In this issue:

LaRouche: Israeli Leadership Must Break with Sykes-Picot

Arab Media Features LaRouche, Obama Administration

Netanyahu Demands That Palestinian Unity Be Prevented

Former Peace Negotiators: Talk to Hamas

Turkey Resists IMF Demands

LaRouche: Israeli Leadership Must Break with Sykes-Picot

March 1 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche warned in a LaRouche PAC statement today that the present leadership of Israel is displaying clear evidence of suicidal, clinical insanity. "From [Avigdor] Lieberman and [Benjamin] Netanyahu to the ostensibly more sane leadership of Kadima and Labor," LaRouche observed, "I see nothing but madness. The Gaza invasion was as much a poke in the eye to the incoming U.S. President Barack Obama, as it was a crime against humanity, directed at the elimination of the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza."

Israel's biggest problem, LaRouche said, "is the British, who are manipulating the Israelis just the same way they manipulated the Germans into World War II, under the London-sponsored Nazi regime.... The British are the source of the current mess in Southwest Asia. Wall Street is an extension of the British Empire, and people like Sir George Herbert Walker Bush are British assets and part of the British Empire operations."

"The Israeli military policies, in the case of the West Bank in 2002, Lebanon in 2006, and Gaza in 2008, are explicitly modeled on how the Nazis dealt with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The policy is being manipulated by the British," LaRouche concluded, stressing that this policy, if continued, "will destroy Israel."

The full statement is posted at http://larouchepac.com/node/9367

Arab Media Features LaRouche, Obama Administration

Feb. 25 (EIRNS)—A long-time friend of American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche argues, in an article published by the leading Qatar daily Al-Sharq, that LaRouche's influence has never been greater in the institutions of the U.S. Presidency, than it is now. Prof. Ahmed al-Kedidi even suggests that LaRouche is probably going to be one of the prominent advisors to the new American President Barack Obama on issues of national security, foreign policy, and economy.

Kedidi references LaRouche's support for then-Senator Hillary Clinton in the election campaign last year, and LaRouche's hope that Clinton and Obama would follow the footsteps of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also cites LaRouche's friendship with the Clintons since the 1990s. Kedidi says that LaRouche is not new to the institution of the Presidency in the U.S., having worked with President Reagan to develop the Strategic Defense Initiative, beam-weapons anti-missile defense policy in the 1980s. And LaRouche had uniquely forecast the collapse of the financial and economic system for many years, and put forward the remedies for it in the form of a New Bretton Woods system, and a new just world economic order for all nations.

Kedidi says he is very hopeful that LaRouche's ideas will change U.S. policies and the world, because they are both truthful and just. He cites LaRouche's recent defense of the Palestinian people and his call for releasing Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison.

From Al-Sharq, Prof. Kedidi's article has been republished on Elaph.com, the world's largest Arabic-language news website, based in Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu Demands That Palestinian Unity Be Prevented

Feb. 26 (EIRNS)—George Mitchell, on his second visit to Israel since his Presidential appointment as Special Envoy to the Middle East, met with Prime Minister-Designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who demanded that the U.S. drop its support for Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. Netanyahu insisted that a Palestinian unity government would only be a front for extremism. Talks between the Palestinian factions, which are being mediated by Egypt, also began on Feb. 26, the same day Mitchell arrived in Israel.

It is well known in Israel that in a conference call with Jewish-American leaders last week, Mitchell said that, should Egyptian efforts at reconciliation succeed, it would be major step forward in the peace process. However, Netanyahu argued against such efforts, telling Mitchell that "an internal Palestinian reconciliation may bring about further escalation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and, therefore, must not be encouraged."

Netanyahu told Mitchell that "my government will continue to advance the peace process with the Palestinians in its own way." "Its own way" can be found in the statements of Dov Weisglass, who negotiated the Road Map with the Bush Administration for the Israeli Cabinet at a time when Netanyahu was a member. On the subject of the April 2004 letters between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush on the Road Map-Gaza Disengagement Plan, Weisglass said the plan "supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians and, as a result, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Mitchell will accompany Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Israel on March 3, after their participation in the Gaza reconstruction conference.

Former Peace Negotiators: Talk to Hamas

Feb. 26 (EIRNS)—A group of international peace negotiators declared that it is necessary to talk to Hamas if peace is to be achieved between Israeli and Palestinians.

In a letter published in the Times of London, they write, "[I]t is now time to rethink the strategy for achieving peace in the Middle East.... As former peace negotiators, we believe it is of vital importance to abandon the failed policy of isolation and to involve Hamas in the political process."

They quote the late Israeli military leader Gen. Moshe Dayan who said: "If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies." They add that peace is not possible by "negotiating with the representative of one part of the Palestinians, while simultaneously trying to destroy the other."

"Since its victory in democratic elections in 2006, Hamas has sustained its support in Palestinian society despite attempts to destroy it through economic blockades, political boycotts, and military incursions. This approach is not working; a new strategy must be found. Yes, Hamas must recognize Israel as part of a permanent solution, but it is a diplomatic process and not ostracism that will lead them there. The Quartet conditions imposed on Hamas set an unworkable threshold from which to commence negotiations. The most important first step is for Hamas to halt all violence as a precondition for their inclusion in the process. Ending their isolation will in turn help in reconciling the Palestinian national movement, a vital condition for meaningful negotiations with Israel."

Pointing to the Obama Administration, they write: "The new US Administration and the appointment of George Mitchell as the Middle East envoy give hope that a new strategy grounded in realism and not ideology will be pursued.... We must recognise that engaging Hamas does not amount to condoning terrorism or attacks on civilians. In fact, it is a precondition for security and for brokering a workable agreement."

Among the ten signatories are: Michael Ancram (Marquess of Lothian); Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon; Dr. Shlomo Ben-Ami (Israel foreign minister, 2000-01); Betty Bigombe (former Uganda government minister); Alvaro de Soto (former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process); Gareth Evans (Australian foreign minister, 1988-96); Peter Gastrow (former member of parliament, South Africa ); Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein member of the Northern Ireland Assembly); John Hume (leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party of Northern Ireland, 1979-2001); Dr. Ram Manikkalingam (founder of the Dialogue Advisory Group); and Lord Patten of Barnes.

Turkey Resists IMF Demands

Feb. 28 (EIRNS)—The Turkish Government continues to resist demands to accept conditionalities dictated by the International Monetary Fund for a standby agreement, at a time when the economy is under tremendous pressure because of the global economic collapses.

JP Morgan Chase, according to Hurriyet, warns that Turkey's government could fall if Ankara doesn't accept an IMF bailout. Investors are demanding about 580 basis points, or 5.8%, in extra yield, to own bonds sold by Turkey rather than U.S. Treasuries.

According to Sabah newspaper, talks with the IMF are deadlocked over "three IMF demands [which] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected." The Fund wants Turkey's tax collection agency to have a status independent of direct control by the finance ministry. The second is that this authority control all tax investigations. The third demand is that the government cancel legislation that increases the share of funding that local municipalities receive. Erdogan has declared all three demands to be unacceptable.