In this issue:

LaRouche Briefs European Audience on How To Prevent Iraq War

No Automatic War With Iraq on Agenda, Says Bush Official

Israel's Likud Party Elections: Two Disasters for the Price of One

Mitzna Greets Poll Projections with 'Characteristic Confidence'

IDF Shootings Kill UNWRA Worker, Ramadan Drummer

From Volume1, Issue Number 39 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Dec. 2, 2002
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

LaRouche Briefs European Audience on How To Prevent Iraq War

Lyndon LaRouche spoke to the Casa d'Europa in Milan, a national Italian business, professional, and political organization concerned with issues of economic integration in Europe, on Nov. 23. Opening the morning panel of the group's conference, LaRouche explained his role in guiding the institution of the U.S. Presidency, in preventing an Iraq war. See more in LATEST FROM LAROUCHE.

No Automatic War With Iraq on Agenda, Says Bush Official

Another testimony to the success of Lyndon LaRouche's work with the institution of the Presidency: The White House rejects the "Chickenhawk" demand to go to war over the contents of Iraq's forthcoming Dec. 8 report to the UN Security Council. Instead, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer made clear on Nov. 26 that Iraq's claims in that report would be evaluated by subsequent UN weapons inspections.

Fleischer was ostensibly responding to a question which asked: "Tomorrow they're going to be actually doing the first of their inspections. Is there any message to the inspectors? Is there any message to the Iraqis?"

He replied: "The President's message to both the inspectors and the Iraqis is that the Iraqis need to disarm for the sake of peace. And the President is pleased that the United Nations has passed a strong resolution that will allow the inspectors to have more tools to do their jobs to verify that Saddam Hussein has disarmed.

"Iraq has until Dec. 8 to list their weapons of mass destruction, per the United Nations Security Council resolution. And after Dec. 8, that will begin a process where we will find out whether the Iraqis told the truth or not. So they have this date that is approaching. After that date, a process begins. And the President wants to make certain that process leads to two things: one, the truth, and the truth must lead to disarmament."

White House Official Suggests U.S. Supports a Nuclear-Free Zone in Middle East

On Nov. 22, in Washington, D.C., John Bellinger, Legal Adviser to the National Security Council and Senior Associate Counsel to the President, addressed a meeting of the American Bar Association's committee on national security law, and presented the Bush Administration's "decade of defiance" case against Saddam Hussein.

EIR's Ed Spannaus asked Bellinger: "You spoke of the importance of enforcing the UN resolutions. One of the resolutions that you cited, I believe it's 687, calls for the entire region to be free of weapons of mass destruction. And that, of course, is seen as applying as well to Israel, which, it is well known, has at least a couple of hundred nuclear warheads. One of the problems that we have in that region, is that the U.S. is seen as having a double standard, enforcing resolutions against some countries, but not against others. So would this Administration call for the enforcement of that provision against all countries in the region?"

"That provision for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East has been included in a number of different UN Security Council resolutions, that the U.S. has signed up to," Bellinger responded. "It was not included in the new one, because the focus on this one--although previous resolutions that included that, were recalled," Bellinger added, referring to the UN practice of "recalling," or citing, a previous resolution in a resolution under consideration. "But this current resolution focussed attention on Iraq, and the threat that is posed by Iraq."

Israel's Likud Party Elections: Two Disasters for the Price of One

Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon beat former Prime Minister (and current Foreign Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu in the Likud Party election for party chairman, winning with a vote of 55.88% to 40.08%. Moshe Feiglin, often referred to as a "Jewish fascist" or "Jewish Nazi," got 3.46% But with such a vote Feiglin, a terrorist-linked radical who wants to "ethnically cleanse" Israel by driving out all Arabs and Palestinians from lands west of the Jordan River, just might make it fairly high on the Likud's Knesset list and end up in the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) after the national elections in January.

In his efforts to outflank Netanyahu, one of Sharon's election campaign slogans was, "Two for the Price of One," meaning if you vote for Sharon, he will promise to give Netanyahu a high position in his government. The reality was "Two Disasters for the Price of One."

Although Sharon's victory is being touted as a "crushing" defeat for Netanyahu, only 45% of the party members actually voted. In fact, the Palestinian attack on the voting station in Beit She'an, on Thursday afternoon, is most likely what saved the day for Sharon. Before the attack, only 20% of the party's members had voted. Sharon hastily called a press conference, flanked by his new Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and his good buddy, the commander of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, to make an "impassioned plea" for voters to come out to vote, and not to let terrorism stop the elections. Sharon's turning a national tragedy into an electoral circus, did not escape the attention of the press. Some press also noted that the presence of Gen. Halutz on the platform with leaders from the political echelon is illegal, because Halutz did not receive approval to appear from the Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff, as required by law.

Even the Beir She'an attack looks as if it could have been part of a twisted Sharon campaign strategy. According to reports in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, the Palestinian attack in Beit She'an was in revenge for the Israeli assassination of Ala Al-Sabar, commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade from the Jenin refugee camp, on Nov. 26, only two days before the election. The revenge attack was totally predictable, since such attacks have occurred after all of previous targetted assassination; a fact that Sharon and his generals know only too well.

Ha'aretz reported that Beit She'an was chosen by the Palestinians for attack because it was the town from which the Al-Sabar family had been ethnically cleansed in 1948. Ha'aretz wrote that the attackers did not know they were attacking a Likud polling station since the attack began at the neighboring bus terminal and moved to the polling station as the attackers pursued more victims. But the real question, which Ha'aretz did not ask, is: Did Sharon know about the Beit She'an-Al Sabar connection?

The terror attacks in Kenya no doubt also helped Sharon to mobilize voters, with his Defense Minister Mofaz, announcing how Israel will take vengeance on the perpetrators of the attacks.

There was also an element of vote fraud. Reportedly Sharon's campaign accused Netanyahu's people of hiding ballots made out for Sharon. After these accusations, new Sharon ballots suddenly "reappeared" at these stations.

Netanyahu appeared to have been a victim of his own attempts at vote fraud, because it seems the 100,000-plus new members whom his supporters signed up to the Likud did not vote. These new members were recruited from ultra-orthodox yeshivas, but when voting day came they were most likely told by their rabbis not to vote. It had been reported that Sharon had been losing sleep over these potential voters for Netanyahu, and it is now being suggested that donations were made to the yeshivas in question, in return for their keeping their people away from the polls.

The other form of vote fraud, which has been taken up in the Israeli press, are the "vote contractors," the local party bosses who, for money, will guarantee a certain number of votes. This vote fraud could have been paid out of millions of dollars in illegal donations which EIR has been exposing as coming from the U.S. Christian Zionist and rightwing Zionist sources in the U.S., as well as the Moonies. Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert is one of the key conduits through whom much of this money flows. His "surprise" endorsement of Sharon was seen more in terms of the money he could contribute for Sharon's campaign, than the number of votes. In return, Sharon has promised Olmert one of the more important Cabinet portfolios if Sharon wins the Jan. 28 national elections.

The question of the flows of money from outside Israel--especially from the U.S. Christian fundamentalists--is considered one of the most important factors in the general election.

Mitzna Greets Poll Projections with 'Characteristic Confidence'

Israeli Labor Party chairman Amran Mitzna, who is expected to be his party's Prime Minister candidate in January 2003, is displaying his "characteristic confidence" about the election, especially when challenged about the paradoxical results of the latest election poll. (But, as EIW has said before, election polls are often put out as a means of "creating," not measuring, public opinion.)

According to Ha'aretz, the polls show a large swing to the right, predicting a rightwing-religious bloc will get 64 seats out of 120 total, in the Knesset (parliamentary) elections. The poll gives the pro-peace camp, Labor and Meretz, a total of 37 seats, and 13 for the ultra-liberal Shinui Party.

But the same poll shows great uncertainty, with 47% of the respondents say they support unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (which is fanatically opposed by the right wing,) and 54% support evacuation of settlements, if the money that now supports settlements goes to projects within Israel--exactly as Mitzna is suggesting.

Of this, Mitzna said, "These figures definitely match my assessment of reality. When it comes to parties, there has of course been a rightward swing, but politically--the public expresses support for my program. And that's precisely what we'll be trying to do in the coming months: to find the common denominator between these two trends."

Again showing voters' nervousness, 60% of the self-identified Likud voters want a national unity coalition with Labor, because they are "nervous about how their leader would perform as the head of a narrow rightwing coalition" (i.e., they feel concern at Sharon's bloodlust for war.)

On a unity government, Mitzna said, "If there is an agreement on separation, then we'll have something to talk about." But he doesn't believe Sharon is prepared to make peace. "I really doubt it. I am very skeptical, and don't believe what he says. He has never expressed any real readiness for this. He is always creating the impression that he is about to do something, but he has no plan, no goal, no real alternative for coping with the difficult reality we face. He had 20 months ... but he didn't do anything. In the upcoming elections, we'll see exactly what he and his government did."

IDF Shootings Kill UNWRA Worker, Ramadan Drummer

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) dismissed Israel's version of the fatal shooting on Nov. 22 of Iain Hook, a British consultant to the agency who was operating in the Jenin refugee camp during an Israeli incursion. An UNWRA spokesman in Geneva stated Nov. 26 that Hook was hit in the back with a single bullet, at a time when there was no military action in the area of the UNRWA compound.

Moreover, UNRWA declared the Israeli version of events "incredible." The agency denied Israeli claims that Palestinian gunmen were in the UN compound when Hook emerged and was shot dead. Rather, UNRWA reported that Hook was holding a cell phone, which he was using to try to evacuate UN staff, while a gun battle raged in the area of the Jenin camp. UN spokesman Paul McCann underscored that the Israeli report is false: "In fact, it is quite clear from our inquiry so far that this report of firing from the compound is totally incredible...."

Israeli sources told EIR that the Hook killing was part of an intentional policy on the part of the Israeli military to repress UNWRA. The organization was founded by the UN after 1948 and is the key organization supplying aid to Palestinian refugees, including food and housing. UNRWA keeps records, and issues reports on Israeli blockades, curfews, attacks on and interference with ambulances and other health-care facilities.

Now it is reported that Israeli military surrounded the house of an UNWRA employee and arrested her husband. A UN spokesman said, "An armed raid on the house of Allegra Pacheko, an UNWRA staff member, and degrading treatment of her and her spouse is disruptive of her ability to carry out her official functions." Pacheko is not only the legal adviser of UNWRA, but an American citizen. She told IslamOnline that her husband "Abed's arrest is a clear example of the Israeli policy of collective punishment." Abed is a former field worker for B'tselem and the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, well-known human rights groups.

On Nov. 28, a further escalation in IDF killings of civilian, relief, and religious figures took place, as Israeli troops shot and killed a Ramadan drummer in a refugee camp near Nablus. The role of the drummer during Ramadan, is to wake the Muslim faithful at 3 a.m. so they can eat before sunrise, after which they must fast until sunset. Jihad Natour, a 22-year-old unemployed carpenter, was loudly banging on a drum and singing, when he was shot and died in the street. The IDF refused to allow an ambulance to get to him. His partner was beaten by Israeli soldiers.

Ramadan drummers are so loud--since they are trying to wake people up--that anyone approaching would know exactly what they are doing. "This is the height of brutality, because they are attacking our culture, our customs," said a Palestinian librarian to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. "The drummer is the most beautiful thing we have during Ramadan.... the children all listen for his voice and wake up to have a meal so they are not hungry all day. I'd never heard such a nice voice as Jihad had."

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