CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Israeli Elections and the Two State Solution; Terrorist Attack in Tunisia; Military Hazing; Post-9/11 Veterans' Caucus

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: And now he wants to reassess U.S. relations, I assume, with Israel in the aftermath of these statements. Thanks very much, Jim Acosta.

Let's get some more on what is going on.

Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is joining us. She's a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also the Armed Services Committee, served as an Iraq War veteran as well.

Congresswoman, thanks very much for coming in.

REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII: Thanks, Wolf. Aloha.

BLITZER: How worried are you about U.S.-Israeli relations right now?

GABBARD: I think it's concerning to see this immediate reversal or flip-flop, as they are calling it, by Prime Minister Netanyahu, really because as we look forward to a two-state solution, a peaceful solution there in the Middle East, it's going to be hard to take him seriously and to know whether or not he really has the will to be able to conduct these negotiations in a way that is in good faith, that will have that desired outcome.

BLITZER: Because on the eve of the elections, he told one interview -- you just heard in Jim Acosta's report -- that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch. And then today, he said he does want a sustainable peaceful two-state solution. That sounds like a complete flip-flop.

GABBARD: And the words he was using, the statement that he made seemed to be very strong and very clear the night before the election, and the opposite comment now after having won the election.

And, again, I think that we have to really look at this and understand that Israel obviously working with the Palestinian Authority is going to have to be able to operate and negotiate in good faith. And I think that's going to be very hard, given what he said.

BLITZER: How do you fix that? What does he need to do, the prime minister of Israel, to reassure members of Congress like you and, of course, the president of the United States and secretary of state that he can be trusted to live up to these kinds of commitments?

Since 2009, his position was he does support that two-state solution,, Israel living along side a new state of Palestine.

GABBARD: Well, I think it's going to be more than just words. He can use words that he wants to try to reassure Congress, the United States.

But I think it's going to definitely require some action on his part, I think first and foremost of which is to stop building those settlements on the Palestinian-held territory.

BLITZER: Have you conveyed your concerns directly to Israeli officials in your conversations with them?

GABBARD: As this has developed, not as of this point. But I know that these are conversations that we will be having with them as we move forward towards this effort of peace in the Middle East.

BLITZER: All right. I just want you to stand by for a moment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: All right, Saeb Erekat,I know you are heading here to Washington. We will see you here in THE SITUATION ROOM next week. Thanks very much for joining us.

Saeb Erekat is the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Tulsi Gabbard is still with us.

Do you want to react quickly to what you just heard from the chief Palestinian negotiator?

GABBARD: I think he brings up some good points in representing the comments and views and feelings really of the Palestinian people. And it's important to understand where they are coming from as we look forward to that point where we can get back -- get this process back on track.

BLITZER: I know the administration really wants to try to revive that peace process. It looks gloomy right now. But let's see what they can do.

Congresswoman, stand by. We have much more to talk about. Lots of news happening right now.

We will take a quick break. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:33] BLITZER: The breaking news we're following, the two terrorists that killed 23 people at a museum in Tunisia were carrying explosives meant to detonate and even cause more casualties, this according to Tunisia's president. ISIS now claiming responsibility for this terror massacre.

We're back with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. She's a member of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committee, an Iraq war veteran.

What can anyone do to stop these kinds of attacks? You served in Iraq. These are brutal, these heinous -- they just go in there, tourists from Europe, from Asia, they're visiting, a ship stops in Tunis, they go to this museum right to the parliament. All of a sudden, they are slaughtered.

GABBARD: Well, I think this is exactly what we need to be concerned about, that these kinds of soft targets are what we are seeing is the most recent manifestation of these Islamic extremist groups conducting these terrorist attacks.

And what we have to figure out what our tactics need to be to be able to prevent these types, to detect them, to understand who these people are and what's driving them, so that we can try to prevent these types of attacks from happening in other parts of the world.

BLITZER: It has been reported, as you know, that 3,000 Tunisians, mostly men, left Tunisia and went to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Some of them have now returned. I don't know what the prospects of them carrying out terrorist attacks in Tunisia or elsewhere, for that matter, are. But 3,000, that's a lot.

GABBARD: It's a significant number, especially when you consider the country where they are coming from and the proximity to what's happening there.

[18:20:00] And I think it's also important for us to see this and to recognize we need to work with partners, we need to work with this young democracy there in Tunisia to make sure that we are sharing intelligence, that we're sharing different ideas on how best to counter this Islamic extremist threat. But as I have said to you before, this first and foremost goes to, you have to know the enemy in order to identify them.

BLITZER: Let me ask you about this disturbing report that was published in "The Army Times."

I don't know if you saw it, but the U.S. Army now investigating allegations that a platoon, a platoon of soldiers in Alaska were given a free pass to use racial slurs during what came to be known as racial Thursdays, allegedly the same unit that private Danny Chen belonged to. Authorities said he killed himself after he was hazed because of his Chinese ancestry.

You are a veteran. How do you explain this kind of stuff?

GABBARD: This is absolutely unacceptable.

And, frankly, this is a complete failure of leadership if these allegations are true. I know they are launching an investigation into these allegations. As these details emerge, I think it absolutely goes to holding these leaders accountable, starting with the platoon leader of this platoon, not only for appearing to allow this to happen under his watch, really but driving it and being the instigator for it.

This kind of activity can't be allowed to happen anywhere, especially in our military, where our service members are held to a high -- a very high standard.

BLITZER: Tomorrow marks, what, the 12th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, the second Iraq War to liberate Iraq, if you will, get rid of Saddam Hussein. I was in Kuwait with about 200,000 U.S. troops getting ready to move in at the start of that war. I remember it very, very vividly. They were going in with gas masks. They thought there were weapons of mass destruction. You are launching what you call the Congressional Post-9/11

Veterans Caucus. Tell us what that is.

GABBARD: Right now, there are over 2.8 million veterans in the United States who served post-9/11, after the attacks of 9/11 occurred.

And really we formed this bipartisan caucus along with my colleague, a Republican from Pennsylvania, Representative Scott Perry, who is an Army helicopter pilot, to bring voice to a lot of the concerns and issues that our post-9/11 veterans, this new generation of veterans are facing, whether it's homelessness or unemployment, but also really the experience that these veterans are bringing back to our communities.

I think it's important, very important for us on this anniversary of the U.S. invasion in Iraq to remember what brought us there and what the very high human cost of this war has been, not only trillions of dollars, but thousands and thousands of American lives, and to remember what brought us there, the decisions that were made, especially as we look into who made those decisions and the questions that we are facing now with this current Islamic extremist threat.

BLITZER: Thanks for what you are doing. Thanks to all those other Iraq War veterans, Afghan war veterans, including obviously all those who serve in the United States Congress. Thanks for creating this caucus.

GABBARD: Thank you, Wolf.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source