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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

The War Against Peace; Foreign Policy Under The Gun; Is the Ebola Outbreak Spreading?

Aired August 6, 2014 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD live from Jerusalem. We'll have the latest on the cease-fire negotiations in a moment, but first, as the number of deaths linked to that widespread Ebola outbreak continues to rise, there are new concerns that the killer virus is spreading.

The World Health Organization is looking into reports of new ebola- related deaths in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. There have been 45 newly confirmed deaths in the past few days bringing the death toll to 932.

And Europe is dealing with its first Ebola patient, a Spanish priest who reportedly contracted the disease in Liberia. He is now being treated in Madrid.

Let's bring in Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fauci, good to see you as always. You know, I have this question about how these doctors -- these American doctors contracted Ebola to begin with? Do we have any idea? Were they not following proper procedures? Did they not have the equipment in Africa to follow proper from procedures? Because that could, I think, have some ramifications on how doctors here deal with patients. Please.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Well, Jake, you know, it's very difficult to determine. They followed to their knowledge the proper procedures but I think what you have to appreciate is the extraordinary intense, difficult and high-pressure circumstances they were under when taking care of many patients in unbearable heat for a period of time when they became very fatigued.

So I think we can say they certainly were trained in the proper procedures and they highly likely followed all of the proper procedures, but if there was some little kink in that that led to their getting exposed, it's not surprising given the extraordinary pressure that they were under, under those circumstances.

TAPPER: So, Dr. Fauci, health officials are dealing with the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, as you well know. What do you think it will take to slow the growth of this outbreak? FAUCI: Well, Jake, I think it's been said by a number of people,

particularly Dr. Frieden of the CDC, that it really requires an intensive effort in infection control. The infrastructure in the countries involved is really very poor. They've got to get help. They've got to get help from international organizations.

They've got to put more resources themselves into it because if you take a look at what's going on there, the ability to care for people under the appropriate conditions is really marginal and that's the reason why it's out of control, not to mention some of the social conditions where they feel that getting into a hospital is not the right way to go. They try to take care of people in their homes and that's how you get the transmission among family members and friends.

All of that has got to get interrupted if we're going to be able to control this outbreak which is really a terrible outbreak in those countries.

TAPPER: Health officials working towards a vaccine for Ebola. How close are we to that vaccine becoming available?

FAUCI: Well, it's probably going to be not until sometime into mid to late 2015. Right now, as I have mentioned in the past, we have good results in animal studies. We're going into what's called phase one studies for safety and humans at the end of September, and that will take at least a few months taking us into mid to late January.

If everything looks good at that point, namely it's safe and it induces the kind of response that we hope it will be, then you start revving up and producing more and going into more advanced trials and then you can start getting it on a conditional use in some of the individuals. For example, the big target for this vaccine would be the health care workers who are putting themselves at considerable risk by getting involved as did Dr. Brantly and Miss Writebol by getting involved in the thick of it, in the trenches. Those are the ones you're going to want to vaccinate.

TAPPER: Absolutely. God bless them and God bless the other health care workers.

Dr. Fauci, thank you so much.

When we come back, loud, angry voices against peace. Why small groups on both sides are hoping the cease-fire fails. Some even praising the violence that killed innocent civilians. Could this sentiment derail the peace process?

Plus, expect plenty of questions on Israel, Russia, the Ebola outbreak as President Obama speaks to reporters live in just a few minutes. Stay with us. That's coming up live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper live in Jerusalem where everyone is closely monitoring the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, amid hope that an end to this latest round of death and destruction could be at hand.

It's worth noting, however, that not everyone in Israel or Gaza or the West Bank wants this war to end, at least not with a compromise, with peace based on either side giving something up.

Some who oppose a solution to this never-ending cycle of death and destruction use words as their weapons. Others use actual violence, but either way, any peace process will be hampered by factions of Israelis and Palestinians who would seemingly rather play out this deadly game until its bitter end and declare a once-and-for-all winner in a contest where no one can possibly claim real victory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): Today in Gaza, mourning and a show of defiance by members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U.S. and Israeli governments categorize as terrorist. While Islamic Jihad is part of the group participating in the cease-fire talks in Cairo, Egypt, these individuals captured on video by CNN correspondent, Karl Penhaul and his group, they seem to represent a faction that will fight any attempts to quell violence in the region.

And these Israelis also may be part of that effort on the other side. A small right-wing faction reported by "The Telegraph" chanting enthusiastically about Palestinian children killed by Israeli air strikes during a counter demonstration to a rally in Tel Aviv against the air strikes in Gaza.

There is no school tomorrow, there are no children left there, they chant. The actions of the two groups may be quite different, but as a political force, these are the people who do not want to give peace a chance.

The western world is more than aware of the terrorist acts of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their enablers throughout the Arab world, but to many liberal Israelis, the fervor growing inside their own country is also hurting long-term prospects for peace.

GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, "HAARETZ": I think the extremism is here to stay and that's my main concern because the war is almost over, but this will stay here. All of this will be much harder if not complicated and dangerous.

TAPPER: Gideon Levy is a liberal columnist with the Israeli newspaper, "Haaretz."

LEVY: It's horrifying to see the level of indifference in Israel to the sacrifice and the suffering on the other side. It's almost not legitimate to express some kind of empathy.

TAPPER: But Netanyahu spokesman, Mark Regev, denies this is a widespread problem.

MARK REGEV, SPOKESMAN, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Those extremists, those making the noise, those who talk about violence and instigating hatred against the other side, they are a small minority. That doesn't mean we tolerate them.

TAPPER: Whatever their numbers, the Israeli right is flexing its muscles as the Israeli Army attacked Gaza, the strongest pressure Netanyahu may have felt were from those who thought he was holding back.

Netanyahu's own deputy minister of defense, Danny Danon, criticized him for saying he would agree to a cease-fire. Netanyahu fired Danon, but when we spoke to him today, he was unrepentant.

(on camera): Do you think that Netanyahu should have agreed to the cease-fire?

DANNY DANON, FORMER ISRAELI DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENSE: I think it was a premature cease-fire. Otherwise, Hamas will decide where the next conflict will take place.

TAPPER (voice-over): Leaders of the Israeli military caution the cabinet that trying to do more in Gaza would take months, cost billions of dollars and thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israeli lives.

(on camera): They recommended against it. They didn't think it was a good idea. You were the deputy defense minister. You must have respect for the military commanders.

DANON: I don't buy -- you can gather in a week.

TAPPER (voice-over): Danon does not buy the argument that his abstinence and refusal to compromise ultimately hurts Israel, an argument that Israel's western allies have tried to make.

DANON: We live here and in two and a half years Secretary Kerry will not be in the State Department. President Obama will not be in the White House. I will stay here with my family.

TAPPER: Danon is a man of words, a politician, but liberals like Levy, say the rising strain of extremism here is being expressed in more aggressive ways. Recently Levy described the elite Israeli air force pilots of, quote, "perpetrating, the worst, cruellest, most despicable deeds," unquote.

He was defending the views on live television when a passerby accosted him. You're a traitor the man shouts and Israeli lawmaker agreed and called for Levy to be tried for treason.

LEVY: And I was surprised by the aggression, and lack of tolerance and lack of understanding what does it mean to live in a democratic society? In any case, my newspaper had to hire for me a bodyguard.

TAPPER: These voices, loud, angry, sometimes violent will derail the hopes for a long-term peace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Netanyahu and his actions enjoy support from a wide segment of Israeli society and not just conservatives, we should note. Poll suggests a majority support Gaza, and Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister enjoy approval ratings of 77 percent.

Coming up, President Obama about to face a room full of reporters as havoc from the Middle East to Ukraine to our own U.S. border send his poll numbers to what look to be a new low.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: I'm Jake Tapper live in Jerusalem where a fragile cease-fire continues into the 29th hour. We are also at this hour waiting for the president to appear. The president of the United States for a press conference at the State Department back in Washington as the first-ever African Leaders Summit comes to a close.

We're expecting an hour-long Q and A with reporters and we'll bring that to you live as soon as he walks out on to the stage. But meanwhile, let's talk about President Obama. The phrase all-time low seems to proceed a lot of the recent polling of the president.

And the latest numbers from the NBC/"Wall Street Journal," there's no exception to that trend, just 40 percent of Americans like the job their president is doing. But the public's dissatisfaction spreads far beyond the White House.

I want to bring in the co-host of CNN "CROSSFIRE," Stephanie Cutter and Jim Carafano, vice president of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies for the Heritage Foundation. Hello to you both.

Stephanie, let me talk to you first and the low 40s is nothing new for this president. I have to believe if I were a Democrat running for re-election, the president is really going to be something of an albatross.

How concerned are Democratic members of Congress that if the president doesn't get his approval ratings up higher, they are going to lose the Senate.

STEPHANIE CUTTER, CNN ANCHOR, "CROSSFIRE": Nobody is happy with those poll numbers, Democrats, the president, the White House staff. There can't be anybody that's happy with that, but there is one thing consistent in all of these polls of who is underneath that.

Republicans consistently are pulling in the low teens, so while those poll numbers for the president and for congressional Democrats and the senators who are up for re-election, you know, could be better, Republicans have not taken advantage of that by any means.

Even the NBC poll recently out, the generic ballot is still even. So despite all of the troubles this White House is having, every day there seems to be a new foreign policy crisis. The Republican Congress is spending their time suing the president.

They have yet to take advantage of what seems to be, you know, you called it an albatross for the Democratic campaigns and the wind doesn't seem to be behind the Democrats' back, but it will certainly not be behind Republicans' backs.

TAPPER: Jim, let's talk about this foreign policy crises that Stephanie just mentioned. The United States right now on the sidelines of these Israeli-Palestinian talks. ISIS slaughtering Christians and Putin beefing up troops on Ukraine's border.

There's obviously the American border crisis with Mexico, which is continuing unresolved. How much do you think this, these factors have anything to do with the president's low approval ratings, and I ask because you focus foreign policy, I cover foreign policy a lot, but I never know how much foreign policy affects the public's perception of a president.

JIM CARAFANO, VP, FOREIGN POLICY STUDIES, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I think it's pretty marginal and I don't think it is moving the polls very much and it's been a summer of chaos. He has real opportunities here. Hamas has just been crushed. Egypt has been a power broker here.

He has a unique opportunity to re-establish a strong, strategic relationship with both Egypt and Israel and he'll need both those countries to guide the Middle East forward. There is an opportunity to take advantage of other people's successes.

TAPPER: Interesting. Stephanie, for perspective on the president's poll numbers. Former President George W. Bush, who we should point out made a rare appearance in Washington today. He left office with the worst approval rating for a president since Watergate. He now enjoys a 46 percent approval rating. What do you think the president has to get the public behind him more?

CUTTER: Well, you know, in that same poll that we are saying the public is behind him in terms of approval of him personally. I do think they see him out there fighting on their behalf trying to get something done.

What's dragging every single number is the inability of Washington to get anything done and until the president can demonstrate that he is moving the country forward. He's trying to do that through executive actions and cutting through the gridlock.

I think those numbers will continue to drag, but there is an overwhelming frustration, just wear and tear of this country of watching the inability of their elected officials to come together and get anything done and that's affecting everybody.

TAPPER: Jim, what do you make of Secretary of State John Kerry putting all this effort into the Middle East peace process? You heard Erekat, the negotiator for the Palestinians praise him profusely and yet, it's the Egyptians who have really taken control of the cease- fire.

And then hopefully everyone's crossing their fingers, well, not everyone, but a lot of us are for a peace process going forward. Is it because only Egypt can really deal with players like Islamic jihad and Hamas or is it a failure of Kerry's leadership? CARAFANO: I think it's a failure of Kerry's leadership and I think spending the last two years trying to broker a peace between Palestine and Israel. This administration was condemning Assad and Syria, and I give them credit for that.

If we had a Palestinian state today, what would it look like? It would look like a friend of Iran. It would be an enemy of Israel and a state sponsor of terrorism to be totally corrupt and that's serious.

The problem is the people of Gaza are occupied. They're occupied by Hamas, a terrorist network, which is not operating in the interest of its own people. So I applaud Secretary Kerry for caring about the Middle East and it's an important area for us and his emphasis is on the wrong thing.

The administration gets a do-over here. The Israelis and Egyptians have helped them out a lot and what the administration needs to take advantage of that, they need to build a relationship with and marginalize Hamas.

TAPPER: I got to cut you off, Jim. Thank you so much, Jim Carafano. Stephanie Cutter, thank you so much. I'll be back at 10 p.m. Eastern, co-anchoring live from Jerusalem. For now, I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

CARAFANO: They need to build that relationship with Sisi. They need to build a relationship with Israel. And they need to be --

TAPPER: OK.

CARAFANO: -- working at marginalizing Hamas.

TAPPER: I've got to cut you off.

Jim, thank you so much.

Jim Carafano, Stephanie Cutter, thank you so much.

I'll be back at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, co-anchoring live from Jerusalem.

For now, I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Shalom and salaam.