In this issue:

LaRouche: Bush a Catastrophic Failure in Afghanistan and Iraq

Senior Israeli Strategist Calls for Madrid II Peace Conference

Syrian State Television Interviews LaRouche Rep

Israel Breaks UNSC Ceasefire with Commando Attack

Democracy Israeli-Style: IDF Arrests Hamas Deputy PM

From Volume 5, Issue Number 34 of EIR Online, Published Aug.22, 2006
Southwest Asia News Digest

LaRouche: Bush a Catastrophic Failure in Afghanistan and Iraq

In an interview with Florida talk show-host Henry Raines of AmericaAM Aug. 18, Lyndon LaRouche blasted the U.S. media for its "good news" distortion of reality, which is nothing more than propaganda for a failed perpetual war policy.

In the following excerpt, where Raines noted that LaRouche, already in 2004, had said that Iraq was a "failed war," LaRouche responded:

"You get something like Iraq, which is already in the process of busting, its in the final stages of disintegration, at a point where nobody thinks that country can ever be put back together again, at least in the foreseeable future, and whole regions, like the Taliban are back in Afghanistan. Everything that Bush has done, in terms of U.S. foreign policy—and most of what his ally in London has done, Blair, and what's behind Blair—has been a catastrophic failure for them, as for the world. And that's what the situation is, and the problem is, people are responding to what they say. What's the news? They turn to the news media, the newspaper, television principally, websites. What do they get? They get the news, but it is not the reality, and those of us who are struggling with this business, are trying to get people to understand the reality, as opposed to the so-called the news.

Senior Israeli Strategist Calls for Madrid II Peace Conference

In a commentary published in the Jerusalem Post Aug. 19, David Kimche, former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and long-time advisor to Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, called for a Madrid II peace conference as the only solution for preventing a new Middle East war.

Kimche, who was also an official in the Israeli Mossad, and is considered a senior statesman and strategist among Israelis, writes: "Significantly, a leading Sunni politician observed, 'The only way to prevent a nightmare is to go for a comprehensive peace process.' A shrewd Lebanese politician with whom I have been speaking in the past few days is convinced that both Lebanese and Syrians would react favorably to the idea of a 'Madrid Two' peace conference sponsored by the U.S., Europe, and Russia. The Syrians are desperately keen to emerge from their international isolation and to repair their faltering economy.

"Such a peace conference is achievable. It would need American initiative and international backing. For 'Madrid One,' James Baker knocked the heads together of our region's leaders to such an extent that both Hafez Assad and Yitzhak Shamir, neither of whom wanted the conference, came running to Madrid. Could the Americans pull it off again? My guess is that this time it would be much easier. It could be a coup for American policy in the Middle East. It could be a life-saver for Lebanon. And for us, and that is what interests us the most, it could herald a whole new era in our checkered history with our neighbors.

"We should go for it, and do our utmost to persuade the Americans and others that 'Madrid Two' could be the ideal sequence to that ugly war in the north."

Kimche is an old-line Labor Party member in the tradition of Yitzak Rabin, and among a group of advisors who has been pushing Peretz to launch a diplomatic initiative, which has already resulted in Peretz issuing a call for diplomatic talks with Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians.

Syrian State Television Interviews LaRouche Rep

On Aug. 9, EIR Editorial Board member Muriel Mirak-Weissbach was interviewed by telephone hook-up from Berlin, by Syrian Satellite TV. The interview was part of a two-hour program which had political figures, intellectuals, and others, talking about the Lebanon war.

The questions were: Who organized this war? What exactly is the "New Middle East" that the Bush Administration is pushing? And what are its aims? Do you think Israel will reach its goal in the ongoing war?

Referring to recent exposes of scandals in which leading figures of the Israeli Cabinet are involved (Justice Minister Haim Ramon in a sex harassment case, another minister in a tax evasion case), and considering the barrage of criticism, even inside Israel, against Olmert, do you think this Israeli government will be around in 2007?

This interview is one of many interviews with LaRouche and his representatives that have been requested by the media, about the Lebanon crisis and the danger of World War III. Last week, LaRouche was interviewed for the Russian news show, Vremya (see InDepth), and by Dr. Hesham Tillawi, a Palestinian-American who broadcasts on www.currentissues.tv.

Mirak-Weissbach answered the questions with a briefing on the Synarchist financiers behind the attack—which is in the interest of neither Israel, nor the United States, the Cheney-Bush neo-conservative nexus, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's meeting with Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu, and their global strategic aims of imposing fascist dictatorship worldwide, in the onrushing financial blow-out crisis. Israel, as competent military experts have stated, has already lost the war from a military standpoint, and is "finished" as far as its former status is concerned.

Israel Breaks UNSC Ceasefire with Commando Attack

An Israeli commando raid Aug. 19, deep into the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, was the first major violation of the UN Security Council resolution that went into effect on Monday, Aug. 14, after the Israeli government adopted it.

No doubt reflecting the excruciating pressure on the Israeli government following its failure to live up to the utopian boasts that it would "crush" Hezbollah, the commando raid was an assassination attempt against one of Hezbollah leaders. According to Ha'aretz Aug. 19, Hezbollah claims that the Israeli target was Hezbollah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek. The attack failed when a Hezbollah patrol intercepted the Israelis, killing one officer and wounding two others, forcing the Israelis to withdraw. The Israelis were apparently disguised as Lebanese soldiers.

The attack was no anomaly—rather it is a coordinated strategy, along with the bombardment and ground attacks in Gaza, which began on June 26 under the codename "Operation Summer Rains." Hardliners in Israel insist that they will eliminate—by assassination or jailing—the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Palestinian militant groups and sympathizers. In the Palestinian Authority areas this past week, the Israeli Defense Forces assassinated three members of the Islamic Jihad—one in Gaza, and two in Jenin in the West Bank. Two civilians were also killed in the Gaza air assault.

The Israelis admitted the raid in a statement: "Special forces carried out an operation to disrupt terror actions against Israel with an emphasis on the transfer of munitions from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah."

This is most likely a lie. Although Israel has said it would intercept such transfers, Boudai is on the west side of the Bekaa Valley. The reality was that they most likely fell into a trap. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, despite the cease-fire, announced that Israel reserved the right to attack the Hezbollah leaders who are responsible for capturing the two Israeli soldiers, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It seems Hezbollah was ready for such attacks.

Democracy Israeli-Style: IDF Arrests Hamas Deputy PM

On Aug. 19, the IDF arrested Palestinian Authority Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, a member of Hamas, in a raid on his home in the West Bank. On Aug. 5, a similar abduction took the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Assembly a prisoner. This means that Israel has now captured, and is holding in jail, 66 members of the Palestinian government. Such is the Bush-Cheney-Israeli drive to bring "democracy" to the region.

The abduction took place at a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is in discussions with Hamas to form a Fatah-Hamas government of national unity in order to break the diplomatic and financial boycott of the Palestinian people, which has created a humanitarian disaster. Hamas had said it would support such a government, but only after Israel releases the Hamas ministers and parliamentarians it has arrested.

Fatah negotiator and lawmaker Saeb Erekat denounced the arrest as sabotaging these efforts.

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