Bush Cannot Make Excuses
for Sharon's Suicidal War
by Michele Steinberg
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., Democratic Presidential pre-candidate for 2004, is warning that the Bush Administration must not make any excuses for what Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is doing in the Dec. 2-8 attacks on Palestinians. "Sharon and the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] are determined to kill Arafat and to destroy the Palestinian Authority. We will not tolerate this," said LaRouche.
On Dec. 7, LaRouche further asserted that the present government in Israel represents currents inside Israel and abroad that must be judged as clinically insane. Even after the intervention by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin—who warned that unless there was a fundamental change in Israeli policy, the nation would soon cease to exist—those same suicidal policies were continued, and were, in fact, the driving factor behind Rabin's assassination. LaRouche emphasized that a government that pursues suicidal policies cannot be treated as sane. If Israel persists in its current policies, somewhere down the line, the result will be the destruction of Israel, and its vilification as a Hitler-like state.
LaRouche demanded the Bush Administration tell Sharon: Stop this Nazi-like policy toward the Palestinians, or the United States will come at you full force and crush you; such unequivocal action could stop Sharon's madness.
Killing The Palestinian Negotiators
At about 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, in defiance of appeals from Pope John Paul II and other leaders in the world community, Prime Minister Sharon escalated his attacks on the Palestinian Authority, ordering Israeli F-16s to bomb the police station and police academy of the Palestinian National Authority in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, in a show of Hitler-style insanity, Sharon demanded the same Palestinian police crack down on terrorism, while he is bombing their headquarters, stations, and prisons.
The new attacks came on Pearl Harbor day, just hours after Sharon's government had told U.S. envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni (ret.) that Israeli security officials would meet with their Palestinian security counterparts to begin discussing how to end the violence. The deceit is an exact replica of Sharon's behavior, then as Defense Minister, in Lebanon in 1982. The Israeli Prime Minister not only is pursuing an agenda for war: He also has a clear ulterior purpose in mind—a continuing vendetta to kill Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat, which dates back 20 years.
LaRouche emphasized that the Bush Administration and other leaders in the United States must have the courage to tell the truth, despite the U.S. mid-term elections next November and all the pressures from the right-wing Zionist lobby that go with them.
Sharon's actions, LaRouche said, are creating a Thirty Years War-type of situation, and the administration must not make apologies for Sharon and his IDF murder machine. The Israelis are bombing their own occupied population and carrying out systematic, pre-meditated assassination campaigns among them, and are violating every international resolution passed by the United Nations regarding Israel.
The Israeli people and institutions themselves must be told, said LaRouche, that "these madmen," Sharon and fellow Likud party leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are leading them and the nation of Israel to destruction. LaRouche compared the situation to that of Count Wallenstein in the middle of the Thirty Years War (1618-48), as described by the great poet Friedrich Schiller in his play of that name. Wallenstein, commander of Imperial ("Catholic") forces, was assassinated for his "unauthorized" search for peace with the Protestant alliance—guaranteeing nearly two decades more of war, and the absolute devastation of much of Europe.
LaRouche referred to the importance of the treaty that did end that war. "The Peace of Westphalia policy is what must be applied, now," LaRouche said. "It is the only policy which can rescue the situation."
Sharon 'Alliance With Hamas' Exposed
Inside Israel itself, evidence of opposition to Sharon's actions is showing up in the press. In fact, some are exposing that Sharon has a secret deal with Hamas, reporting that a stormy Cabinet meeting followed Sharon's return from the United States after meeting with President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. In the Cabinet session, members of Sharon's inner circle were pounding the table and telling Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that they intend to bring the deadly Hamas group that claimed credit for the suicide terrorist acts, into power to replace Arafat. At that point, led by Peres, Labor Party members of the governing coalition walked out of the meeting, and are now debating whether to bring down the Sharon government.
This Faustian pact with Hamas was detailed in a Dec. 4 Ha'aretz article by senior commentator Akiva Eldar, who revealed that at a Cabinet meeting, Minister Silvan Shalom blasted Peres for advocating "negotiations" with Arafat. Shalom stated, "Between Hamas and Arafat, I prefer Hamas," adding that Arafat is a "terrorist in a diplomat's suit, while Hamas can be hit unmercifully ... there won't be any international protests." The London Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch, one of Sharon's biggest backers, also reported that Sharon's Cabinet wants Hamas to replace Arafat.
Those familiar with the 30-years-long mode of operation of Israel's "Terror Against Terror" hit teams, dismiss the standard "preventive retaliation" explanation as calculated double-talk: The assassinations are pre-calculated to provoke revenge strikes from Hamas or other terrorists, which in turn unleash the IDF generals.
Bully The White House
These events in the Middle East should shock no one who has heard LaRouche's warnings that the region was being used to ignite a global religious war, by forces in the United States and Britain seeking such a "clash of civilizations." The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks had this purpose, and were an attempted coup d'état against President Bush. But already on July 20, LaRouche warned that the "Guns of August" were being readied, and that a faction inside the IDF command even more rabid than Sharon, might consider assassinating him, to blame Palestinians and justify launching a general Mideast war. Then on Oct. 21, LaRouche identified how the phony terrorism is used in detail. "Who benefitted from the assassination of [Tourism Minister Rehavam] Ze'evi?" wrote LaRouche. "None other than that section of the Israeli military command which is determined to bully the Bush administration into allowing, or even conducting full-scale attacks on Syria and Iraq."
And "bully the Administration" is what Sharon is doing, using the assets in Congress of the "billionaires club" of Jewish donors who call themselves "Mega."
Sharon claimed he got a "green light" from Bush to give Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. "the Taliban treatment." But Israeli sources expose this as a lie. On Dec. 5, Ha'aretz coorespondent Zev Schiff wrote that, in their meeting, Bush laid out a series of "red lines"—not "green lights"—to Sharon, warning him not to harm Arafat, nor topple the PA, which is the U.S.-recognized partner in the peace negotiations. Sharon is ignoring Bush and counting on Mega's politicial clout.
To further the Sharon/Mega aims, a resolution sponsored by Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), two of Sharon's biggest backers, was rammed through the House of Representatives by a vote of 384-11, to pressure Bush to crush Arafat in the name of a "war on terrorism." At the same time, ten members of Congress, including Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) sent a letter to Bush, demanding Iraq be made the next war target in the "war on terrorism."
Despite the broad margin, however, there is some clear-minded opposition, reflected in the warning by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), that this resolution pushes a policy for Israel and the United States that leads to world war.
