Compere: Tony Jones
Reporter: Tony Jones

TONY JONES: Let's cross to Israel now, for an account of how the government is responding to the latest bombing.

Joining me from Tel Aviv is Israel's Deputy Defence Minister, Dr Ephraim Sneh.

Dr Sneh, there's news just in that Hamas has actually taken responsibility for the twin suicide bombings yesterday.

When the PM returns from India, what more do you expect him to do?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH, FORMER DEPUTY ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER: Allow me to make a small correction.

I'm the former deputy Minister of defence, now I am one of the leaders for the Labour Opposition Party, but it doesn't change the fact that in our war against terror, all the Israelis are united.

When the Prime Minister is back, I don't think that he may take a very extraordinary decision.

Our basic objective is to continue and to pursue the terrorists where they are, to fight them, to hit the leaders of those terror squads, those who are the masterminds of the terrorist attacks -- that is what we have to do immediately now.

TONY JONES: Sorry, to have promoted you back into the ministry before.

But do you see any solution other than simply assassinating every Hamas leader you can locate?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH: Well, that's not a solution.

This is one of the means that we have to use in our war to defend ourselves against terror, and this is one of the effective measures that we can take.

But they have to make it very, very clear.

This war would not be ended but by political agreement between Israeli Government and the Palestinian Government.

There is no other solution than a negotiated one, and, I have to say, even in these horrible days, war is not a solution - war is a problem.

And we have to pursue a political solution between us and the Palestinians.

But the first condition, the precondition for everything, is to stop the terror.

It's intolerable.

We can't continue to live where every day in a restaurant, in a cafe, in a bus, bombs are exploding.

And we have to chase and hit those who are the organisers of this terrorist attacks.

We don't have any other choice but to do it.

And very forcefully.

TONY JONES: It is a terrible choice, though, because each attack seems to breed more attacks on Israel.

Do you think there should be a pause while the new PM, the new nominated PM, Mr Abu Ala, takes time to see if he can actually do anything to deliver on his own promises to end the violence?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH: I don't think consider it a ping-pong game of terrorist attack and retaliation.

Most of our actions are preventive by their nature because, when we hit a ring leader or a top operative of this terrorist organisation by doing so we don't punish him of what he did but we prevent the operation that he is now preparing.

But if there is a new Palestinian PM -- and the name which we hear now is Abu Ala, one of the persons who negotiated with Israel in the past and negotiated with the late PM Rabin and with Paris.

I know him, I know him personally, he is a moderate Palestinian, he is someone who could be a partner.

But he has to take a decision that he fights the terrorists in his own home, within the boundaries of the Palestinian territories.

We, Israel, have to help him, to help him to carry out this job.

TONY JONES: How can you help him -- one part of this question -- and, as well, do you think he has a better chance than Abu Mazen, who failed, as we said earlier, so spectacularly, to get control of the Palestinian security forces?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH: There are three conditions for his success.

One, that Yasser Arafat would not act against him.

The second, that he will sincerely act against the terror organisation, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that he will do it effectively and sincerely - this anti-terrorist combat.

And the third condition is that the Israeli Government would provide him with some very tangible achievements that he will be able to present to the Palestinian people and to show that moderation pays and that extremism, violence, terror, fails.

This is the third condition.

TONY JONES: The final condition could be the critical one from the point of view of the Israeli Government.

What sort of tangible things can Israel offer up to give him the strength that you say he needs, the political strength?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH: There are two measures that we can take to release more prisons and to waive more checkpoints and closures and to facilitate the Palestinian traffic and transportation from one town to another - to waive some of this restriction can be very meaningful to the Palestinian population.

And this too matters, that we can take with a certain risk, but I believe that the reward justifies it.

TONY JONES: It seems, however, speaking of the second part of that -- the facilitation of Palestinian movement and the removal of some checkpoints -- it seems the government is banking on doing exactly the opposite.

They're building a wall to divide your two communities perm innocently.

Isn't the real problem that that wall may become a symbol that those communities will be divided forever?

DR EPHRAIM SNEH: The wall that you are speaking about is not a wall.

Actually, it's a security fence that the government is now constructing along the old border between the West Bank and Israel.

And this, the wall or fence which we build, is aimed only for one purpose -- the terrorist would not be able to cross easily the line between the West Bank and Israel to enter Israeli towns and to commit suicide bombing.

This is the purpose of this fence.

And I consider it as very basic for self-defence.

Even between two countries which live in perfect peace, there is a very clear border.

And that's what we have to do.

This is, inside Israel, political debate -- what exactly will be the precise line of this fence.

People like myself -- the opposition, the Labour party and other opposition parties -- insist that this fence will be along the green line, just to protect Israel from the infiltration of suicide bombers.

There are other parties -- mainly the PM's party, and the ultra right-wing party -- that want to build this fence in a way that it would de facto annexe very large territories from the West Bank to Israel.

But the basic idea behind the construction of this fence is to protect ourselves and I think it is essential.

If we don't do it or if we do it too slow, we allow the terrorists to act very easily and it costs a lot of Israelites.

TONY JONES: We're about to lose the satellites.

There are so many questions apart from this we'd like to ask you, but we thank you very much for taking the time to come and talk to us tonight.

 
� 2003 Lateline. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.