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From the Vol.1,No.6 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

Rabin Assassination Was a Coup d'Etat, Says Candidate LaRouche

In answer to a question received on his LaRouche in 2004 candidate's website in early April, Democratic Party Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche hit upon one of the root causes of the current Mideast crisis, as being the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He said:

"The present warfare in the Middle East was caused by a coup d'etat, by assassination, against the elected government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Since that coup d'etat itself was never addressed, the political faction which benefitted from the assassination of Rabin has exerted dominant control over Israel since that time. Prime Minister [Ehud] Barak lacked the courage to oppose the faction of Sharon and Netanyahu. From the moment Barak returned to Israel a defeated man, Sharon moved, by backing a feint against al-Haram-al-Sharif, for the purpose of starting a religious war in the Middle East, and realizing the most extreme objectives of the Likud's 'Eretz Israel' doctrine. This meant such objectives as killing Arafat and all those leaders closely associated with him, in favor of those leaders of the Hamas who had been created as a counter to Arafat by Sharon during the interval Sharon was Housing Minister. The principal object is to drive the Palestinians into Jordan. For this purpose, Sharon and the current leaders of the Israel Defense Force adopted as a model the plan crafted for the Nazi crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto, by the notorious General Juergen Stroop. What we are seeing in Israel and Palestine today, is operations against Palestinians, by the Sharon government, which are copies of the operations which Stroop ran against the Jewish resistance.

"I have no intrinsic respect for any body of 'popular opinion.' Remember that the purely evil Roman Empire was run on the authority of popular opinion. When I see the horribly decadent examples of 'popular opinion' of today's mass entertainment, and many of the popular practices of our own and other governnents, I am pleased to be a man who relies on truth and justice as the standard for my policies and actions, not the decadent popular opinion which continues to prevail in many nations, among many peoples.

"As an increasing number of leading Israelis have warned, what Sharon is doing is putting the continued existence of Israel into immediate jeopardy. By the Nazi-like actions of Sharon and his accomplices, Israel is losing the all-important moral authority on which, in fact, its post-1945 emergence and existence have depended. If Israel does not have the kind of moral authority which Prime Minister Rabin expressed, when he made that 'peace of the brave' with Arafat, Israel could not survive in the world as it is coming to be today. That fact, is the so-called 'bottom line.' There is no visible and sane policy in this matter but my own. Those who oppose me, whether they know this or not, are following a course which, in the end, would be the virtual, self-inflicted extinction of Israel."

Daily Telegraph Cites IDF's Study of Nazi Tactics

In its April 10 edition, the Daily Telegraph of London included the following report: "As they planned 'Operation Defensive Wall,' Israeli officers said they examined the experience of other armies in urban warfare--even the Germans during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, when Jewish fighters managed to hold off Nazi troops for a month."

Al-Jazeera features EIR on Israeli Spy Scandal

The Al-Jazeera satellite channel, which has become a leading outlet for Arabic speakers throughout the world during recent months, devoted the third installment of its new news-documentary program "Issue of the Hour," to the theme of the "Israeli Spy Story in the U.S.," and featured a discussion with Ed Spannaus, an editor of Executive Intelligence Review. The segment was aired April 11.

Host Malik Al-Teriki began with a review of the French attempts to break the story and referred to the stories in Intelligence Online and later in Le Monde. A short interview with the French editor of Intelligence Online, "which succeeded more than Fox network in revealing the information," showed a very defensive French spook of a journalist. This prompted Al-Teriki to announce: "You might have noticed that the sensitivity of the subject has driven him to speak with a great deal of caution. The Le Monde journalist, who broke the story, even refused to speak to Al-Jazeera. But obviously, the American journalist Edward Spannaus, editor of Executive Intelligence Review, which is specialized in intelligence matters, and who has followed the issue from the beginning and is now with us from the studio in Washington, is prepared to go beyond these conclusions."

Spannaus, speaking with the Capitol building in the background, answered the following questions: 1. Did the Israeli intelligence, Mossad, have knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks? 2. Is it true that most of the Israeli spies were based in the same cities and sometimes the same streets as the alleged Arab suspects in the September attacks? 3. Was the Justice Department's decision to block any foreign firms from Federal contracts related to advanced information and telecom technology? What was the role of the Israeli telecom companies Comverse and Telrad? Spannaus also corrected Al-Jazeera, emphasizing that it was EIR that first broke the story.

After a short documentary trailer about Jonathan Pollard, Netanyahu's attempts to blackmail the Clinton Administration to free Pollard, wire tapping of the White House, Clinton's admission to Monica Lewinsky that the Israelis were listening to his calls and using the tapes to force the Administration to close the investigation of the Israeli spying activities--all of which comes from EIR's reports--Al-Teriki cited former Senator and stated enemy of the Zionist Lobby Paul Findley, as saying: "But who dares to speak?"

Al-Teriki, once again pointed to Spannaus as somebody to dares to speak. He also asked Spannaus about why no one in the U.S. dares to speak out about these scandals; EIR's reporting in January about the current scandal as "too big to bury"; whether the Israelis were still spying on the U.S. Administration to find out its reaction to Crown Prince Abdullah's peace initiative; and how the Israeli spying activities on American soil were motivated by President Eisenhower's intervention to stop the Israel-British-French attack against Egypt in the 1956 Suez crisis. Spannaus said that after 1956, the Israelis were determined that it would never happen again that an American President would stand up against Israel, and they built up both their spying operations and their lobbying operations, to counter any opposition to Israeli policies, including even spying on American Jews who were pro-peace and opposing Israeli war policies.

Netanyahu Seeks To Mobilize War Lobby in the U.S.

Former Israeli Prime Minister, and anti-Rabin fanatic, Benjamin Netanyahu, was blitzing Washington, D.C. this past week, in order to demand U.S. support for the Sharon government's Nazi-style war against the Palestinians, and a wider war as well, starting with Iraq. Netanyahu began at the National Press Club, and then gave a presentation to 20 Senators, followed by an evening meeting at the American Enterprise Institute. His theme in the first two presentations, which EIR attended, was straightforward murder: first, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and expel Arafat; second, to "clean out" the Palestinian areas; and third, to establish physical barriers between Israel and the Palestinian areas.

The war-mongering former Prime Minister, who agreed with his rival Ariel Sharon last week to speak for "Israel" during this trip, ran up against one significant obstacle in his Press Club appearance. EIR reporter Michele Steinberg confronted him on the revelation in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz about the Israel Defense Force's following the Nazis' Warsaw Ghetto strategy of 1943, and asked if he would dissociate himself from these Nazi tactics, currently obvious in the IDF's offensive in Jenin.

Netanyahu spat, "This is obscene!" and began ranting about how Israel "is fighting a moral war." Why, after all, Israel could be bombing, instead of using tanks, and it's outrageous to compare Israel with the Nazis. Steinberg stuck at the mike, and reiterated that this was an Israeli paper's story--which led Netanyahu to denounce Ha'aretz as unreliable.

The Israeli warmonger said little different at the Senate meeting, which was also distinguished by its smallness. The lead sponsors were John Kyl (R-Ariz) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn), who provided him with a platform for demanding U.S. action, unilateral if necessary, against Iraq, just as Israel did 21 years ago. Netanyahu also effectively threatened that the U.S. would suffer terror from the Palestinians, if it did not support Israel's extermination campaign.

Netanyahu will be a featured speaker at a rally called by the so-called National Unity Coalition for Israel (NUCI) at April 15, a group of "Christian Zionist" organizations. amd the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The aim of the rally is to get several hundred thousand people agitating in support of Israeli policy, and to force Congress, in particular, to take further actions against the Palestinians.

Russian Website Exposes Hamas-Sharon Coordination

"Hamas and Israel unite against Arafat," wrote Pravda.ru, an online Russian publication, on April 4.

"What is the power that the Israeli Prime Minister stakes on? No matter how strange it may seem, he has chosen Hamas." The author then reviews the history of Hamas, from its founding by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Dec. 14, 1987 on the basis of two Islamic groups, which were officially registered as cultural and educational movements. "Hamas consists of political and fighting organizations.... There are shahid groups in Hamas, consisting of young suicide terrorists between the ages of 18-27, mostly from poor families. Israel believed the terrorists to be a counterbalance to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat, which is why Israel has rendered financial support to the terrorist group for a very long period."

The author continues: "...Israeli special services established contacts with the Islamic spiritual leaders in 1982-1983. In the beginning, no acts of terrorism or kamikaze were spoken about at all. Islamic organizations were occupied with philanthropy, opened mosques, hospitals, kindergartens and libraries. Spiritual leader of Muslim brothers Sheikh Ahmed Yassin launched a weekly program on Israeli television to call upon Palestinians to reconcile to their fate and devotion to the religion. The program was often used to blame Arafat's gang, the so-called Tunisian mafia 'living in luxurious hotels and drinking much wine.'"

In 1987, the first Intifada, this changed, as Yassin created Hamas as a military division.

The author writes that "two bitter enemies"--Sharon and Hamas--"are ready to conclude an armistice against the third one, namely, Yasser Arafat." That this is not a delirium, the author says, is shown by the following: "Israel, which has already declared its intention to liquidate centers of terrorism, does not disturb Hamas, which claims responsibility for several recent acts of terrorism. This is rather strange...."

In fact, EIR has for many years exposed the role of Sharon and his cohorts in promoting Hamas.

Israeli Peace Camp on Full Mobilization

According to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz on April 5, the Israeli peace movement has been on full mobilization since Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched his war on the West Bank. The movement is in fact confident that within six weeks they will be able to organize a massive demonstration in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on the level of the large demonstrations held during the Lebanon war.

The two major peace coalitions, called the Peace Coalition and the more far left-wing Coalition of the 9th of February, have been holding rolling street campaigns throughout Israel. At weekly demonstrations in front of Sharon's house in Jerusalem, demonstrators chant, "Stop Sharon's war," while more left-wing demonstrators chant "Sharon is a war criminal," "Tanks out," and "International intervention now."

The signers of the "Refusal to Serve" letter by Army Reservists are increasing in numbers, and now stand at 411.

One major problem the movement is facing is an almost complete blackout in the Israeli media. Their demonstrations are never covered in the press, despite the fact that even the routine ones number in the hundreds and thousands. Even an event last Dec. 28 involving 2,000 participants, including members of the Knesset (Parliament), foreign diplomats, and members of the Palestinian Authority, was not covered by Israeli media.

Qatari Professor Calls on Arabs To Support LaRouche

Dr. Ahmed Kedidi, professor at the University of Qatar, wrote an op-ed in the Dubai-based daily Al-Bayan on April 9 under the title "Is all of America against us, or only part of it?", referencing the paradoxical history of the establishment of the United States and its current policies. He concludes: "We Arabs are confronted by a strange and very special historical phenomenon, because in America there are people who support our just causes, especially the Palestinian cause, and they oppose the current American policy of limitless support to a Nazi crime. Today, as I was writing this article, I received an e-mail message from my American friend Lyndon LaRouche, the internationally celebrated economist and Democratic pre-candidate for the U.S. Presidential elections. LaRouche, commented on Bush's [last Thursday] recent speech, saying that the speech is a blank check for Sharon to kill Arafat. LaRouche stressed that the Arab and Islamic leaders should support the demands of their peoples in opposing the U.S. and Israeli policies, because these are Nazi policies targeting a peaceful population, and targeting international peace and security."

Dr. Kedidi refers to other points in the EIR-Arabic press release, which carried LaRouche's assessment of Bush's speech, then concludes: "The U.S. Administration, 60% of the Congress, and the American mass media are enemies of our causes. But, there are many groups that are not victims of the Zionist influence. The question is: What have we Arabs done to build a bridge to these live consciences and moral people who are waiting for us to be heard and who want to support us?"

Kedidi, finally, uses a very strong statement: "America, in this sense, is a virgin. But we are sitting here impotently. Where is our Arab grand strategy of mass media campaigns in the U.S.? Where are our ties with the Arab-American community? Is it surprising, then, that America is against us?"

LaRouche's assessment of Bush's April 4 speech has been widely circulating in the Arab world, and has produced reactions by many writers.

Mass Upsurge So Far in Islamic Nations Is Only the Beginning

Since the Sharon blitzkrieg against the West Bank, starting Good Friday, millions of Islamic and Arab citizens have demonstrated against the genocidal assault, and U.S. government support for it. Some of these demonstrations coincided with the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Arab capitals, thus serving as reinforcement for the unusually frank messages which these Arab leaders--such as the King of Morocco and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak--conveyed to the U.S. representative.

At Powell's first stop, in Rabat, Morocco, April 8, over 1 million people demonstrated, two days in a row, to protest U.S.-Israeli policy. King Mohammed VI told Powell pointblank that, if he were serious about stopping the carnage, he would have gone straight to Jerusalem, instead of taking his time with several interim stops. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, also in Morocco, told Powell that U.S. credibility was crumbling.

The following day, Powell landed in Cairo, where 20,000 students demonstrated at the university, burning Israeli and U.S. flags. On April 5, during Friday prayers at Al Azhar, angry mobs attacked the person leading the prayers, who had called for a UN resolution to deal with the ongoing aggression against Palestinians. Eyewitnesses reported that this was unprecedented, and the man feared for his life. In Egypt, sources report the rift between the government and the population to be widening.

The view among elite circles in Egypt, is that nothing substantial will come of Powell's trip, which is seen as merely cosmetic, and timed to allow Sharon to continue his butchery. The expectation in Cairo is that "the worst is yet to come." Most expect an expansion of the war against Lebanon and Syria, and do not exclude that Israel would try to reoccupy the Sinai.

Under these circumstances, of course, the pressure from the population, which sees directly the television images of Israeli butchery against Palestinians, is going to get more intense, leaving the choice for these governments to be overthrown, or to move more strongly in solidarity with their populations, against U.S. policy.

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