MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST
Secret Talks with Israel Threaten U.S. National Security
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feitha notorious member of the "X Committee" that was long associated with the espionage of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollardis now plotting with Sharon government officials to put U.S. national security in the hands of Israeli intelligence. Sharon was one of the leading officials who ran the "off the reservation" Israeli operation that ran Pollard until he was arrested in 1985.
Two of Israel's rightwing fascists, Brig Gen. David Tzur, and Minister of the Interior Uzi Landau, held secret meetings this week with Bush Administration officials led by Feith to discuss merging U.S. and Israeli functions in a a single office, reported the Washington Times on June 29 in an article called, "U.S., Israel Discuss Joint Terror Office."
As reported in the Washington Times, this joint U.S.-Israel counter-terror office, "to be in Washington, would monitor an almost instantaneous communications link between the proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Defense and the Israeli government on matters of homeland security. Visa policies, terrorist profiles and virtually all other internal security dataexcept classified intelligencewould be swapped by computer, fax and telephone."
Landau, in an interview with the Washington Times, declared that "Israel is a laboratory for fighting terror." He claimed that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa) are active boosters of the scheme. Weldon confirmed that he is proposing such a joint U.S.-Israeli office as the centerpiece of broader legislation he is drafting, along with Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz) and Rep. Jane Hartman (D-Calif). Weldon said, "We have laid out a strategy for increased cooperation with Israel. The U.S.-Israeli office would be run by a point person in the new Homeland Defense Department." A Defense Department official confirmed that there had been a closed-door meeting on Thursday, June 27 with the two Israeli officials, and that the meeting was attended by Feith (a member of the Wolfowitz cabal)who was recently in Israel on another top-level Pentagon mission. Both Landau and Gen. Tzur confirmed that the proposal for the new D.C. office came from the Israeli government.
Landau, describing the meeting with Feith, could not contain his enthusiasm about the new level of Israeli penetration of the U.S. national security structures: "I felt like a member of the same family. We're all facing the same problem of terror." While in the U.S., Landau addressed a New York gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Arab-Americans Horrified by Joint Israeli-U.S. Office
Asked by the Washington Times to comment on the proposal for a joint U.S.-Israeli homeland security office in Washington, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, "It's bizarre beyond belief. It would suggest to us an 'Israelization' of American politics." He asked, "What message is sent when our legislators begin tying our national security to a foreign country engaged in a brutal occupation? Is it Israel and America against the rest of the world?"
Arafat Puts Forward His Peace Proposal for America
The following is brought to EIW from Neue Solidaritaet's "Till Eulenspiegel" column. Neue Solidaritaet is the German-language newspaper of the LaRouche movement:
June 26 (NS)The recent controversial speech on the Mideast by U.S. President George W. Bush has been received and reported by the media all over the world. However, less well known, is that there was another speech on Mideast policy, which Palestinian President Yasser Arafat delivered not long before, in which hejust as Bush did later to the Palestinian peopledirectly addressed the American population. Fortunately, the "Till Eulenspiegel" editorial staff has obtained a copy of the Arafat speech, and we can report to you on some of its more notable features.
Arafat began by addressing the impact on the international community, of the U.S. strategy for a "clash of civilizations," and the well-advanced preparations for a military attack on Iraq and other countries. He stated:
"For too long, the citizens of the many nations have lived in the midst of death and fear. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage.... And this casts a dark shadow over the entire world. For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the United States."
On this basis, he put forward a fundamental proposal: "Peace requires a new and different American leadership.... I call on the American people to elect new leaders."
However, measures must be taken to ensure that these elections are not fixed, Arafat noted. This indicates his awareness of the reports of independent observers from the U.S. and the international community on the 2000 Presidential elections, especially in primaries where Lyndon LaRouche was a candidate, and in the state of Florida.
Arafat proposed: "I call upon the American people, to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the American people actively pursue these goals, Palestine and the world will actively support their efforts. And Palestine, along with others in the international community will help the Americans organize and monitor fair elections by the end of the year."
Referring to the fact that U.S. politics are notoriously financed, in the main, through murky contributions from Wall Street firms and oil multis, such as Enron, as well as from dubious political lobbies, rather than from representative organizations committed to the general welfare, Arafat further noted: "Today, the elected American government has no authority, and power is concentrated in the hands of an unaccountable few. The American people are gifted and capable, and I am confident they can achieve a new birth for their nation. But it will be built through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled attempt to preserve the status quo. True reform will require entirely new political and economic institutions."
The ever-worsening economic and financial crisis, and its social impact on the United States, were clearly addressed, if in an understated manner: "Today, the American people live in economic stagnation, made worse by official corruption. A true American state will require a vibrant economy, where honest enterprise is encouraged by honest government. The Palestinians stand ready to work with America on a major project of economic reform and development. Palestine is willing to oversee reforms in American finances, encouraging transparency and independent auditing."
Arafat addressed the widespread abuses in the U.S. judicial system, which have been exacerbated by the police state measures introduced by Attorney General John Ashcroft after Sept. 11. "Today, the American people lack effective courts of law and have no means to defend and vindicate their rights. An American state will require a system of reliable justice to punish those who prey on the innocent. Palestine and members of the international community stand ready to work with U.S. leaders to establish, finance, and monitor a truly independent judiciary."
As to the obvious problems of the many American media and law enforcement agencies, which urgently reuqire reform, he noted: "It will require an externally supervised effort to rebuild and reform the American security services. The security system must have clear lines of authority and accountability and a unified chain of command."
Towards the close of his speech, Arafat broadened his vision, from a rebirth in America, to a renewal of the entire Christian world: "I have a hope for the people of Christian countries. Your commitments to morality, and learning, and tolerance led to great historical achievements. And those values are alive in the Christian world today. You have a rich culture, and you share the aspirations of men and women in every culture. Prosperity and freedom and dignity are not just Palestinian hopes, or hopes of the Islamic world. They are universal, human hopes. And even in the violence and turmoil in the United States, Palestine believes those hopes have the power to transform lives and nations."
We are astonished to hear that rumors are circulating, that the Arafat speech is not authentic, and merely a satiric rendition of President Bush's speech with "American" and "Palestinian" reversed. Given the intensity with which U.S. police authorities are listening in on any and every statement made in Arabic everywhere in the world, it stands to reason that Chairman Arafat's speech was listened in on by an FBI agent, sent to Washington for decoding, and ended up in the President's speechwriting department by mistake.T.E.
Sharon Wearing Makeup All the Time
How much pancake makeup does it take to cover up corpulent Ariel Sharon's war crimes? Bush's "Man of Peace," Sharon, is ridiculed in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz by commentator Yoel Marcus, in a June 25 article called, "Give Us Answers, Not Makeup." Marcus takes on Sharon's hypocrisy in visiting of the site of a recent suicide bomb attack. This is the first time since coming to office that Sharon visited a site where a terror attack occurred, unlike when he was in the opposition and unlike previous Prime Ministers. Marcus added that Sharon came to the site fully made up for TV cameras, and quoted a Ma'ariv journalist who revealed, "Sharon never leaves his house without makeup. What's he worried about at his age? That someone will see his wrinkles?"
"Recent public opinion surveys show that the public's love affair with Sharon is over," adds Marcus. "More people are worried about security and the economic situation. More people believe he has no solution to Israel's economic and defense problems. More people want a different Prime Minister. Blind faith in Sharon is evaporating. From the roof of the Prime Minister's office on a clear day, even he can see the end of his career."
Bonds Collapse, Bank of Israel Hikes Interest RatesAgain!
Israeli money is fleeing the country so fast that Bank of Israel Governor David Klein on June 23 increased interest rates again by 2% to an incredible 9.1%. This is the third rate hike within four weeks, since the hikes haven't stopped the flow out of the shekel and into the dollar. The rate is still 4.9502 to the dollar, a very slight rise.
The hike follows a 23.4% rise in the money supply over the last 12 months, which puts the inflation forecast at 6%, way above the so-called government target of 2-3%. Some are forecasting an inflation rate of 8% or 10% by the end of the year as being more realistic. The official inflation rate now is 4.9%.
Analysts are saying that the rate hike will not have a long-range curative effect on the economy, as the public has little confidence in the government's economic policies. This was seen quite dramatically in the collapse of the government bond market. The unindexed Shahar government bonds lost 2.5% on the average, after reaching 4.0% losses during trading. Since the beginning of the year, bond prices have shed some 20%, which has sent yields skyrocketing to 12.5%. This was spurred by large withdrawals from shekel-based mutual funds, which had to sell bonds to be able to repay savers. Some 500 million shekels were withdrawn on June 23, which is to be added to the 4-6 billion shekels already withdrawn from the beginning of the month. This is over $1.1 billion.
Short-term Treasury bills also lost, with yields jumping to 10.5%. Galil bond yields, which are linked to the Consumer Price Index, rose to 6%.
Just prior to the rate hike, interest rates on short-term loans had reached almost 10%.
Klein is desperately using the interest rate to stem the flow out of the shekel, but is having no success, even though Israeli interest rates are over four times higher than those in the United States. Ha'aretz economic commentator Avraham Tal says the real reason is that "the fear of a severe security crisis, with everything that involves, has until now been the main cause of the accelerated devaluation, and is liable to be a cause for its continuation. Business and private citizens are looking for a safe haven in the dollar in Israel and abroad. No raising of the interest rates, nor any additional cutback in the budget, will help to combat that...."
New, Bigger Sharon War Crimes Follow Bush's Blessing
On June 28, the Israel military blew up the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Hebron, knowing that 15 men were inside. This type of action has not been carried out since Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as commander of the infamous 101 Brigade in 1956, ordered troops to blow up every house in a West Bank village knowing women and children were still in the building. It is clear, and the IDF in effect admits it is, that this could not have been possible prior to President George Bush's speech endorsing Sharon's war aims on June 24. The building that they blew up was not a security headquarters but housed all the PA administration.
The Israeli Army released a statement: "The Army operated in the Palestinian security compound and detonated in a controlled manner part of the building where wanted Palestinians were taking refuge and refused to turn themselves in."
A military source made it clear that they have been given a free hand, telling Ha'aretz, "Unlike the previous casesthe siege of the muqata [Arafat's headquarters] in Ramallah and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehemthe situation this time is much less complicated. In Hebron, there are no civilians among those holed up inside, and there is no international interest in what is happening. We have all the time we need...."
The term "wanted Palestinians" has been used to identify any Palestinian who is killed. Although a PA official was sent into the building to see if anyone was there prior to the bombing, he said the building had sustained so much damage that it was impossible to tell. The siege of this compound has been going on for over a week, and since that time 700,000 Palestinians have been living under a lockdown curfew in Hebron.
Indyk Pushes New Colonialism Over Palestine
Martin Indyk, who now heads the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and who was a saboteur of President Clinton's Mideast peace efforts in the last Administration, penned an insane op ed in the June 29 Washington Post. In it, he called for the re-creation of the old British Imperial Mandate over Palestine, this time under U.S. control. Indyk argued that any effort to reinvigorate the peace process would be continually "swamped by continued Palestinian terrorist attacks and Israeli military responses." He laid out the following scenario: "Imagine the scenario in which suicide bombers succeed in killing a large number of Israeli civilians and Sharon decides, using the President's call for new leadership as cover, to evict Arafat from Palestine. This could leave a vacuum that radical forces would seek to fill, and might well generate instability in Jordan and Egypt, a Hezbollah-provoked Israeli-Syrian confrontation, and Iraqi suspension of oil supplies, which this time might tip the U.S. economy back into recession."
Based on this doomsday scenario, Indyk argues for a more radical solution: "an American-led trusteeship for Palestine." He detailed the scheme: A U.S.-led international group would take control over 42% of the West Bank and most of Gaza. An international conference would establish a Palestinian statebut only after a three-year trusteeship period had been completed, during which time the U.S.-led trustees would establish a Palestinian state to their liking. The U.S.-led force would replace the IDF in "policing the territories of the trusteeship." Indyk argued that the mandate proposal "has precedent in Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan and perhaps soon Iraq." In other words, Indyk is pushing for a much broader U.S.-led imperial reconquista of the entire Middle East region.
Recall that earlier this year, Sebastian Mallaby, a Washington Post syndicated columnist and former Washington bureau chief of the London Economist, penned an article in the Council on Foreign Relations journal, Foreign Affairs, in which he called for precisely such a U.S.-led mandate systemon a global scale, arguing that the imperial impulse was too great for President Bush to ignore.
LaRouche Comments on Indyk
Informed of the Martin Indyk op ed in Saturday's Washington Post calling for a U.S.-led new imperial mandate over Palestine, Lyndon LaRouche remarked, "If there is one thing that the Israeli government and I fully agree on, it is that Martin Indyk is an idiot!"
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