weeks, and in the first six weeks, they would only release 32 of the hostages, which
didn't make sense to me.
So, I was approached by some of the hostage families, and I approached Hamas and said, are you willing to make a deal that ends the war in a short
period of time, three weeks, and you release all the hostages? And they -- after several days, came back to me and said, yes. Why isn't it moving
forward? I think that the United States is very invested in the deal that they've been negotiating now for about four months of trying to make it
work.
It's being negotiated at the level of the head of the CIA Bill Burns and Brett McGurk, the special envoy of President Biden. I think it's very
difficult for them to detach themselves for something they've been so engaged in for so long and pick up something else that might actually work,
but I don't think they have the choice because I think the person they're working for President Biden, who's coming to the end of the term has to
understand that this is a legacy issue for him.
Question is, if Biden going to be remembered as the Gaza war president or the president who ended the war in Gaza and brought the hostages home? This
is really on the desk of President Biden now, because the United States has enormous leverage over Israel, it does. I made a list of -- I made a list
of 15 different things that the United States could do if it's only done behind closed doors, then it's perhaps limited, because Netanyahu can do
whatever he wants.
If he goes public and says, these are the things that we are doing now when we're considering reassessing our relationship with the State of Israel,
this becomes public, and it's the citizens of Israel who are the sovereign, not Mr. Netanyahu.
ANDERSON: Interestingly enough, we have heard about a 21-day ceasefire deal for Lebanon and Israel, or Hezbollah and Israel and the foreign minister of
Lebanon telling my colleague Christiane Amanpour that Hezbollah had signed up to that, but that went nowhere. This was a deal, of course, which is
U.S.-French led. Where does this go from here on and can you decouple what is going on on the Northern Front for Israel with Hezbollah from what is
going on in Gaza?
BASKIN: It's very difficult to decouple it, primarily because Israel believes they're winning in Lebanon right now. They made a strategic change
with the assassination of Nasrallah and the leadership of Hezbollah. Hezbollah and Hezbollah is weaker now. The Israeli army is empowered and
think that maybe there are military solutions to problems that there are no military solutions for.
With regard to Gaza and the Palestinian issue, there is no military solution. There's only a political solution. And here's where we need the
American pressure, because the United States needs this war to end.
[10:40:04]
It's been fueling the war for too long. It's certainly not helping Kamala Harris and her campaign. And I think that President Biden understands it.
Whoever becomes the next president, doesn't want this Gaza war on their agenda on their plate when they enter the White House, or other problems to
deal with. And too many people have been killed. Too much suffering has happened.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is almost without comparison to anything in the last 20 years. We have a responsibility. The international community
has a responsibility to make this war end. We have to resolve the hostage issue, and Hamas seems ready. And all I'm saying is, don't believe me, I'm
no one. I'm not a representative of Israel. I'm not a representative of Hamas. The people in charge need to verify this with the Government of
Qatar, with the Government of Egypt, with the Egyptian intelligence.
They need to go back to Hamas and say, do you support this deal for three weeks? And once they hear yes from them officially, and it's officially on
the plates of everyone, then it needs to happen.
ANDERSON: The longer this goes on, the closer to the brink, or perhaps we are over that brink now. This wider region gets correct.
BASKIN: We certainly are. I think that the Israeli strength so far with regard to Iran is maybe a result of the fact that there were no human
casualties in the Iranian fact against Israel, which leaves Israel with wider strategic options in determining how to hit Iran back. And if the
Israelis are smart, they will pick a significant symbolic target to say we responded. We have to respond because we were attacked with ballistic
missiles, but they can avoid escalation. This is if our government is smart and we know our government often is not smart.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you here. Thank you very much indeed for joining us.
BASKIN: Thank you.
ANDERSON: And we will be addressing the U.S. political situation when we get back. The White House hopefuls take a break from the campaign trail to
commemorate this day, the day a year ago that Hamas attacked Israel. How the crisis in the Middle East has transformed American politics, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Ow, well, a brief break from campaigning with just four weeks until America picks its next president as Donald Trump and Kamar Harris
commemorate a year since the Hamas attacks at separate events. Of course, Harris will plant a memorial tree at her residence in Washington, and Trump
is set to attend two memorials today in New York and in Miami. But despite the pause in politics, just for today, our White House -- senior White
House reporter says the events of October the 7th have actually become a turning point in American politics.
My colleague Stephen Collinson writes, "Washington has been involved in mediating Middle East peace for several generations, but the Israeli
Palestinian conflict has never become such a treacherous domestic political issue as it did after October the 7th."
[10:45:06]
And CNN Politics Senior Reporter Stephen Collinson joining us live from Washington. It's always good to have you, particularly today. Just walk us
through how deeply this has all upended U.S. politics, if you will.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. As I was saying that, the Israel-Palestinian conflict has now become a domestic U.S. political
issue, and that was never the case over the decades. The U.S. -- that the U.S. was acting as a mediator in Middle East peace. This is clearly not
just happening in the United States. We saw it happen in the U.K. and in Europe, but it's been particularly pronounced in America.
We saw all those campus protests earlier this year in favor of the Palestinians. I think what has happened is that previously, the only
political price an American president would pay on the Middle East domestically was for showing insufficient support of Israel. Now that is
the status is still the case among more conservative and moderate voters, but there's this new dynamic now on the left of progressives and Arab
American voters, who are inflicting a price, firstly on President Joe Biden and now potentially on Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic
nominee.
This is in the middle of a U.S. election and there are very serious concerns among Democrats that this could really hurt Harris, particularly
in the key swing state of Michigan, among progressive and Arab American voters. So, this I think, has changed the dynamic of U.S.-Israel relations
inside the United States.
ANDERSON: And I want to just get to that because certainly from the Trump campaign, both Donald Trump and his son in law, Jared Kushner, have said
they have just told Israel to "get the job done." I don't know what that actually means, but that's the
line you get from the Trump campaign or at least from the candidate himself. But from the Harris campaign, things
are slightly different here. Are we getting any sense that Harris will depart in any way from Joe Biden's policies?
COLLINSON: I think there have been some signs rhetorically, especially earlier in the conflict in Gaza, that that might be the case, but since
then, and for electoral reasons, she's really towed the line of the Biden White House and she has to do this balancing act between U.S. foreign
policy principles, support for Israel, which is an important domestic matter, and to worry about her left flank.
But listen to what she said in an interview with 60 Minutes that's going to air tonight about exactly what her Middle East stance is right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D) UNITED STATES DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200
ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel. And when we think about the threat that Hamas, Hezbollah presents Iran, I think that it is,
without any question, our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINSON: So that really is Kamala Harris talking about how she would defend Israel and implying that she would do the same as president. She
also, in that interview, did note the human cost of Israel's operation in Gaza. She's really sitting on the fence. What she has right now is a
strategy to get through an election that's taking place in a month's time. She's not really given us any strong indication about what she thinks about
this, how deeply she's thought about the Middle East question.
And, in fact, many other massive international issues that she would face if she goes into the Oval Office as present next January. So, I think
that's something that's general about the Harris campaign, not just about this issue.
ANDERSON: It's fascinating, isn't it? Stephen, it's always good to have you. Thank you. So, what is next as Stephen has just laid out, the next
occupant of the White House will inherit one of the most perilous crisis facing a modern president. You can check out his entire analysis on the Web
site and sign up to his Meanwhile in America Newsletter which I've said it before, and I'll say again, is a jolly good read.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:51:24]
ANDERSON: Well, sunrise memorials across Israel paying tribute to the hostages taken one year ago today. A day that saw over 1200 killed and more
than 250 kidnapped, around 100 of whom remain in Hamas captivity. As we mark this horrific anniversary, I want to share some final thoughts one
year on. We are starting this week in a region on a dangerous precipice. An expanding war with a civilian toll that has already been devastating beyond
comprehension.
Gaza, all but completely flattened, more than 40,000 killed. Now, Israel has expanded the war into Lebanon. You can see the smoke rising from an air
strike carried out just a few hours ago. The death toll reaching above 2000 there in just a matter of weeks. Meanwhile, we sit and wait to see how
Israel may respond to the barrage of more than 200 ballistic missiles targeting military and security sites in Israel last week.
Well, just one year ago, it felt as if the political architecture of this region was undergoing a significant change. Saudi Arabia and Israel seem
closer than ever to normalization on the heels of the Abraham Accords orchestrated by the United States that saw the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco
normalize relations with Israel. Plus, Saudi Arabia and Iran, after nearly a decade of no diplomatic ties and a regional power struggle look beyond
sectarian conflict and towards economic opportunities that could only be achieved by calming tensions.
Well now, as we wait to see what comes next between Israel and Iran, Middle East scholar and friend of this show, Vali Nasr points out that the
calculus is now much different for the Arab nations in the wake of these rapprochements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALI NASR, PROFESSOR, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: I think the priority for the Gulf Arabs right now is not normalization because normalization with
Israel would not bring security to the Gulf. It will not end Iran's hostility with Israel. It will not reduce war. It also does not dissipate
the anger in the Arab Street towards what's happening in Gaza and Lebanon. In fact, to the contrary, it will incur tremendous political cost from Gulf
rulers, if they were to approach Israel at this point in time.
So, I think they are basically trying to protect the Gulf by working with Iran, by becoming closer to Iran. I mean, in an ideal world, they would
like to have both good relations with Iran, and they would like to have good relations with Israel. The Israeli vision that it is either or that we
are going to have an alliance with the Arabs against Iran, is no longer in the cars. I think the Gulf countries have put that behind them.
They would at some point be willing to normalize with Israel, but they now believe Gulf security and their economic visions their futures requires
deescalating tensions in the Gulf, which means some degree of friendship with Iran. So, I think the Gulf and Israel, yes, on many things, they are
on the same page. They may have relations, but their vision for the security of the Gulf and the security of the Middle East is now parting
ways.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:55:02]
ANDERSON: And that sentiment does seem to be underscored by UAE veteran diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash in this statement that he put out just
days before the October 7th anniversary, saying the era of militia with sectarian and regional dimensions has cost the Arabs dearly. But to quote
my colleague, Nic Robertson, for now, in the absence of successful peace talks, uncertainty is the new certainty.
You can head to CNN digital for more of Nic's analysis. For now, that is it from the team working with me here in Abu Dhabi and from those working with
us around this region. It is a very good evening. I'm Becky Anderson. See you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
