In this issue:

French LaRouche Leader: 'Save the Lebanese Nation-State!'

U.S., Israeli Warmongers Lack Majority at UN Security Council

Lavrov Accuses Israel of Violating Civilian Protections

...And Iraq Continues To Burn

From Our Archives: Conflict with Syria/Iran Not in Israel's Interest

French LaRouche Leader: 'Save the Lebanese Nation-State!'

Jacques Cheminade, the leader of the LaRouche political movement in France, and French Presidential candidate for 2007, issued the following statement on July 19:

"The Jewish state betrays the mission of The Jewish State.*

"The American neo-conservatives, fed with an ideology of blood and death, claim this is 'our war' and incite George W. Bush to unleash air strikes against the Iranian nuclear installations. France expresses its support for the Lebanese government and French solidarity with the Lebanese people in this hour of trial, but that support and solidarity are nothing but diplomatic gesticulations. Our hands are apparently clean, but only because we have cut them off.

"The reality is that the American imperialist circles, for whom the Israeli government is nothing but an idiot full of blood and furor, unleash throughout the world, from Bombay to Beirut, a strategy of tension, while at the same time, the globalizing financial oligarchy which promotes them intends to re-establish the cartelization process of the 1930s and substitute for the law of nation-states, the law of the mightiest. The crushing of Lebanon is just an example, seen and known to all, of that criminal will which expresses itself in the conditions of the collapse of the financial system.

"Rereading today the conclusion of The Jewish State, I put before our responsibility what Theodor Herzl wrote in his time: 'And that which we will attempt over there for our own prosperity will have powerful and happy effects for the well-being of humanity as a whole.' Can the policies of my country rally the spirit of that message and impose on all those who have betrayed it, the strength and wise courage of an acting reason, justice towards all human beings, respectful of their cultures and religions and tracing a common future, sparing us the ridicule of jingoistic gesticulations and Quixotic windmills.

"Let us employ our honor, the heritage of our history, and the means of our national security to save Lebanon, lest we otherwise could lose our souls."

*(The Jewish State, by Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement at the Basel Congress in 1897.)

U.S., Israeli Warmongers Lack Majority at UN Security Council

From the official statements made during the lengthy UN Security Council debate on Lebanon July 21, the majority of members of the UN Security Council are demanding an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon—a condition that the Dick Cheney imperial warmongers claim would be a blow against Israel. For every day that the international community does not impose a ceasefire, the Israeli war machine is killing dozens, if not hundreds of civilians in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. On July 20, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan made a strong statement to the UNSC in which he said, that while Israel has the right to self-defense, and it remains the case that the fighting was begun with the Hezbollah assault on, and abduction of, Israeli soldiers on July 12, "Israel's ... collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop," and that "the use of excessive force is to be condemned."

Bearing in mind that nine of the 15 members of the Security Council must approve a resolution for it to pass, according to the speeches of the representatives of the Council members July 21, only six spoke against an immediate ceasefire. The U.S. and Britain are opposed to an immediate ceasefire, and Denmark, Japan, Peru, and France are probably aligned with that. The nine remaining, Russia, China, Argentina, Greece, Qatar, Congo, Slovakia, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Ghana, favor an immediate ceasefire.

But with the UN vote delayed till sometime next week, the term "immediate ceasefire" is meaningless.

In addition, two powerful Muslim countries in Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia, denounced the Israeli aggression in statements reported by the Jakarta Post on July 21.

Lavrov Accuses Israel of Violating Civilian Protections

In a statement issued in Moscow, July 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "the mounting confrontation and bloodshed in the Middle East—in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories—is causing the most serious concern. Each day brings ever-new extremely alarming reports of the death of dozens of civilians and of the destruction of dwellings, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure and life support facilities. Ever more ruins are appearing in Lebanon, having barely recovered from the consequences of a bloody civil war, in the country's capital Beirut, other Lebanese towns and in the Palestinian territories... Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have found themselves on the verge of a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe."

"Moscow reaffirms its commitment to a decisive struggle against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We also reaffirm our demands for an immediate and unconditional release of the kidnapped Israeli servicemen. But the unprecedented scale of casualties and devastation shows that the actions declared for the achievement of this goal have gone far beyond the framework of an anti-terrorist operation."

"In accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law the delivery of strikes must be strictly limited to military targets. Even if there are suspicions that the targets which are normally intended for civilian purposes (places of worship, dwellings and structures, schools and the like) might be used for effective support of military actions, it is still considered that such targets serve civilian purposes and, accordingly, strikes at them are prohibited. The first step to be taken without delay in this critical situation must be an immediate ceasefire and the stoppage of bloodshed. We support the relevant urgent appeal of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora."

...And Iraq Continues To Burn

While most eyes are turned towards Israel's assault on Lebanon, Iraq continues to dissolve into chaos. A joint U.S.-Iraqi security operation in Baghdad that started in June has failed to stem the rising tide of violence in that city. From official U.S. statistics, daily violent attacks has been 23.7 during the first 30 days of "Operation Together Forward," as compared to 23.8 during the previous three months. The average during July 14-18, however, was 34.4. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, chief spokesman for U.S. Military forces in Iraq tried to call this a "slight downtick," but admitted, "We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world, but there have been successes."

While U.S. casualties are down (so far, only 28 American troops have been reported killed in July, compared to 61 in June), the Iraqi population continues to take the brunt of the violence. Some 1,000 bodies have been taken to the Baghdad morgue this month, about 80% said to be victims of violence. In another sign of how hellish Baghdad has become, 30,000 Iraqis have registered with the Migration Ministry as refugees since July 1 alone, bringing the total number registered to 162,000. "We consider this to be a dangerous sign," said a Ministry official.

According to UN figures, there are 100 deaths due to violent attacks in Iraq every day.

From Our Archives: Conflict with Syria/Iran Not in Israel's Interest

"Israel has no intrinsic interest in a conflict with Syria or Iran," Lyndon LaRouche stated in summer 2005, after a briefing on a high-level seminar on "nuclear Iran" held in Jerusalem in June 2005. The biggest problem lay with the Cheney crowd in Washington, LaRouche said then. Anything being done by Israel to push conflict in this area, was being done to try to placate those dictating policy from the United States. Any Israel-Iran conflict is a U.S.-Iran conflict, which has been the problem all along. In reality, LaRouche said, Israel's interests coincide with cooperation with Iran, on economic and security problems. Many of the most messianic types infesting Israel today—Jewish and Christian alike—come out of the U.S. fundamentalist-fascist movements, LaRouche also noted, and they and are bringing that fascism to Israel.

In 2002, EIR's Mark Burdman reviewed one of the series of "Left Behind" "novels" by Armageddon lunatics and murky intelligence-linked Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. These books show that the pro-Armageddon crew are anti-Semites whose purpose is to eliminate Judaism, convert everyone to "Christian" fundamentalism, and then kill them off in end-time wars. These books have been top bestsellers in the U.S. South, making LaHaye the highest-paid author in the world.

The books, which feature the "Antichrist" operating from his headquarters in "New Babylon," helped generate the momentum for the invasion of Iraq. LaHaye even gave a press conference in Washington in 2002, saying that "God has chosen to use this tool" (LaHaye's books) in the drive against "rogue states."

LaHaye has hundreds of millions of people die in seven years of "Rapture" and worldwide wars. The story pits the Antichrist, one Nicolae Carpathia, against the good-guys "Tribulation Force," which has its headquarters in Chicago. The Tribulations' leaders are Israeli Jews, Tsion ben-Judah and Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig, who have become super-"Christian" fundies whose aim is mass conversion of Israeli Jews, thereby ending Judaism. Finally, everyone will get blown to smithereens, with a few sucked up into the Rapture.

LaHaye is a product of Bob Jones University and the Darbyite Dallas Theological Seminary. Lahaye and Jenkins set up the Christian Heritage College, which promotes fundy Temple Mount operations. He was for years a paid official of the Sun Myung Moon organization, and in the 1960s founded, with "Catholic" Paul Weyrich, the Council on National Policy (CNP), whose members have included John Ashcroft and Ollie North.