MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST
Christian Zionist AllyBenny ElonKnew in Advance of Threat to Rabin
The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on Dec. 18 that Yigal Amir, the assassin of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, testified in court that he told Rabbi Benny Elon, the chairman of Israel's fascist Moledet Party, that Rabin needed to be murdered. As EIW reported in the feature article on the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (see EIW, No. 36,) Benny Alon played a major role in turning the Christian Coalition's Unity with Israel event in Washington, D.C. in October 2002 into a "Nuremberg Rally" for the Clash of Civilizations.
Amir was testifying as a defense witness for Avishai Raviv, the Shin Beth informant who is accused of not preventing the assassination of Rabin. Amir testified that he did not tell Raviv that he was going to kill Rabin, but only told him and Elon that Rabin had to be murdered, and had to be eliminated.
Benny Elon denied the charge, declaring, "I don't know what is going on in Amir's twisted mind. Seven years ago he assassinated the Prime Minister, and today he's trying to perform character assassination." It is well known that Elon had contact with Amir, a fact which was recently reported in EIR. Elon had been a minister in Ariel Sharon's government until he resigned several months ago.
In the trial, Amir refered to his attack against Rabin as an "act of preventative intervention" which is very similar to the "targetted liquidation" being used by the Israeli military against Palestinians.
U.S. Claims Iraq Document Is a 'Material Breach,' But Will Not Abandon UN Security Council Venue
The United States will continue to work with "allies, the UN Security Council, and the inspectors," but finds Iraq in "further material breach" of UN resolutions on disarmament as a result of Iraq's recently delivered document on its weapons programs. This was the policy announced by Secretary of State Colin Powell at a State Department press conference Dec. 19. In the question period, Powell said, "We are doing everything we can to avoid war," and told the press that they are "making too much" of the term "Material Breach." Powell's statement was harshreferring to Iraq's "brazen disregard," for the UN and a "totally false" report, but somewhat anti-climactic, after the weeks of hype and speculation, and outright propaganda from the chickenhawks that military action would come immediately following the Iraq declaration.
Policy statements were given throughout the day in the form of press conferences from Powell, the UN officials, Hans Blix of UNMOVIC, and Mohammed El-Baradei of the IAEA, Russian Ambassador to the UN Lavrov, Iraqi Science Advisor Amir Al-Saadi, Iraq's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Mohammed Salman, the French UN Ambassador, and the British UN Ambassador.
In their briefing to the Security Council, Blix and El-Baradei said that there was "little new" in the declaration, but El-Baradei emphasized that there was great progress made in the inspections on the ground. They answered questions from the individual member countries.
In press statements after the briefing, there were some extremely strong points of protest. Russia's Ambassador to the UN, Sergei Lavrov, said that only the Security Council, not an individual country, can declare a security breach; he also said that he had never seen a bit of concrete evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, and warned the U.S. that this is "not a poker game," where countries can hold their information secret and "bluff" their way through. The French Ambassador said that the Iraqi report was inadequate, but he also insisted that only the Security Council can make a determination of material breach.
Syrian Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said that Syria does not accept the document as provided to them in redacted form; he said his government considers "that procedure is against theand in flagrant contradiction and violation to 1441 Resolution."
Amir Al-Saadi, Iraqi Science Adviser, speaking from Baghdad exposed that, of course, Blix and El-Baradei would say that the declaration was incomplete, because they had not yet even seen the Arabic translation. Saadi said, "...The new part, which is written in Arabic, requires translation, and it's not just straightforward translation, it's technical translation, which requires time and accuracy. And that has not, as far as we know, has not been completed." Even Colin Powell had to admit that what Saadi is saying is the true, i.e., that he himself is not familiar with "material in the annexes." Mohammed Salman, Iraq's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, said that "Iraq is not in a material breach," the charges are baseless because, he charged, the United States' true aim "is not disarmament, but to change the legitimate government of Iraq."
Needless to say, Iran-Contra war criminal John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, was a utopian sewer-mouth on Iraq, saying they had abused "their last chance." But it was Powell who actually enunciated the policy.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Says Iraq Is Fully Cooperating
According to an Egyptian State Information Service report of Dec. 15, Egypt's Foreign Minister Maher has declared that Iraq is fully cooperating with UN weapons inspectors. The Egyptian information service also reported the following: "With the UN inspection operations entering their third week, Chief of the UNMOVIC Hans Blix asked Iraq to hand over a list of the names of Iraqi scientists connected with Iraq's armament program. Under UN Resolution 1441, the inspectors have the right to question any Iraqi official that is in connection with the armament program either inside Iraq or outside." The names Blix reportedly requested are of "Iraqi scientists who were involved in the Iraqi program for the development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. Blix asked Amir Al Saady, the Iraqi Presidential adviser, to respond to U.S. pressures."
The item concluded: "Reports say the U.S. Administration plans to grant Iraqi scientists political asylum in return for giving information about the Iraqi program for developing weapons of mass destruction."
This note comes on the heels of reports in the Washington Post, and remarks by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Qatar, that the way to prove Iraq has WMDs, is to recruit defectors among scientists.
The idea of targetting Iraqi scientists for defection or kidnapping has been promoted by the Perle-Wolfowitz cabal for months, and has also been peddled by some of their existing defectors, such as nuclear scientist Dr. Hamza, who has testified many times before the U.S. Senate in the last year, and who works closely with Wolfowitz et al. This kidnapping plan was already introduced as legislation by Senators Joe Biden (D-Del) and Arlen Specter (R-Penna), and passed by the Senate on Nov. 20 (the last day of the lame-duck session) as a way of forcing it to become White House policy, the same way the "regime change" bill worked in 1998. However, the scientists' defection act did not pass the House, and may come up in January 2003.
Iraqi Opposition Conference Hardly a Success
According to wire service accounts of last weekend's Iraqi opposition conclave in London, the event was hardly the success that Paul Wolfowitz and the other war party factionalists in the Bush Administration and the Blair government had hoped for. Despite the factional warfare among the rival Iraqi oppositionists that dominated the several-day event, and continues to dog the anti-Saddam Iraqis, the Pentagon now is authorized to dole out the remaining $92 million allocated by Congress under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, after the State Department refused to approve any further money for the Ahmed Chalabi-run Iraqi National Congress, because they were not accounting for the money they spent. The conference had to be extended by a day, because the feuding groups could not come to an agreement.
According to a European source, Bush's Special Envoy to the Iraqi Opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, came to the conference with a pre-written list of "leaders," but found sharp opposition.
Eventually, a "leadership body" of 50 representatives out of the 300 attendees was formed, amid continued intense squabbles over who would be represented. The count given by AP is that there are 16 seats for Shiite Muslims; 10 for Kurds; four each for the Iraqi National Accord, and the Iraqi National Congress (Chalabi), four for the Constitutional Monarchy Movement (CMM), two for Sunni Muslims who are independent, and 10 for other independents. It was reported that pro-consul Khalilzad actually stormed out of the meeting on Monday, after it became clear that resistance to his diktats was not silenced, and that the session, held in a "posh London hotel with tight security," had to be extended for another day.
According to a Reuters account, the conference split into two camps: what is called the Group of Four (SCIRI, the two Kurdish groups KDP, PUK, and former Ba'ath Party officials), vs. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress and the monarchists.
Jabotinskyite Warmongers Invoke 'End Times' Theology Against Palestinian State
Two terrorist-linked right-wing organizations, the Zionist Organization of America and the Americans for a Safe Israel, each took out a full-page ad in the Moonie-owned Washington Times to accuse President George W. Bush of violating Biblical law if he pursues the peaceful "two-state" solution in the Middle East, resulting in the creation of a Palestinian state.
The title of the ZOA ad is, "President Bush, Creating a Palestinian Arab State Means Creating a New Terrorist State." Its subtitle is: "Iraq, Syria, and Libya were Given Sovereignty. That Didn't Turn Them into Peace-Loving Nations." The ad displays Israelis burying a coffin with an Israeli flag on it, which is very significant because the Israeli right wing that set up the assassination of pro-peace Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin in 1995, would frequently hold anti-Rabin demonstrations carrying a coffin with an Israeli flag, symbolizing both a death threat against Rabin, and the accusation that Rabin's peace stance was burying the state of Israel.
Major signers of this ad include: Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, a neo-con icon at the American Enterprise Institute; Morton A. Klein, National President, ZOA; William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education; Alan Keyes, former Assistant Secretary for International Organizational Affairs; "Christian Zionists" Gary Bauer, president, American Values; Leon Leby, past chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American-Jewish Organizations, and the Rev. "Diamond Pat" Robertston, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network.
The AFSI ad states to the President that: "The 'Road Map' you propose would create two states west of the Jordan River. Under such an arrangement, the following among the Holy Places in the lands the Bible calls Judea and Samaria would become like Bethlehem. It then quotes Hebrew Scripture to lay Israeli claim to Hebron, Beit-El, and Shiloh, which the ad claims are Israeli as "derived explicitly from God's Covenant with the Jews ... [including] The whole land of Canaan," as Eretz Yisroel of today had been referred to in Genesis.
Among the 20-odd signers of this ad are: Herbert Zweibon, Chairman, AFSI; "Christian Zionist" Gary Bauer, president of American Values; William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; Dr. James M. Hutchins, president of Christian Friends of Israel; Dr. David Allen Lewis, Christians United for Israel; Dr. Elwood McQuaid, editor-in-chief, Friends of Israel, the leading Christian Zionist in Washington; E.E. "Ed" McAteer, president of the politically powerful Religious Round Table; and, again, Pat Robertson.
Syrian President Assad Opposes Iraq War
Syria's President Bashar Assad spoke out against a war on Iraq in an interview with the Times of London, published Dec. 13. "The consequences are not going to be contained within Iraq," he said. "The entire region will enter into the unknown." Far from eliminating terrorism, the war would merely "create fertile soil for terrorism." He fears the U.S. will do anything to go to war: "Even before the return of the inspectors, the U.S. was trying to obstruct the return of the inspectors and this is evidence that what they really want is to launch a strike against Iraq." He challenged the right of the U.S. to determine who is a danger in the region. "We are a better judge of this because we live in the region. It is not logical that others should decide that something is or isn't a problem for the region. I think the bigger problem is that any country should interfere in the internal affairs of another." He said Syria voted for the Iraq UN Security Council resolution in an effort to prevent a war.
The Times ran a front-page leader for the interview with the lying headline, "Syrian Leader Defends Suicide Bomber on Eve of Visit to London." What Assad actually said was that young Palestinians became suicide bombers because of the hopelessness created by the oppression of the occupation, which anyone can also read in any Israeli daily press commentary. He also said that his government has been cooperating with the U.S. in anti-al-Qaeda efforts.
Assad will soon visit London, where he will meet Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Queen.
Israeli Cabinet Votes, Again, To Bar Arafat from Bethlehem
The Israeli Cabinet voted on Sunday, Dec. 15, to bar Yasser Arafat once again from visiting Bethlehem for the Christmas celebrations, an unnamed Israeli government source told AP. The Palestinian Authority denounced the decision in no uncertain terms. "The Israeli decision," said Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh, "is a violation of their promises to the American Administration, the Vatican, and the Pope. All excuses they give are lies and are rejected."
Quoting official sources in the government of Ariel Sharon, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Cabinet is also verging on a consensus that the expulsion of the Palestinian Authority President is now a necessity. The sources claim that once Arafat is out of the way, Sharon will be prepared to talk to a new Palestinian leadership. This official claims that it was made clear to Arafat, that after some "mega-terror" attack, he will find himself facing soldiers with orders to either expel or shoot him.
More Clergy Voice Opposition to Iraq War on Religious Grounds
The chief German Catholic Military Bishop denounced President Bush's war talk as irresponsible and un-Christian. Interviewed in the Sunday, Dec. 15 edition of Welt am Sonntag, Walter Mixa (he has attacked the war build-up before) said he prefers the idea of "just peace" to that of "just war." Retaliation, either to a military or a terrorist attack, is profoundly un-Christian and must not be permitted in a democracy, Mixa said:
"The Second Vatican Council in its constitution Gaudium et Spes denounced present-day warfare, with its high-technology potentials of extinction, as absolutely immoral."
As far as the talk about a war on Iraq is concerned, Mixa said that he has heard, too, the news about Bush's threats with prompt nuclear retaliation to potential Iraqi biological or chemical attacks. "I consider this talk by the American President as provocative and dangerous ... with such threatening talk, which pronounces the respective position of power, the enemy is just provoked unnecessarily. Actually, an upward spiral of violence is being created by that, which will then lead to a terrible explosion. With that, any commitment to conciliation and to mutual respect of religions and cultures is being extinguished. From a political viewpoint, such an approach is irresponsible."
Canadian Peace-Keepers Could Go to West Bank
In a Dec. 19 interview, reported in the National Post, Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien suggested Canadians could be sent to keep peace in the West Bank, as Canadian peacekeepers did for 30 years on the island of Cyprus, without a peace agreement. "Peace needs to come there [the Middle East]," said Chretien. That requires a secure Israel with a safe border and an independent Palestine. "If they can't come to peace," the international community could enter as it did in Cyprus, to stop "the Turks killing Greeks and the Greeks killing Turks," a deployment which included building a wall, he noted.
Chretien's statement may reflect a broader discussion with other nations, as the National Post reports that a senior Canadian diplomat (unnamed) said earlier last week that talks are underway on the possibility of sending an international peacekeeping force to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The National Post story featured Royal Military College of Canada Professor Sean Maloney's flip-out over Chretien's proposal. Maloney called the idea of sending troops in without a peace accord "completely insane.... It would be another Bosnia," with all sides gunning for the peacekeepers. "How do you coerce a country with nuclear weapons? How do you coerce groups like Hezbollah or Hamas?"
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