The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, a summary of today's news, the latest on Secretary of State Powell's Middle East peace mission, a look at the Middle East split between the United States and its European allies, a report on the rise and the impact of binge drinking by college students, and a talk with Carl Dennis, the new Pulitzer prize winner for poetry.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: A suicide bomber blew up a bus today in northern Israel, killing eight people. In response, Prime Minister Sharon insisted again Israel would not end its offensive on the West Bank until it crushes Palestinian militants. We have two reports, from Lindsey Hilsum and Tristana Moore of Independent Television News.

LINDSEY HILSUM: The 960 bus was on its way from Haifa to Jerusalem when a passenger wearing an explosive belt detonated the device. Eyewitnesses said the force of the blast lifted the bus right off the ground, and hurled passengers onto the road.

EMMANUEL AHSHON, Israeli Foreign Minister: We see time and time again that the Palestinians are bent on killing and destruction and terror, and we have to keep on fighting.

LINDSEY HILSUM: As the dead were moved from the scene, Hamas said this was its response to the West Bank offensive. The bomber came from the Jenin refugee camp where the Israelis and Palestinians have been battling for days.

ABU SHANAB, Hamas Spokesman: Israelis will face the same fate as Palestinians. We will not surrender, we will continue our resistance until Sharon fails.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Survivors were rushed to hospitals. Those closest to Yasser Arafat said he did not support today's bombing, but it is proof that Israel's policy will bring no end to their people's grief.

SAEB EREKAT, Chief Palestinian Negotiator: Maybe and only maybe the Israeli public must understand that the security for them cannot come through the pains and the harming of Palestinians.

LINDSEY HILSUM: Today, the Israeli defense forces released video of bomb making factories they say they found in the Jenin refugee camp. They say today's bus bombing doesn't prove their military endeavor has failed, but that it should intensify. Prime Minister Sharon went to encourage the troops in Jenin today, one day before the U.S. Secretary of State arrives here. He said America should not pressure Israel to stop the offensive.

ARIEL SHARON, Prime Minister, Israel: I hope that our friend, and I think that we have one great friend and that is the United States, the country with which we share the same values, will understand -- that we have to fight. For us it's a war of survival.

TRISTANA MOORE: Jenin refugee camp up in smoke: All day long, Israeli helicopter gun ships have been firing into buildings in the camp. From a hill overlooking Jenin, we watched as more Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers took up positions, and a glimpse of the destruction Israeli forces are inflicting on the city. Everyone appears to be on the move. We saw this group of Palestinian women and children trying to escape the fighting, but they were stopped by an Israeli patrol. A Palestinian man steps forward to negotiate with the soldiers. He seems to have success and the group is allowed through. Eyewitnesses describe how Israeli troops announced this morning that all Palestinians should leave their homes.

AHMED JARADAT: I see the soldiers in their tanks, calling the inhabitants to get out.

TRISTANA MOORE: Some Palestinians walked through an olive grove with whatever belongings they can carry, but there are others who have been left behind.

YOUSEF SHALABI: I have many relatives there and I have many friends there; they are suffering now and ....

TRISTANA MOORE: Jameela left the camp this morning with her family. She said Israeli tanks had been shelling her home, and she had no hope for the future.

"We haven't done anything to the Israelis," she says, "we prefer to be martyrs rather than die in our homes like what's happening to us now. "

Jenin refugee camp is home to 15,000 Palestinians; it's densely populated. The Israeli government says there are hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants here and it's using heavy armor to root them out. Israeli forces are tonight pushing further into Jenin, and no one wants to stay there.

JIM LEHRER: Late today, the Israeli defense ministry said troops would leave three towns on the West Bank. They withdrew from two others on Tuesday. There was more fighting today along Israel's border with Lebanon. Hezbollah guerrillas fired dozens of rockets and mortars, and Israeli warplanes struck back. A "Washington Post" report said Vice President Cheney had called the President of Syria, and warned things could get out of control. Syria backs the guerrillas. Secretary of State Powell said today his peace mission was not threatened. He spoke in Madrid, Spain. In the meetings there, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations joined in calling for Israeli troops to withdraw, and for Palestinians to halt their attacks. Also today, the European parliament urged the EU to impose trade sanctions on Israel. We'll have more on all this in a few minutes. In Afghanistan today, security forces arrested four people in a bombing aimed at the defense minister. It happened Monday in Jalalabad. The defense minister survived unhurt, but five other people were killed. Separately, five arrests were made in a neighborhood of Kabul. Two missiles were fired from there Sunday at German and Danish peacekeeping troops. No one was hurt. President Bush today urged the Senate to approve a ban on all human cloning. He backs a bill that already passed the House. It would outlaw creating genetic copies of people, and bar production of new embryos and stem cells for research and treatments. At a White House event today, the President said a partial ban would not go far enough.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Life is a creation, not a commodity. (Applause) Allowing cloning would be taking a significant step toward a society in which human beings are grown for spare body parts, and children are engineered to custom specifications. And that's not acceptable.

JIM LEHRER: Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Daschle said he wants to allow some cloning, but only for medical research.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE: We actually hold out the possibility of curing Parkinson's, curing diabetes, curing Alzheimer's disease, curing cancer. But whether or not we do depends on whether or not we will have the research and the ability to provide scientists the opportunity to find those cures soon. We can do that, and we can ban human cloning.

JIM LEHRER: Last August, the President did agree to allow federal funding for existing cultures of stem cells from human embryos. In New Jersey, a policeman allegedly shot and killed five neighbors last night. Later he shot himself. It happened near Toms River, about 60 miles south of New York City. Authorities said Edward Lukes also shot his police chief during the rampage; he was in satisfactory condition today. There was no word on a motive for the attacks. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to making peace in the Middle East, the Middle East split between the United States and Europe; heavy drinking on campus; and the poetry Pulitzer winner.

UPDATE - DIPLOMATIC CHALLENGE

JIM LEHRER: Margaret Warner has our update on the Powell mission.

MARGARET WARNER: The Secretary had a full day in Madrid. First he joined UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Russian foreign minister, and European Union officials in calling on the Israelis and Palestinians to pull back, and to cooperate fully with the Powell mission. Annan read the joint statement for reporters.

KOFI ANNAN: We call on Israel to halt immediately its military operations. We call for immediate Israeli meaningful ceasefire and an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, specifically including Chairman Arafat's headquarters. We call on Israel to fully comply with international humanitarian principles and to allow full and unimpeded access to humanitarian organizations and services. We call on Chairman Arafat as the recognized elected leader of the Palestinian people to undertake immediately the maximum possible effort to stop terror attacks against innocent Israelis. We call on the Palestinian Authority to act decisively, and take all possible steps within its capacity to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, including terrorist financing, and to stop incitement to violence. We call on Chairman Arafat to use the full weight of his political authority to persuade the Palestinian people that any and all terrorist attacks against Israelis should end immediately.

MARGARET WARNER: Pressed on how he plans to approach the parties when he gets to Jerusalem, Secretary Powell made clear he wasn't ready to lay out his game plan.

COLIN POWELL: I think we are all in agreement, and I think the world is in agreement, that there will not be a solution that will be produced by terror or will be produced by response to terror. This is not going to get us there. What will get us there are political discussions, and the sooner we can get to them, the better. Now, I have to speak to the parties in the region at greater length to see how they view this matter, and to see how we can go forward. And in due course, I'm sure that we will let the whole world know what we believe is the proper way to go forward.

MARGARET WARNER: The Secretary was asked whether he considered the Palestinians' armed resistance to the Israeli incursion in the territories to be terrorism.

COLIN POWELL: Violence of whatever form, whether one would call it an act of terrorism or an act of resistance, at this point is counterproductive. It does not lead to the vision that the Palestinian people have of a state where they can live side by side in peace with Israel. What we have to see now is an end to the violence, with whatever title you want to give to that violence, it's violence nonetheless, and it is totally destabilizing the region and it is destroying that vision. And so our call today is for violence to end, and response to violence to end -- the withdrawal from the current incursions that the Israeli government is conducting.

MARGARET WARNER: Several hours later, after a suicide bombing in Israel and defiant words from Ariel Sharon, Powell met reporters again with Spain's foreign minister, Josep Pique.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, since you left Washington, Prime Minister Sharon has said that it would be a tragic mistake if you were to meet Chairman Arafat, and there has been another suicide bombing. Do you feel that your mission is now in jeopardy?

COLIN POWELL: One, I think my mission is not in the least in jeopardy. I am going to Jerusalem tomorrow evening. I look forward to my meetings with the Israeli leaders on Friday. And I believe it is important for me to meet with Chairman Arafat. He's the leader of the Palestinian people, and I think the Palestinian people and the Arab leaders with whom I've met over the last several days believe that he is the partner that Israel will have to deal with at some point-- he and the other leaders of the Palestinian Authority.

REPORTER: On the same subject, Prime Minister Sharon has just issued... has asked the United States not to push Israel too hard for an immediate withdrawal. He said, "I hope they know that Israel is struggling for its survival." What is your response to that?

COLIN POWELL: I think the President spoke clearly. We understand the difficult situation that Israel finds itself in, but we believe that the best way to relieve this tension, the best way to move forward, and provide a solution to the crisis that we find ourselves in is for a withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the President has been reinforcing that home with you every day.

MARGARET WARNER: After a stop in Jordan tomorrow, Secretary Powell is due to arrive in Jerusalem tomorrow night.

Now for an inside view of the Powell mission, we go to Todd Purdum, chief diplomatic correspondent for the "New York Times," who's traveling with Secretary Powell. I spoke with him by phone late today.

Todd, what do Powell and his people think they really got out of today in terms of something that's practical, something they can really use when they confront Arafat and Sharon?

TODD PURDUM: Well, Margaret, I think they thought they got a very strong statement of unity of purpose from European allies who have been clamoring for American action on the Middle East; from Russia, which, after all, was the nation that for much of the modern era was a strong ally of the Arab cause in the Middle East and was often at odds with America and Israel; and from the United Nations, which has also been pressing for stronger action against the current situation. So I think Secretary Powell was very pleased with that. At the same time, he arrived in a Europe that today saw the European parliament pass a resolution non-binding calling for an imposition of economic sanctions, trade sanctions on Israel, and it's a very tense situation here. But I think given that, he was very pleased with his strong statement of support for his mission.

MARGARET WARNER: And how dismayed were he and his people by the European parliament's move today, at least calling for sanctions. Did they try to head that off in any way?

TODD PURDUM: I don't know that they made any effort to head it off because it's non-binding, and both they and Spanish and European Union officials who spoke here today downplayed the possibility that any sanctions would actually ever be imposed. European governments are divided about whether they should be, and Secretary Powell said that the focus now should be on an effort to get the Israelis to withdraw, get the Palestinians to stop terror violence, and get the parties back to the negotiating table. And that's what the Europeans said here, too.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, we just heard Secretary Powell say that he didn't think his mission was in jeopardy, but Sharon's defiant words today had to be dismaying for him and his people.

TODD PURDUM: It makes it terribly difficult, Margaret, because at long last, President Bush and Secretary Powell have put the full prestige of the American government behind this effort. The Israelis have continued to resist the strongest possible calls from Washington for withdrawal. He is arriving in Israel late tomorrow night, and if some meaningful sign of substantial withdrawal has not begun by then, I think it will make for an awfully delicate and possibly tense conversation with Prime Minister Sharon on Friday morning. It's not the predicate that the Americans were hoping they'd find when they got to Israel.

MARGARET WARNER: And what impact do they think the latest suicide bombing, the first one in a week, has on the prospects of getting any kind of movement from the Israelis?

TODD PURDUM: Well, privately they're obviously pessimistic about it. It's a very grim situation. They know it. At every moment in the past when progress has seemed possible, not only was there another suicide bombing or a series of bombings, there were bombings that bore the earmarks of a planned and plotted attack. And that's... that's just very difficult for anybody to overcome, and it's the big wildcard, frankly, in this diplomacy effort by Secretary Powell. It's the one variable that he can't control at all, except by making pleas to stop it.

MARGARET WARNER: Now earlier in this week, the last couple of days, of course he was meeting with these moderate Arab leaders, he did not get the public denunciations of suicide bombing that he said he'd hoped for. First of all, did they really think they'd get these Arab leaders to say that publicly? And secondly, did they... did he at least get any private assurances that they would be privately urging Arafat to cooperate with Secretary Powell?

TODD PURDUM: I think, Margaret, it's safe to say he got private expressions of gratitude and support that Washington is engaged in the process. I don't know that he... you could say that he got private assurances they would work with Arafat. I think he did get both public and private assurances that if this process moves along, if American moral pressure on the situation causes the Israelis to withdraw and causes the situation to stabilize, and causes a cease-fire to occur, then I think the moderate Arab leaders were optimistic that they could bring pressure to bear to stop terrorist violence. It's one of these situations, as Secretary Powell said yesterday, in which people have been struggling for weeks and months, and even years, to get the sequence right. The Israelis say they won't do this if the Palestinians won't do that, and vice versa, and he made a frank plea yesterday for everybody to stop worrying about the sequence, stop setting preconditions, and just get down to business.

MARGARET WARNER: He... I noticed today when he talked about meeting with Arafat, he did also talk about other Palestinians. Do the Americans hold out any expectation that they can really deal with anyone other than Arafat?

TODD PURDUM: Well, I think some officials in the Bush administration hold a greater hope for that possibility than Secretary Powell does. He, like others, wants to build bridges to all the Palestinian leaders he can. I think he wants to have relations with all Palestinian parties who might eventually find themselves in a position of power. But Secretary Powell has been at the leading edge of those officials who say, frankly, that there is no other, at the moment, designated leader of the Palestinians other than Yasser Arafat. And he may be a devil in many people's eyes, but he is the one we know. And moreover, he is the one, that-- as Secretary Powell said today -- Arab states and fellow Palestinians feel is the person who must be the negotiating partner with Israel. Now, it's very difficult because Prime Minister Sharon has taken more and more aggressive steps to isolate Yasser Arafat, to say that he's untrustworthy, to say that he's a spent force who can't be relied upon in peace negotiations. And that leaves Secretary Powell in a very delicate situation indeed.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Todd Purdum, thanks a lot.

TODD PURDUM: Thanks, Margaret.

FOCUS - DIVIDED ALLIES

JIM LEHRER: Now, more on the divide between the U.S. and its European allies on the Middle East. Gwen infill has that.

GWEN IFILL: As Secretary Powell returns to the Middle East tomorrow, traditional allies in Europe are offering only lukewarm support. In Madrid today, Spain's foreign minister expressed support for a U.S.-led peace initiative.

JOSEP PIQUE, Foreign Minister, Spain (Translated): What is most important is that we focus our attention on Secretary Powell's mission and success. Today we have established framework that includes the -- a consensus of the entire international community.

GWEN IFILL: But many Europeans do not necessarily agree with the United States' pro-Israeli sympathies. Over the weekend in France and Belgium, thousands of demonstrators denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush as Palestinian murderers. In the latest in a wave of attacks against Jewish targets in France, synagogues in Paris and Marseilles were firebombed last week. And in London, demonstrators used the word "terrorist" to describe Israel and its allies.

BETTY HUNTER, Palestinian Solidarity Campaign: We think it is time the world woke up to the fact that the aggression and brutality that is being waged by the fourth biggest army in the world upon defenseless civilians in the main.

GWEN IFILL: Today's vote in the European parliament to impose trade sanctions against Israel came in retaliation for Israel's ongoing West Bank offensive. Just a day earlier, Germany issued its own sanction, a suspension of Israeli arms sales. Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, traveling in Washington today, lashed out at European critics.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Former Israeli Prime Minister: Europe is now turning its collective back on a Jewish state that is trying to ward off mass killers with legitimate military action. I think this is downright shameful, but I have to admit that I didn't expect much better from any of these European governments. Yet the America I know and have come to deeply respect has always been different. History has entrusted upon this nation the task of carrying the torch of freedom.

GWEN IFILL: The one European leader who has aligned himself with the White House is Tony Blair. The British Prime Minister spoke before the House of Commons, repeating his support for the U.S. peace initiative, and calling on both the Palestinians and Israelis to shun violence.

TONY BLAIR ,Prime Minister, United Kingdom: So no matter how strong the feelings, no matter how deep the hatreds, now indeed is the time to pull back, to stop, to realize that the current strategy is going nowhere, that the time for violence is over, and the time to get a peace process going is overdue.

GWEN IFILL: For more on the growing divide between the U.S. And Europe over Middle East policy, we welcome three European journalists and one American: Christiane Meier is U.S. correspondent for A.R.D., a German television network; Patrick Jarreau is Washington bureau chief for the French daily newspaper "Le Monde"; Gerard Baker is Washington bureau chief for the "Financial Times of London"; and Jim Hoagland is a foreign affairs columnist for the "Washington Post."

GWEN IFILL: Gerard Baker we ended that piece talking about Tony Blair's role in this. Is he all alone in his unstinting support for U.S. Policy in the Middle East?

GERARD BAKER, Financial Times: He certainly has been and that's been an automatic war position for the Prime Minister of Great Britain to be in. He's been a staunch supporter of President Bush since the early days actually of the administration, but even more so since September 11. Britain has been the most - I think it's fair to say - most overwhelmingly supportive of all the European countries since September 11, the war on Afghanistan and so on. Now one of the problems he has is that there is growing opposition at home within his own party, the Labor Party, and in domestic public opinion, to the Bush Administration's overall foreign policy, in particular to what's been going on in the Middle East up until the last week or so when the Bush Administration was so strongly supporting the Sharon government. Now what Tony Blair has said all along is that by supporting the Bush government, the Bush Administration and everything that it's done so far on the war on terrorism, he has managed to get much more influence for Britain, and for a broader European view over the war on terrorism and indeed over U.S. foreign policy as a whole. He's got to be able to demonstrate that in this particular case, and British officials, British politicians led by the Prime Minister are trying to demonstrate that they have got real influence, that this has bought them influence over their support for the U.S. has bought them influence over the Middle East at the moment and they are therefore, a lot is riding on both not just for the U.S. and the Administration here, but for European governments, a lot is riding on the Powell mission. It must be successful if the Europeans are to be able to demonstrate, the British government in particular, that it really has had some kind of influence and has been able to push the Bush Administration in the way it wants it to go.

GWEN IFILL: Patrick Jarreau, how important is it if there is a broader European view that the U.S. take that into account, or how necessary is it for the U.S. to take it into account?

PATRICK JARREAU, Le Monde: Well, I think that the U.S. has found it necessary to take it into account, as has been said probably that the speech, which was very good by President Bush last week, was triggered partly of course by the situation in the Arab countries, but also by the criticism in Europe, and I think that probably the U.S. Government is aware then in the situation where we are now, and even with this war on terror which has been launched, it can't be isolated from its European rights.

GWEN IFILL: But in France where there's been so much pro Palestinian sentiment, doesn't that fly in the face of what the U.S. is trying to do?

PATRICK JARREAU: Well, I think that, you know, France has been saying for a long time that particularly since September 11 that this problem in the Middle East had to be dealt with, and that the standing up by the Bush Administration, which for months decided not to get involved in any new attempt to get back to a political process, this time was a mistake. And French government, I guess, and a large part of the French opinion thinks that they were right on that point.

GWEN IFILL: Let's talk about German public opinion, Christiane. Has it's been evolving, and not only public opinion, but also political opinion?

CHRISTIANE MEIER, ARD TV: Yes, there has been a shift. This is very easy to see because the press is reporting it a different way than it used to, and there's very harsh criticism on Israel that hasn't been heard of in years before German politicians have come out with the criticism, and also the press and many public opinion makers. And I think one of the reasons is that Germany is getting very impatient with Israel at the moment, and it hasn't been possible to criticize Israel for a very long time because of the special relationships. And there seems to be a shift right now that people feel freer or a little bit more free to country size the French because they are very special relationships between Israel, and I think there has been developed a big friendship. Now you feel a responsibility to tell a friend then when you think this is not the right thing to do.

GWEN IFILL: You just heard what Netanyahu said, which is that he wasn't terribly surprised.

CHRISTIANE MEIER: Well, we want to be his friend anyway, but we also want to be the Palestinians' friend. And maybe even if he's not very terribly surprised, he might be a little bit frustrated about, he called it an embargo, but it's not an embargo, but the suspension of the arms sales at the moment, but that has to do apart from political reasons with a law, the German law is that we are not allowed to export weapons to a region in crisis, and that is exactly what, in the German definition at least of a crisis is happening right now.

GWEN IFILL: Jim Hoagland, you see Colin Powell makingnice in Europe, attempting to build up some sort of coalition for support. Does it matter really if European nations are behind the United States in whatever it does to try to reach a cease-fire or a peace agreement in the Middle East?

JIM HOAGLAND, Washington Post: Well, I think it matters desperately to Colin Powell, who really has made his job one of reaching out to the rest of the world on behalf of an administration that by and large goes its own way. The Europeans, the conservative Arab governments, these people are essentially Colin Powell's constituents, much more than are the people in Washington and his own administration to some extent. So I think the trip to Madrid by Colin Powell, rather than going straight to Jerusalem, is an extraordinary tip of the American hat to Europe, to Russia, to the United Nations. As Benjamin Netanyahu suggested, these are not three entities that normally are associated with good feelings about Israel. So Colin Powell probably has done a lot of good, certainly for his own image in Europe, but I don't know that he has enhanced his ability to arrive in Jerusalem and say to Ariel Sharon, stop it.

GWEN IFILL: Is your thinking in this Bush Administration that Europeans have special leverage in this case because some countries have established relationships, trusting relationships with he Palestinians?

JIM HOAGLAND: I suspect not. Those countries haven't really shown a willingness or, more importantly, an ability to use that leverage if they possess it. They have not shown results. The question you get frequently in this Administration, not so much from the State Department, but perhaps at the Pentagon, is what good are the Europeans to us any way in this kind of conflict? I think Powell has a good point. It's certainly better for the United States to try to work in coalitions, to try to bring our allies along, because there are lot of other issues, not necessarily this one, but the financing of terror networks, for example, where we need European help. I think he has that in mind. But if you drew up a balance sheet of what the Europeans bring to the table in the Middle East crisis, it's a deficit.

CHRISTIANE MEIER: I wouldn't agree on that one. I think America does need the Europeans because obviously America hasn't gotten anywhere with their own approach. As we can see, Clinton didn't get what he wanted, Bush doesn't get what he wants, and the Israeli couldn't care less about what America and the Europeans may say. But right now I think the Europeans are trying, are trying very hard. Our foreign minister has come up with another plan, which has actually been produced to Colin Powell, he knows about that and they're going to talk about that on Monday. It's an idea paper, it's an idea about what could be, there are many ideas of course, again, and a lot of enforcement - but it will be negotiated with the European foreign ministers, and Colin Powell knows, and I think Kofi Annan knows about that, and at least it continues the attempt to stay at the negotiating table.

GERARD BAKER: The problem is the Europeans I think really are compromised on this issue, they really have it very, very difficult for them to exercise any kind of leverage because, as Netanyahu said, the view in Israel, I think with some degree of, I think it's not an unreasonable opinion, is that the Europeans have established themselves as friends of the Palestinians. They indeed have gone out of their way to do that over a long time. One of the most striking things I saw at the summit this weekend between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair was that Prime Minister Blair said the Israeli people know that they don't have, they have, there are no stronger friends of Israel in the world than the United States and Great Britain. I think that must have raised a few eyebrows in Israel because I don't think that's how it's seen in Israel. I think there's some reason, Britain has like many European countries had a longstanding strong relationship with the Palestinians, with Arab nations in the region, and has been as I think as the rest of the Europeans have, to some extent taken out of the equation simply because the Israelis don't trust them.

GWEN IFILL: Are Europeans compromised in this sense as well, which is that this rise in anti-Semitic violence in France in particular and Belgium, have those events compromised European countries in this whole mix?

PATRICK JARREAU: I guess as has been said, it is being used. I think what we're witnessing in Europe and partly in France is more complex problems, as you know there is a strong community of Arab descent in France, maybe 5 million people, there is a very strong Jewish community. Partly this Jewish community comes from the same place, from North Africa. And while there are several issues, and the second explanation is that what hurts in the European left -- there always has been a kind of underground marginal but real tradition of anti-Semitism - in the 19th century - with the socialism of -- and something of it still exists. So left wing parties or leftist parties in Europe - not only in France -

GWEN IFILL: Does that allow Netanyahu to simply dismiss European input on...

PATRICK JARREAU: No, the real problem is not there. The difficult part for the United States, I would agree with Jim Hoagland when he says that the American government says, well, what can the union bring? Not much. But they can damage, you know, and I think that in the present situation the Arab countries are ready to, you know, to use the European stand to oppose the American stand. And this is probably to diffuse this nuisance effect, one of the reasons why Colin Powell went to Madrid.

GWEN IFILL: Earlier in this Administration probably some version of the four of us sat around this table and talked about unilateralism and how George W. Bush was perceived as being a loner. Does that play into the debate now about what Europe's role is in the Middle East peace process?

JIM HOAGLAND: I think you've come directly to the heart of it -- a big problem for the Administration right now. George W. Bush, I think, has done a pretty good job of balancing off conflicting views in his own administration about how American power should be used in the world. He has declared himself an internationalist and said he wants to be friends with the nations of Europe and Asia, Latin America, while at the same time taking decisions and responding to the war on terrorism, the Kyoto protocol, other things, that let U.S. interests dominate, going his own way. He's been able to maintain the balance. I think we've reached the point here in the Middle East crisis and the lead up to what will be another big dispute over Iraq, when the time comes for action in Iraq. We've reached kind of the definition point where Bush will have to decide, do I really want unilateralism, do I go it alone more often than not, or do I try to work with coalitions? He'd like to do both and to be able to pick and choose. We all would. But the kind of violence that's occurring in the Middle East today, is taking that option away from him progressively.

GWEN IFILL: Christane, does the President have the opportunity to pick and choose, to step away from European allies on Iraq but try to rally behind them in the Israeli Palestinian conflict?

CHRISTIANE MEIER: Very, very difficult choice, I think. I think he needs the Europeans if he wants to do anything with Iraq, he won't be able to pick and choose. He will give the Europeans, also the Germans, but all the Europeans I think the feeling they are hurt, you know, and they're part of a consensus and not a pick and choose option, you know, where sometimes you need and sometimes you don't, and I think this underlying feeling of many Europeans to be used when you need it, and dismissed when you're not any more, that makes a big part of all the tensions between America and Europe.

GWEN IFILL: Particularly a big problem for Tony Blair - very briefly.

GERARD BAKER: I think that's one of the frustrating things for the Europeans. They have seen the prevailing view in the Bush Administration, as Jim said earlier, being one that we don't really meet the Europeans. We can go it alone and the Europeans are having -- and they don't have a very strong response to that. It's quite clear that the U.S. can manage things militarily, can probably manage things politically and it's the strongest economy in the world too, there's just a lack of a strong identity among the Europeans about what exactly their role is.

CHRISTIANE MEIER: If you said politically, they might not be able to do it militarily, but maybe not politically.

GWEN IFILL: We're out of time for tonight. Thank you all very much.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, binge drinking on campus, and the Pulitzer prize for poetry.

FOCUS - BINGE DRINKING

JIM LEHRER: There's news about excessive drinking on college campuses. Our report is by Susan Dentzer of our health unit, a partnership with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

SUSAN DENTZER: At first, Daniel Reardon sounds like the typical proud parent when he speaks about his eldest son, also named Daniel.

DANIEL REARDON: He was just an extraordinary kid. He was basically a level-headed kid, he had a sense of control, he had a sense of -- in the beginning he had a real sense of borders and limits and what he wanted to do.

SUSAN DENTZER: But life changed forever for Reardon and his family just two months ago. A freshman at the University of Maryland at College Park, 19 year-old Danny Reardon apparently drank himself into unconsciousness at a so-called "Bid Night" party at this campus fraternity house. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance, where tests showed a blood alcohol level of .50 -- more than six times the legal level of intoxication. As a result, Reardon suffered brain death.

DANIEL REARDON: Daniel was in the hospital bed for a week before we took him off of life support. And no parent, as I did, should have to get up on a hospital gurney, and just hold his son and cry for hours that he's dead, never. Sending a child to college to die, no parent should have to go through that.

SUSAN DENTZER: Young Daniel Reardon was among the latest casualties of a longstanding epidemic of college drinking. This week a task force of college presidents, alcohol researchers and students called the situation a crisis. The Reverend Edward Malloy, president of Notre Dame University, was a task force member.

REV. EWARD MALLOY, President, Notre Dame University: I've celebrated the funeral liturgy of someone who was killed by a drunk driver. What do you say? A life snuffed out. How do you have an impact? You feel a sense of responsibility: How could we do a better job, how could we prevent this harm on our campuses?

SUSAN DENTZER: Dr. Reynard Kington is acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which appointed the task force.

REYNARD KINGTON, Acting Director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: We've known for many years that there was a problem, and we have evidence really dating back for decades that there's been a problem with drinking on college campuses, but we've never been able to really describe the parameters of the problem, how big of a problem it is. And I think that even the researchers who were involved from the very beginning were surprised by some of the conclusions. Just the magnitude of the problem is really enormous.

SUSAN DENTZER: In fact, the task force found that the number of deaths and other injuries stemming from college drinking is far larger than previously thought. Drinking-related deaths on campus had been thought to number about 30 a year. But Ralph Hingson of Boston University's School of Public Health led a task force study that reached different conclusions. It found the death rate rises astronomically when drinking-related deaths both on and off campus are considered.

RALPH HINGSON, School of Public Health, Boston University: We estimate that there are 1,400 unintentional injury deaths among college students 18 to 24 each year in the United States. Probably about 1,100 of those deaths are traffic deaths. The others are drownings, falls, burns, overdoses and so on. We estimated, based on the survey results, that there are over 2 million college students each year who are driving under the influence of alcohol, 3 million who are riding with a drinking driver.

SUSAN DENTZER: In addition, Hingson and his colleagues estimated that 500,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured each year under the influence of alcohol. More than 600,000 students are assaulted by another student who's been drinking. An estimated 400,000 students a year have unprotected sex while drinking. Seventy thousand are victims of date rape. And more than 100,000 say they were too drunk to know whether the sex they had was consensual. And Hingson and his colleagues say that, if anything, those estimates are probably conservative.

SUSAN DENTZER: The task force said that the problem of excessive college drinking is rooted in a culture. It's manifested in the multiple bars ringing many college campuses...familiar rituals such as spring break...and boozy demonstrations surrounding athletic events, such as the University of Maryland's recent victory in the NCAA basketball championships.

Jonathan Collis is a University of Maryland junior.

JONATHAN COLLIS, University of Maryland Student: It's really become what our reputation is. I have a friend who graduated from Virginia Tech, and after the basketball game, you know, he turns on the news afterwards and he sees the report about, you know, Maryland students throwing beer cans at the National Guard and he's like, "What's wrong with you people?"

SUSAN DENTZER: Although University of Maryland told us that this behavior is the aberration, not the norm, they agreed that heavy drinking was a problem for some. Often that problem begins in high school -- while for others, it starts in their first weeks on a college campus.

KELLY WELLS, University of Maryland Student: The first semester I was a freshman, and never drank too much in high school but got here and, you know, was part of the whole Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 'let's get drunk.'

SUSAN DENTZER: First-year Maryland student Kelly Wells told us she's cut way back on drinking, following one dangerous episode that occurred when she visited a friend at Virginia women's college.

KELLY WELLS: Basically, you know, we got a bottle of Bacardi 151 and, like, I was drinking it straight, completely straight. And I was pretty drunk. And that's the last thing I remember. And I woke up at 6:30 am the next morning in the emergency room, hooked up to IV's. I had gone outside and apparently I had fallen and hit my head on a curb and been taken by ambulance to the emergency room.

SUSAN DENTZER: Even though heavy drinking is so entrenched among many college students, the task force that reported this week said the situation was far from hopeless. It called on colleges and communities to adopt what it termed a "three-in-one" strategy to tackle the problem.

REYNARD KINGTON: The 3-in-1 framework means that you can't just work at one level to address this type of problem. You need to work at multiple levels, at the level of the individual student, at the level of the university or college, and at the level of a broader community, and that we've learned repeatedly in public health that working at just one level doesn't work very well when you're trying to change behaviors, particularly behaviors that have strong cultural reinforcements.

SUSAN DENTZER: At the University of Maryland, student leaders we interviewed said the institution had made efforts to rein in the problem. But they added that hearing first-hand from students harmed by excess drinking could also help. Angela Lagdameo is president of the Student Government Association.

ANGELA LAGDAMEO, President, Student Government Association, University of Maryland: We had to learn the hard way in a sense with the unfortunate death of Daniel Reardon. And if students hear these personalized testimonies of students who have been sexually abused, who have been in accidents or who have had a friend experience a trauma such as that, then I think the message would be, you know, very effective.

SUSAN DENTZER: As for the case of Daniel Reardon, local authorities are reportedly considering whether to bring criminal homicide charges against the fraternity and its members. University officials have declined to comment until police investigations are complete. Meanwhile, Reardon's father says he's determined to raise public awareness on the dangers of college drinking.

DANIEL REARDON: We have a situation amongst our youth that is very serious, is very dangerous, and it's much, much larger than I had thought it was. Also, it's much more pernicious. You know, I thought my kids would get through this. I didn't think that one of them would pay for it with his life.

SUSAN DENTZER: And by speaking out publicly, Reardon now hopes to prevent other college students and their families from paying the same steep price.

SERIES - WINNER

JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, our conversations with the winners of this year's Pulitzer prizes in the arts, and to Elizabeth Farnsworth, who recorded this interview yesterday.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The winner in poetry this year is Carl Dennis, for his collection "Practical Gods." Dennis is Professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and author of seven other volumes of poetry as well as a book of criticism. He was born in St. Louis and received his doctorate in English literature at the University of California at Berkeley.

Thank you for being with us, Mr. Dennis. Were you surprised at the news you'd won a Pulitzer?

CARL DENNIS, Pulitzer Prize, Poetry: I was surprised. I didn't hear anything about it until yesterday, when someone from associated press called me. I still haven't heard anything from the Pulitzer Prize people.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Really?

CARL DENNIS: I assume they'll get in touch with me eventually.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: It's something you must sort of have thought about, and yet I suppose you're too modest to have really expected it.

CARL DENNIS: Well, you know, if you're a writer, you're... you have to have a combination of humility and ambition. I mean, you have to be humble to know that you don't know anything and need to put yourself to school. And on the other hand, you have to be ambitious enough to believe that if you really do put yourself through school, you will do something worthwhile. So, you know, you have to... when you get a call like that, you, on the one hand, your humble side says... you think of the many people that you admire who haven't won it, and then your ambitious side says something like, "Well, you know, it's not a miscarriage of justice."

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: (Laughs) I love the title of this book: "Practical Gods." There are poems about Saint Francis and the priest of the god Hermes. Why "Practical Gods" as opposed to any other kind of gods?

CARL DENNIS: Well, I'm not interested in theology or mythology for their own sake. I'm interested only in what I can... how I can use, really, this perspective to help clarify my own more secular stances toward things. I mean, I want to enter into dialogue that I... I can... I can make use of in my own life.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Would you read the last poem, please, "The God Who Loves You."

CARL DENNIS: "It must be troubling for the God who loves you to ponder how much happier you'd be today had you been able to glimpse your many futures. It must be painful for Him to watch you on Friday evenings driving home from the office, content with your week -- three fine houses sold to deserving families -- knowing as he does exactly what would have happened had you gone to your second choice for college, knowing the roommate you'd have been allotted whose ardent opinions on painting and music would have kindled in you a lifelong passion . A life 30 points above the life you're living on any scale of satisfaction. And every point a thorn in the side of the God who loves you. You don't want that, a large- souled man like you who tries to withhold from your wife the day's disappointments so she can save her empathy for the children. And would you want this God to compare your wife with the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus? It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation you'd have enjoyed over there higher in insight than the conversation you're used to. And think how this loving God would feel knowing that the man next in line for your wife would have pleased her more than you ever will, even on your best days when you really try. Can you sleep at night believing a God like that is pacing His cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives, you're spared by ignorance? The difference between what is and what could have been will remain alive for Him even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill running out in the snow for the morning paper, losing 11 years that the God who loves you will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene unless you come to the rescue by imagining Him no wiser than you are, no God at all, only a friend no closer than the actual friend you made at college, the one you haven't written in months. Sit down tonight and write Him about the life you can talk about with a claim to authority, the life you've witnessed, which for all you know is the life you've chosen."

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Dennis, you've written that what matters most in a poem is the voice, the personality inviting the reader to listen, which I want to do when I hear your voice. Tell us about it. How do you get it? How do you arrive at this tone and this way of inviting me in?

CARL DENNIS: I can't really describe the process, but, you know, I want to create an individual voice that the listener will find it worthwhile to engage with, and an individual talking to individuals, to an individual, I think that's what the situation of poetry is. I've been very moved by something that Emerson wrote in his journals. He said he tried to write always for the unknown friend. I like "friend," of course, because you want a reader who's sympathetic and discriminating. But "friend" in the singular, not the plural, because you don't want a corporate entity, you want to be talking to an individual; an unknown, because you don't know... you can't pitch your poem toward any easy appeal in terms of class or race or nationality. You have to try to reach something more fundamental than that.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: When and how did you decide to become a poet?

CARL DENNIS: Well, actually, I think I was about 28, and I was already here teaching at Buffalo. And I found that writing poetry-- which I didn't have a lot of time for then, because I was a new teacher-- was the thing that gave me the most pleasure, the thing I felt most alive when I was doing. So I... I wanted to do as much of it as I could.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Is it partly to affirm this individual voice that you just talked about that you wanted to become a poet? It's... there aren't that many places where the individual voice is so affirmed as in poetry.

CARL DENNIS: Well, I would agree that it's... it's the medium or it's the kind of literature where you have a most intimate and direct relationship between writer and reader. You don't... you don't come at the reader with ideas and opinions, you try to bring a whole person into the poem, and you have a sense... when it works, you have a sense of immediate contact with another person.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you think that winning a Pulitzer will make any difference in your work?

CARL DENNIS: I don't think in my work. I mean, in my life, just because I will have more readers, and very practically, I won't be able... I'll be able to assume that my... I won't have to fight for another publisher. I will assume that my present publisher will be interested in my next book.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: (Laughs) Carl Dennis, congratulations, again, and thanks for being with us.

CARL DENNIS: Thank you.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major developments of this day. A suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel, killing eight people. Prime Minister Sharon insisted again Israel's offensive on the West Bank must continue. The Israeli defense ministry did say troops would leave three more towns on the West Bank. Secretary of State Powell said his peace mission was not in jeopardy, despite the continued fighting. And President Bush urged the Senate to approve a ban on all human cloning. The House has already done so. We'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.