In this issue:

Netanyahu Organizing Russian Mafia Government for Israel

UN Rights Council Condemns Israeli Attacks in Gaza

Avigdor Lieberman: No Point in Peace Initiatives

United States Power in Iraq Shifting

From Volume 5, Issue Number 48 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 28, 2006
Southwest Asia News Digest

Netanyahu Organizing Russian Mafia Government for Israel

Likud Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is organizing a Russian Mafia government for Israel. according to Ha'aretz and YNET Nov. 22. In recent days, Russian oligarch and reputed Russian Mafia don, Arcadi Gaydamak, has announced that he is deciding on whether or not to enter politics and make a bid to become Prime Minister. Gaydamak, who is wanted in France for fraud, has been spreading money around over the last months. During the last Lebanon War, he set up his own privately financed relief operation in northern Israel, where the government failed to come to the aid of the population which was coming under attack by Katyusha rockets. He most recently offered a free holiday at the Red Sea resort of Eilat to the residents of Sderot, which has come under constant attack by Qassam rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.

Now, a poll conducted by the Dahaf Institute, reveals that if elections were held today, the Likud would win 20 seats; a new party led by Gaydamak, 13 seats; and the ethnic Russian Yisrael Beitenu Party of Israeli fascist Avigdor Lieberman, 10 or 11 seats. Meanwhile, the Labor and Kadima parties would get only 15 seats apiece. Thus, Netanyahu, according to this poll, would be able to form a government with a Gaydamak party, Yisrael Beitenu, and the right-wing National Union-National Religious Party as its core.

Netanyahu has been organizing behind the scenes to put just such a government together. It was reported a few weeks ago that he had met with Gaydamak, where all this was without doubt discussed. Despite the fact that Lieberman joined the Olmert government, he is a Netanyahu crony. Lieberman also has strong Russian mafia connections. One of his patrons is Michael Cherney, the other Russian "tycoon" based in Israel, who is also wanted by the Russian authorities. Cherney finances the "Jerusalem Summit," which organizes an annual security conference whose advisory board includes Daniel Pipes and Britain's Baroness Caroline Cox, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan), and Yuri Shtern, a Knesset member for Yisrael Beitenu. Netanyahu was recently in the U.S., where he met with Vice President Dick Cheney.

UN Rights Council Condemns Israeli Attacks in Gaza

The people of Gaza are suffering "massive" human rights violations due to "targetting" of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, by Israeli military incursions, according to the UN General Assembly Nov. 15. By resolution, the Human Rights Council of the UNGA affirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. The Council is "gravely concerned at the continued violation by the occupying Power, Israel, of the human rights of the Palestinian people." It "expresses its shock at the horror, ... condemns the Israeli targeting and killing ... and calls for bringing the perpetrators thereof to justice ... and calls for urgent international action ... for immediate protection of the Palestinian civilians."

Nations signing the resolution are: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam,* Chad,* Cuba, Egypt,* Guinea,* Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of),* Jordan, Kuwait,* Lebanon,* Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,* Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Oman,* Pakistan, Palestine,* Qatar,* Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan,* Syrian Arab Republic,* Tunisia, United Arab Emirates,* United Republic of Tanzania,* Uzbekistan* and Yemen.* (* Non-member states of the Human Rights Council.)

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, visiting Beit Hanoun in Gaza, site of some of the worst atrocities, said, "We need to collectively call on leaders ... to have the courage to break the cycle of violence to ensure the well-being of civilians."

And, in accord with the LaRouche Doctrine for Southwest Asia, the Vatican's Observer to the UN, Archbishop Migliore, addressed the UN General Assembly meeting on the illegal Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories, saying, "The only peace with a chance of lasting in the region will be a truly comprehensive one. It will involve all major players in the Middle East region and it will have to be based upon bilateral peace treaties and multilateral agreements on all questions of common concern, including water, environment and trade."

Avigdor Lieberman: No Point in Peace Initiatives

Fascist Avigdor Lieberman, who now holds the position of Minister for Strategic Threats (and who seems to be the main one) in the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, called Nov. 18 for reconquering the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza and the Philadelphi route, which runs along the border. He told Israel Radio that Israel must take control of that area, from which "the fuel that drives terrorism arrives." He also argued that peace and security initiatives put forward by Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and the Defense Ministry, headed by Labor's Amir Peretz, are senseless. He said, "There is no point in new peace initiatives, and those who initiate them are irresponsible and unwise." He claimed that the Palestinians do not truly want a country, but instead "work in the service of international jihad." He also called for targetting the entire Hamas leadership, and called Palestinian President Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) "not relevant, hated, and lacking any authority in the territories."

Meretz party Chairman Yossi Beilin responded by calling on Olmert to dismiss Lieberman: "If he doesn't do this, Olmert will carry responsibility for all of Lieberman's crazy statements, and he won't be able to shake himself from them time after time."

United States Power in Iraq Shifting

A U.S. intelligence contact has confirmed to EIR that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad wants "out" of Iraq as soon as possible. His number-one replacement candidate continues to be Ryan Crocker, a senior career diplomat who is currently U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan.

Also, On Nov. 20, Washington Post commentator Al Kamen revealed that Crocker was active, pre-war, working for diplomatic solutions, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs. Kamen wrote that Crocker wrote a 2002 memo to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, entitled "The Perfect Storm," where he warned about the consequences of invasion of Iraq. Later, Crocker served as an assistant in the occupation under Paul Bremer.

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