MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST
EIR Releases 'Ariel Sharon: Profile of an Unrepentant War Criminal'
Executive Intelligence Review, the weekly magazine founded by Lyndon LaRouche in 1974, has issued a website dossier on Ariel Sharon, which includes documentation of EIR's groundbreaking exposés of Sharon's crimes going back to 1982. The profile, which can be accessed by visiting the homepage of EIR magazine, www.larouchepub.com, provides links to EIR's originial stories from EIR magazine and Special Reports. The introduction to the dossier, appearing in the IN DEPTH section of Electronic Intelligence Weekly (EIW), this week, says: "EIR has 'written the book' on Sharon's blood-soaked career for over 30 years (see 1994 Profile). As a service to the current worldwide debate on his government's fascist actions, we provide this summary dossier on the Israeli mass murderer. This summary is linked to a compendium of earlier exposés of Sharon and his partners in crime."
Sharon's Warmongers Mass Troops at Gaza and Egypt Border
On May 10, Egypt's State Information Service reported that President Hosni Mubarak sent two urgent messages to U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, calling on them to stop the Israeli drive to launch military actions against the Gaza Strip. Israel Defense Forces (IDF), had already deployed, as of Mah 8, with tanks around Palestinian population centers on the border with Egypt.
Writing in the May 9 edition of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, senior Israeli military commentator Ze'ev Schiff asserted, "It is clear that a large-scale military operation in the major Palestinian population centers in Gaza would entail fierce fighting and heavy losses on both sidesparticularly among Palestinian civilians...." Unlike the relatively small refugee camps in the West Bank, such as Jenin with its 13,000 residents, the Gaza Strip has five huge camps, each one of them home to almost 100,000 residents. Each camp is larger than the Warsaw Ghetto, which had 60,000 Jewish residents when it was attacked by the Nazi SS in April of 1943.
Israeli opposition leader Yossi Sarid of the Meretz Party denounced the pending attack: "An incursion into the Gaza refugee camps would invite Jenin-like tragedies and could exact a bloody price from Israel." By May 10, Ha'aretz reported that there appeared to be doubts in the Israeli army over an all-out assault on the Gaza Strip, with some expressing the concern that such a move would appear to many international observers as a Warsaw Ghetto-style attack.
One senior officer was quoted as saying, "Tanks going into Gaza will leave a lot of damage, even if we don't mean to do so. If they tell us to go, we'll follow orders, but that won't reduce our questions about the wisdom of the order." But despite such doubts, no troops have been pulled back.
In addition, the Jerusalem Post reported May 9 on a number of cross-border incidents involving Egyptians. An Egyptian soldier was hit in the thigh by a bullet from IDF soldiers on the Israeli side of the border on May 8. At least 10 Egyptians, including a woman allegedly carrying explosives, have tried to cross the border during the past six weeks to fight for the Palestinians. On April 15, a man was shot dead by Israeli troops while trying to cross the frontier to join the Palestinians, but no circumstances are known.
Ha'aretz Specialist: Sharon Was Preparing To Assassinate Arafat and Trigger Regional War
Senior Israeli military correspondent Ze'ev Schiff, writing in the May 10 Ha'aretz, asked: Why did Sharon comply so quickly when the U.S. demanded that he lift the siege on Arafat, as opposed to when President George W. Bush demanded that he withdraw from the Palestinian control areas? Schiff answered his own question: "What went on behind the scenes here? It turns out that Bush's insistence in this case was based on information obtained by U.S. intelligence that Sharon was determined to break into the compound and arrest or liquidate the assassins of former Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, capture the official who was responsible for organizing the Iranian arms-smuggling operation on the Karine A, and also take the opportunity to nab Arafat and expel him from the territories.... The Americans were concerned that something might go wrong in the operation, and Arafat might get killed in the process. That event, they believed, could have the effect of inflaming the region. Egypt and Jordan would be obliged to react against Israel, and both countries would undoubtedly suspend certain elements of their peace treaties...."
According to Schiff, the U.S. feared Egypt would close the Suez Canal to Israeli navigation. Also, a senior Jordanian official warned the U.S. at the time, that Jordan would have to make a demonstrative move. The U.S. also feared that a "second front" could open up on the Israeli-Lebanon border, and with Syria. Schiff wrote that, "From remarks made by Sharon that have not been made public, Washington knew that Sharon does not attach much importance to an Egyptian reaction against Israel, and that if the Syrians provoked Israel through Hezbollah, they would be dealt with forcefully.
"Bush's advisors recommended to the President that he act promptly to prevent this chain of events...."
Schiff was in Washington, D.C. in late April, where he observed firsthand the fanatics of the U.S. Israeli lobby and top Israeli officials at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC), demanding Arafat's head. Schiff was one of the speakers at an AIPAC seminar on the question of what would follow Arafat for the Palestinians.
Israeli Military Copies East German Stasi, in Addition to Nazi SS
"Since Wednesday, the Israelis have placed two enormous cranes dominating the [Nativity] Basilica [in Bethlehem] with a laser and a machine gun on top: When the laser detects a movement in the area, the machine gun shoots with deadly precision," wrote Corriere della Sera correspondent Lorenzo Cremonesi on May 2. The new IDF device, which is fully automatic (without human intervention), is in the tradition of the infamous East German automatic shooting devices along the Wall between East and West Berlin, put in place by the Stasithe East German secret police.
Arab Nations Keep Pressure on Washington: Why Do We Need a New Peace Conference?
Despite George W. Bush's "charm campaign" to woo Arab leaders, from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, to Morocco's King Mohammed, to Jordan's King Abdullah II, the key Arab leaders are not relenting on their perspective that there is no military solution to the Middle East, and Sharon and the Israeli assaults must be stopped. Several developments this week show that Bush's call for a peace conference is mere hollow rhetoric.
*On May 4, the Arab League's Secretary General, Amr Moussa, stated, "How could we think about such a conference while Israel is still occupying the Palestinian territories? What is the authority and agenda of this conference?" The statement came one week before Arab League Foreign Ministers will be meeting in Cairo.
*In statements, several Arab leaders, including Saudis, made clear they do not support the Bush Mideast conference proposal. They believe that such a conference could only be useful if it negotiates a final, two-state settlement, including the status of Jerusalem. Otherwisethe concept of land for peace was already agreed on at Madrid, and Oslo. What is needed, they think, is to implement what has already been agreed upon, not to replace it with some new formula. "What are we going to negotiate on?," asks Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian analysts say that if there is still no peace ten years after Madrid, what would a new conference do? One Syrian commentator asks whether it is reasonable to believe that the the United States, which has failed to make the Israelis withdraw from territories they occupied a month ago, will now make them withdraw from all the territory they have occupied ever since 1967, as the Abdullah Plan, for example, would require.
The Saudis are publicly silent, reported the New York Times on May 6, but they think that negotiations should be carried on by the two parties, and that a peace conference should not be mistaken for the objective. Asked about the conference, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal answered, "Well, really, the idea that came out from the quadripartite meeting is being looked at. The conference or a meeting is not an objective in itself; it depends on what that meeting includes. And until these ideas are cleared [up], I don't think we can give an opinion on that. But it is not a bad idea if the content is the proper content." Note also that he attributes the idea for this conference to the four-part meeting of the U.S., UN, EU, and Russia, rather than to the discussions in Texas between Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
Israeli Occupying Forces Condemned by UN General Assembly
In a 10-hour debate May 7, some 74 members of the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution condemning Israeli forces' assaults on Palestinians, and Israel's refusal to cooperate with the UN Security Council's special fact-finding mission to Jenin. The resolution also demands Israel cease all hindrances to the work of humanitarian organizations, and requests that the Secretary General investigate and report on the recent events in Jenin and other Palestinian cities.
Four nations opposed the resolution: the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia, while 54 nations, many of them European Union member nations, abstained. Russia's representative insisted that each paragraph of the resolution be voted on separately. The resolution said that the General Assembly,
"Gravely concerned at the extensive loss of the life and injuries suffered by the Palestinian people, as well as the destruction of both public and private property, including homes and institutions of the Palestinian Authority,
"Gravely concerned in particular about the reports of grave breaches of international humanitarian law committed in the Jenin refugee camp and other Palestinian cities by the Israeli opccupying forces,
"Expressing its profound cocnern at the dire humanitarian situation of the Palestinian civilian population, including the lack of access to food, water and medicines, owing to the Israeli siege and the attacks on Palestinian cities,
"Deploring the destruction of holy sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including mosques and churches, and expressing its expectation that the Israeli military seige on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem will end immediately, ...
"Deploring Israel's disregard for relevant Security Council resolutions, and stressing the need for full accountability in this regard, ...
"1. Condemns the attacks committed by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people in several ... cities, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp;
"2. Condemns also the refusal by Israel, the occupying Power, to cooperate with the Secretary-General's fact-finding team to the Jenin refugee camp, in disregard of Security Council resolution 1405; ...
"4. Demands the immediate and full implementation of Security Council resolution 1402;
"8. Calls for the provision of urgently needed assistance and services to help in alleviating the current humanitarian situation and reconstruction efforts..."
In TV Address, Arafat Demands End to Terror Attacks on Israel
On May 7, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat gave a televised address, following the suicide bombing claimed by the Sharon-stooge Hamas. Arafat said, in Arabic, "I gave my orders and directions to all the Palestinian security forces to confront and prevent all terror attacks against Israeli citizens from any Palestinian side or parties...." One day later, in Washington, President George W. Bush, welcomed the statement by Arafat, noting that it was important that it was in Arabic, and that he himself had read the statement, in English translation (see U.S. NEWS DIGEST).
Arafat added that the Palestinian Authority's forces were now too weak to carry out his orders, after Israel had attacked and assassinated PA personnel. He appealed to the United States and other nations for help to his forces, so they could carry out his orders. Estimates of the cost of the devastation caused by the Israeli assault on the West Bank areas is $600-800 million.
Middle East Policy in Washington: The Congressional Factor
With the "Mad Hatters" of the House of Representatives leadershipTom DeLay and Dick Armeyexposing themselves as religious fanatics calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Holy Land, the U.S. Congress and Senate exhibited shameful cowardice in voting up separate "Solidarity with Israel" resolutions on May 2.
The resolutions condemned Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, but, despite massive pressure from constituents against the Israeli military attacks, there was no similar condemnation of Israeli actions. The vote reflects the power of the blackmail pressure coming from the neo-Conservative/Christian Zionist (fundamentalists)/Israeli lobby billionaires block (Mega).
The vote was officially 94-2 in the Senate and 352-21 in the House, but there was far more opposition than reported in the media, reflected in those who voted "Present" or were "Absent" from the vote. The following are the members of Congress who did not vote "yes":
In the Senate. Voting NO: Byrd (D-WVa), and Hollings (D-SC). Not Present: Bennett (R-Utah), Bunning (R-Ky), Helms (R-NC), Torricelli (D-NJ).
In the House. Voting NO: Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Hilliard (D-Ala), Obey (D-Wisc), Bonior (D-Mich), Inslee (D-Wash), Paul (R-Texas), Boucher (D-Va), Jackson (D-Ill), Petri (R-Wisc), Condit (D-Calif), Kleczka (D-Wisc), Rahall (D-WVa), Conyers (D-Mich), Lee (D-Calif), Rohrabacher (R-Calif), DeFazio (D-Ore), McKinney (D-Ga), Smith, Nick (R-Mich), Dingell (D-Mich), Miller, George (D-Calif), Stark (D-Calif).
Voting "PRESENT" (not voting in favor): Baldwin (D-Wisc), Kaptur (D-Ohio), Peterson (D-Minn), Barr (R-Ga), Kilpatrick (D-Mich), Rivers (D-Mich), Becerra (D-Calif), Kind (D-Wisc), Sabo (D-Minn), Bishop (D-Ga), Kucinich (D-Ohio), Sanders (I-Vt), Brown, Sherrod (D-Ohio), McDermott (D-Wash), Solis (D-Calif), Capuano (D-Mass), Mink (D-Hawaii), Thompson, M. (D-Calif), Clayton (D-NC), Mollohan (D-WVa), Thurman (D-Fla), Farr (D-Calif), Moran, Jim (D-Va), Watt (D-NC), Hostettler (R-Ind), Oberstar (D-Minn), Woolsey (D-Calif), Jones, Steph. (D-Ohio), Payne (D-NJ).
Not Voting: Bereuter (R-Neb), Fattah (D-Pa), Riley (R-Ala), Bilirakis (R-Fla), Hoekstra (R-Mich), Ros-Leht. (R-Fla), Brown, C. (D-Fla), Hooley (D-Ore), Roukema (R-NJ), Burton (R-Ind) Istook (R-Okla), Stenholm (D-Texas), Callahan (R-Ala) Jefferson (D-La), Sullivan (R-Okla), Cannon (R-Utah) Jenkins (R-Tenn), Taylor, C (R-NC), Cantor (R-Va) John (D-La), Thompson, B (D-Miss), Cooksey (R-La), McHugh (R-NY), Traficant (D-Ohio), Crane (R-Ill), Millender-McD (D-Calif), Wamp (R-Tenn), Dooley (D-Calif), Murtha (D-Pa), Young (D-Fla), Everett (R-Ala), Oxley (R-Ohio).
In the May 2 Congressional Record, the statements by voting members on House Resolution 392, indicate some serious questions about Israeli actions, even from those who eventually voted in favor of the resolution. Some said that Israel is not Sharon, and attacked Sharon, others that the resolution was unbalanced and didn't serve a quest for peace, and others that it was bad timing to introduce a resolution when the Administration was involved in negotiating. (In fact, the White House had asked Tom DeLay to pull the House resolution off the table, and not have it voted on, because of the danger that it would disrupt Mideast negotiations.)
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