In this issue:

Colin Powell to Meet Palestinian Representatives in Washington

Israeli Historian: 'Israel Is Destroying Itself'

Syrian-born German Leader Karsli Attacks IDF Nazi-like Policy

Israel Adopts Nazi Policy of Punishing Families

Iran Targetted by Sharon/U.S. in 'Clash of Civilizations' Nightmare

Iran Will Respond to an Attack on Its Nuclear Plant

Iraqis Invite Head of U.N. Weapons Inspection Team

From the Vol.1,No.22 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

Colin Powell to Meet Palestinian Representatives in Washington

Colin Powell will meet with Palestinian representatives in Washington upon his return to the U.S.A., following the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Brunei, he told reporters in Bangkok, on July 29. Powell said the meeting "is part of our process of moving forward to help the Palestinian community transform itself." This would be the first U.S. meeting with Palestians representatives since President Bush's June 24 calling for the election of Palestinian leaders who are not "compromised by terror."

The Washington Post July 29 said the meeting is likely to be viewed as a victory for Powell and those in the State Department who have made no secret that they would prefer a more balanced approach, that would give the Palestinians more hope for a political solution.

Powell returns to the U.S. Aug. 4., and the meetings would take place Aug. 5-6. Although Powell told the press conference that he did not know who would represent the Palestinians, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he and Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh would attend. Informed Washington intelligence sources told EIR that the Sharon government, and the right wing of the U.S. Israeli lobby, are engaged in intensive "arm-twisting," in an attempt to force a cancellation of the meeting.

Israeli Historian: 'Israel Is Destroying Itself'

"Israel Is Destroying Itself," is the headline of an incisive commentary in the Aug. 2 German daily Die Welt, authored by leading Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld.

It will be recalled, in reading the following, that Lyndon LaRouche warned, already several months ago, that the policies of the Ariel Sharon government would end up destroying Israel.

Van Creveld writes: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.... In its criminal insanity, or its insane criminality, Israel appears fully resolved to destroy itself."

Van Creveld stresses that, even in its own terms, Sharon's policy of "absolute security" for Israel, has been a dismal failure. Since Sharon came to power a year and a half ago, some 450 Israelis have lost their lives, which, in proportion to overall population, would be comparable to 7,000 Germans dying. Three times as many Palestinians as Israelis have been killed, and the recent slaughter of a family in Gaza, is only making things worse.

In the meantime, "the consequences of this policy have reached the borders of being able to be sustained." Students have to spend increasing amounts of time running around in the occupied territories, on military duty, or in security jobs watching vital infrastructure. The currency, the shekel, which was formerly very strong, is collapsing, as is the economy overall. "In other words, Israel is expending its future, to pay for the present." The budget is being massively cut, unemployment is growing, and so on.

Another dreadful sign, is that among the "ultraright" in Israel, a "solution" to the problems is gaining support, which "in many ways, recalls what the German Army did in their occupied lands" during World War II.

And, the whole concept of rendering Yasser Arafat "insignificant," is only strengthening Hamas and Islamic Jihad, "which presents a danger not only for Israel, but for the entire world."

The only heroes in Israel now, insists van Creveld, are the military "Refuseniks," such as the 28-year-old David Sonnenschein, who is willing to risk a longer jail sentence than might otherwise be the case, so that he can bring out into the open, in court, why he is refusing to be part of the military operations in the Occupied Territories. Van Creveld is the author of an important work on the history of the Israeli Defense Forces called The Sword and the Olive.

Syrian-born German Leader Karsli Attacks IDF Nazi-like Policy

Former German Green Party politician Yamal Karsli blasted the policies of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), for their Nazi-like actions in the the Palestinian Territories. Syrian-born Karsli, whose struggle against the Green Party's leadership, and the media's pro-Sharon propaganda, sparked a heated controversy inside Germany several weeks ago, was the guest of honor at the Arab Democratic Party convention in Nazareth, in late July.

In an interview published in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz July 29, Karsli said that his harsh criticism, several weeks ago, of Israeli policy in the Palestine Territories, "never referred to the Israeli people or government as Nazi-like, only to army tactics in the occupied territories."

But he does consider Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres "war criminals," and holds that "it is shameful for the world that Peres still has the Nobel Peace Prize," Karsli said.

"I want peace and am ready to meet and work with anyone who wants peace. I do not reject the state of Israel, but for the Jews to live in security, they must let the Palestinians have their rights to an independent state," Karsli said. "Sharon's policies are that of a man of war, and cause suffering not only to the Palestinians but to the Jews themselves."

Israel Adopts Nazi Policy of Punishing Families

The Israeli intelligence service Shin Beth, and IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, say families of suicide bombers should "suffer" for the terrorists' actions. Senior Israeli military commentator for Ha'aretz Zev Schiff writes in the Aug. 2 issue, that there will be "much more aggressive Israeli measures" against "the families of suicide terrorists, specifically those who aided, abetted, or supported their relatives' terror missions. The Shin Beth is most agressive in demanding this measure and they are fully backed by ... Ya'alon."

Schiff says Ya'alon is "an enthusiastic supporter of house demolitions against the families, as well the expulsion of relatives." He also believes that "suicide bombers should know that suffering will follow their families for the rest of their lives." Schiff says that Ya'alon argues that punishing the families is "more moral" than closure and curfews against "millions of Palestinians." The expulsions and demolitions have already been carried out this week, and as many as several dozen more are planned. Accused family members are given several days to dispute the charge against them.

The house demolitions and the expulsions are just a step away from the proposal put out by U.S. attorney Nathan Lewin, a former U.S. Justice Department official in May 2002, when he called for the families of terrorists to executed en masse. Lewin, a supporter of the Likud, admitted that the Nazis used this policy against resisters, but insisted that the Israelis, unlike the Nazis, would be justified in doing it.

An article in the June 28 EIR reported that Jewish scholars in the United States reacted with outspoken revulsion to Lewin's proposal, made in the May 2002 issue of Sh'ma, an English-language journal. Brandeis University Prof. Arthur Green, the former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, wrote that his "first desire upon reading Lewin's essay was to 'tear my garments as a sign of mourning on hearing the desecration of God's name,' " according to the newspaper Forward on June 7. Many other Jewish leaders have joined this denunciation of Lewin.

Schiff also reveals in his Ha'aretz article, that Sharon's two emissaries in Washington last week—attorney Dov Wiessglass and Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski, the military liaison—were told in "firm" and "blunt" language by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that Israel must begin easing the conditions imposed on Palestinian civilians. However, Israel has taken no such action, and instead, begun new incursions into West Bank towns (see this week's InDepth for more Middle East coverage).

Iran Targetted by Sharon/U.S. in 'Clash of Civilizations' Nightmare

A leading British newspaper has reproached the Bush Administration for menacing Iran with the threat of war. The the London Guardian July 31 took Washington to task for endangering the reform process that is underway in that nation, in a prominent article entitled, "War on Iran Is the Next Nightmare." The Guardian says, "By demonizing, destabilizing, and threatening Iran, like Iraq, with violence, the U.S. foolishly obstructs this evolution, boosts the hardliners, and risks provoking a widening Middle East conflagration. At present, Iran is not a threat. Mr. Bush is."

Iranians, it says, have good reason to wonder whether their country may be next after Iraq, considering the following: that Iran is considered a rogue state, a member of Bush's "axis of evil," a supporter of Hezbollah, a harborer of al-Qaeda, and in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Since the Afghan war, the paper notes, Bush has cut off all contacts with Iran, and "the ostracism is total," especially, considering that another member of the so-called axis of evil, North Korea, is on Powell's diplomatic contact list. Now, with the U.S. military build-up in the region, and the pressure on Russia to halt nuclear energy cooperation with the Gulf state, Bush has come out with his bid for protestors to bring down the Khatami government.

"The clear implication of this extraordinary bit of meddling, was that Iran, like Iraq, must change—or face the (U.S.-dictated) consequences. Washington wants a second, secular Iranian revolution—and it wants it now."

The article goes on to acknowledge that the repression from the conservatives is all too evident, "but," it notes, "it does not go unchallenged," referring to the stance taken by Isfahan cleric Ayatollah Taheri and his "clarion call for peaceful social change." The paper also remarks that "social and civil reform will come, as surely as old men grow weak and die."

Iran Will Respond to an Attack on Its Nuclear Plant

In response to an alarming report in the Washington Post July 29, gloating that the Bush Administration had decided to "drop" all channels of discussion with Iranian "reformers," the Tehran Times stated that Iran will respond to any attack against its nuclear installations. The Post, which is closely linked to Ariel Sharon through Post heiress Lally Weymouth, had mooted U.S. and Israeli concerns about Iran's nuclear plant, and warned that there are circles ready to destroy it. The Times presents a list of nulcear plants around the world, along with their energy capacity, and observes that no one seems to be concerned about them.

"There are various reasons for the irrational U.S. objections to Iran's nuclear energy program, some of which are enumerated below," says the Tehran paper. These include, that Bush was elected illegitimately; that several big corporations have gone bankrupt since then; and that "Bush has to externalize these problems"; that the Afghan operation has failed; that "Bush is in trouble with regard to the Middle East"; and, that the U.S. has still not settled the Iraq problem. "Therefore, any insane move against Iran would only reflect the bankruptcy of U.S. diplomacy."

The article concludes: "Iran will not sit by idly and do nothing if its nuclear installations are attacked. Iran will take any measures it sees fit in such an event. It is a matter of national pride and security."

The moves by this U.S./Israeli war party would trigger a regional, if not global catastrophe. According to a well-informed Iranian source, several high-level politicians have stated recently that, if attacked, Iran would fight back. The gist of the statements is that, although Iran may not be militarily capable of defeating the U.S., it is capable of attacking U.S. interests outside Iran. The source recalled an article by German writer Scholl-Latour, following Sept. 11, that if the U.S. were to attack Iran, the result would be the unleashing of hostilities on a front from Morocco to Indonesia.

Iraqis Invite Head of U.N. Weapons Inspection Team

"The 'war party' in the United States has suffered a political defeat, now that the Iraqis have invited the chief UN weapons inspector [Hans Blix] in, and he has accepted," a leading Russian strategist told EIR on Aug. 2, just after the announcement came from Baghdad.

According to the Russian source, who had been briefed on Lyndon LaRouche's Presidential campaign intervention against the Lieberman-McCain duo, and their role in the "Clash of Civilizations" war, said, "This Iraqi move, which I have been fighting for, for six months, could well slow down the momentum toward a war. It will drive a wedge between the 'war party' in the U.S., and both the Arabs and Europeans, and should weaken the 'war party' in the U.S. itself. I think what Iraq has done, is extremely important."

In Washington, evidence that the Russian expert's observations of how the 'war party' was destabilized, became immediately evident. It would have been too blatant for the U.S. to demand that Blix turn down the invitation to talk to the Iraqi government. So, instead, a barrage of new anti-Iraq propaganda and disinformation came out on Friday, Aug. 2, following the announcement of the diplomatic initiative by Iraq. Among these developments:

*A "senior White House official" planted a story in the Los Angeles Times that there is a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, asserting—with no new information—that Iraqi intelligence officials met with Muhammed Atta, one of the alleged hijackers, in Prague, five months before 9/11. The story has been totally discredited, and denied by the Czech government, previously. Only the most fanatical and untrustworthy members of the cabal around Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz such as James Woolsey and Richard Perle, have continued to "ride that hobby horse."

*Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told reporters that there "must be" a preemptive strike against Iraq, since Saddam Hussein is building weapons of mass destruction.

*Bush spokesman Sean McCormack said that the Blix meeting with Iraq "doesn't change the Administration's position on the need to oust Saddam ... our policy remains the same since 1995, regime change." Other "sources" told Associated Press that this could be another "false promise." NSC spokesman Michael Anton added that the objective is not "inspections," because that is just a "means to the end of ensuring that Iraq disarms." He said that if Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, then they would not be objecting to to inspections.

Despite these provocative statements, plans for a meeting between UN Chief Inspector Blix and the Iraqi government continue.

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