Ehud Barak: 'No choice' but retaliation

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak talks to CNN on Thursday

Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.

(CNN) -- Passover, which began Wednesday night, is one of the biggest family holidays in the Jewish religion. It celebrates the exodus of the Jews from Egyptian slavery -- but on the first night of the holiday in Israel, the joy turned to horror.

Wednesday night's terror attack on a Passover meal at a hotel in the coastal city of Netanya -- in which 20 people were killed -- is expected to trigger a major retaliatory assault by Israel. Thursday morning former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke from Tel Aviv to CNN's Paula Zahn.

ZAHN: This is one of the two deadliest bombings in the last 18 months. How do you expect Israel to respond?

BARAK: Well, no government on earth and no people on earth would accept such terrorist attacks... I believe that it will head toward escalation of the conflicts and the operations against terror. I hope that we will be clever enough to focus on terror and not on the Palestinian people.

ZAHN: When you talk about an escalation of the conflict, what kind of military action, then, are you talking about that doesn't specifically target the Palestinian people?

BARAK: You know, having been both prime minister and the minister of defense, the commander of the armed forces and head of intelligence, I don't think it makes sense that I will discuss it in advance or in front of the cameras, but I believe that (Palestinian Authority President Yasser) Arafat and his behavior and the behavior of Hamas left the Israeli government with no choice but to respond in a much tougher way. (Editor's note: The fundamentalist Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for the Passover attack.)

And I repeat that I hope that we will be able to make it clear that (we're) against terror -- and not against the Palestinian people. I hope that we will be able to continue, all along the way, keeping the door open for resumption of negotiations at any moment with no pre-conditions beyond full absence of violence, based on the principle of Camp David.

...When we quash or smash the terror organizations around (Palestinian Authority President Yasser) Arafat, it's not about smashing him to the world for the sake of smashing, but it's about pushing him toward the decision to resume negotiations and make peace.

ZAHN: How is it, then, that you prove to the Palestinian people in any retaliatory strike against the men and the groups responsible for this that you are not targeting them?

BARAK: Oh, there are a lot of things. ... It's in our interest and the interest of the future (to) minimize damage and casualties among innocent Palestinians the same way that we should do whatever we can to put an end to these suicide attacks inside Israel.

And in this regard, I believe that we are already too late in establishing a fence that will disengage, separate ourselves for security reasons, put a fence with ... forces along it between Israel and the settlement blocks and the Palestinian Authority without losing any freedom of protection ... beyond this fence.

ZAHN: But, Mr. Barak, you know what the Palestinians are arguing today. They say in attacking the Palestinian Authority's infrastructure you are thereby undermining Yasser Arafat's ability to control any of these people. Do they have a point there?

BARAK: They have a propaganda point, but not a real one. First of all, Arafat ... should arrest the people of Islamic jihad. He should put an end to the poisoning of the souls of young Palestinians against Israel, and he can do that. He will not move unless he will see the whole world in a circle, all telling him.

ZAHN: Mr. Barak, in closing this morning, what do you think the ultimate impact of this massacre will have on the talks that continue at the Arab League summit?

BARAK: I believe that what happens in the Arab summit is basically a step forward in the right direction. I believe that this is one of the first victories of the moral and strategic clarity of President Bush's policies. He put the Arab leaders on the defensive in regard to their approach to terror and his future complaint against Iraq, and ended up with their initiative to show that they are more reasonable in regard to the conflict. But the devil is in the details.

I believe that it should be made clear, as (U.S. Secretary of State Colin) Powell once put it in a public speech, that it's not enough to recognize Israel. The need is to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. We are not supposed to be just a ... democracy, the only one in the Middle East that will turn gradually into ... another country of state with Muslim majority and Jewish minority.

We established a Zionist project in order to establish a Jewish state. It's our homeland, and we expect the Arab world to recognize it.

ZAHN: Now, we have about 15 seconds left on the satellite. I know you say you don't want to dictate to the so-called enemy what might happen militarily, but do you expect a retaliatory strike to happen sometime tonight (Thursday)?

BARAK: Yes, I expect a retaliatory strike coming very soon, but whenever a Palestinian will tell you it's about occupation, always remind him that they could have put an end to occupation just 20 months ago at Camp David.

We should make clear, especially after 9/11, that Arafat will not gain an inch through the use of terror, and this is the reason why I insist that he should come back to the ... terms of Camp David (at) the very point where he left the negotiating table and turned to terror.

ZAHN: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as always, it's good to see you -- thank you very much for joining us this morning.