In this issue:

Leaders Call for Armed Peacekeepers in Mideast

Powell Asks Quartet To Help Salvage Israel-Palestine Peace

Israelis Start Dismantling Outposts; Settlers Reoccupy Them

Washington Times Highlights Israel-Hamas Link

Iraq Expert Tells EIR: 'Violence Everywhere'

OPEC Will Exclude Iraq as Long as U.S. Occupying Authority Is in Charge

Blix Blasts 'Bastards' He Says Tried To Undermine Him

Sharon: First Israeli PM To Be Brought Before Knesset Hearing

From Volume 2, Issue Number 24 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Tuesday, June. 17, 2003
Mideast News Digest

Leaders Call for Armed Peacekeepers in Mideast

In an exclusive interview to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz June 12, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of armed peacekeepers in order to separate Palestinians and Israelis. Annan told Akiva Eldar of Ha'aretz that he saw the upcoming deployment of 51 U.S. monitors, who will be soon deployed along with U.S. special envoy John Wolf to oversee the implementation of the road map, as a good start.

In a parallel development, U.S. Sen. John Warner (R-Va) sent a letter to President Bush on June 11 calling for the dispatch "at the earliest practical time," of an international force under NATO auspices, to provide security and ensure implementation of the Road Map.

Annan gave full support to Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), saying "The international community has an obligation to support Abbas and to work with him." But he called on the Israeli government to ease conditions. As for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Annan gave him the "benefit of the doubt" on his commitment to implement the Road Map. Annan also gave his support to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and said it was wrong to isolate him.

Powell Asks Quartet To Help Salvage Israel-Palestine Peace

On June 12, Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Foreign Ministers Silvan Shalom of Israel, Ahmed Maher of Egypt, Saud al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Marwan Muasher of Jordan, to ask for their help in stemming the violence between Israel and Palestine.

Secretary Powell, who this week goes to Cambodia for the ASEAN meeting, will stop over in Amman, Jordan on June 22 for a meeting with members of "The Quartet" (authors of the Road Map: the U.S., Russia, the European Union, and the UN) during a World Economic Forum. Among those with whom he will meet in Jordan are UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, and senior officials of the European Union. There is no indication yet of how much Presidential backing Powell will have to pressure Sharon and Israel. But, in speaking with Reuters after a town meeting in Los Angeles, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on June 12 that the "Road Map" is "absolutely relevant," and, as presented by President Bush, "is the only viable way to peace."

The President keeps his promises and expects others to keep theirs, said Dr. Rice, adding that Israeli leaders must understand that "the Palestine leadership is trying to reform security services ... that have been unwilling to fight terror."

On June 13, it was announced that Israel and the Palestinian Authority will renew security contacts, beginning with a meeting scheduled for June 14. The decision was made following pressure form the United States and Egypt.

In statements to the press on June 13, Powell said the U.S. was anxious to see restraint from Israel in its retaliations, and that terror against Israelis must stop. "If the terror goes down, then the response to terror will no longer be required," Powell said. Referring to the recent surge of violence, Powell said, "We've got to punch our way through it, and get on with the steps called for in the Road Map."

Israelis Start Dismantling Outposts; Settlers Reoccupy Them

The Israelis have started dismantling 10 of the 15 unauthorized outposts they promised would be dismantled for now, according to Ariel Sharon's pledge at the Aqaba summit earlier this month with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas/Abu Mazen and President Bush. Another 100, one-third of which are inhabited, are supposed to be dismantled.

Although 10 were dismantled, some of them were simply reoccupied by the Israeli settlers, hundreds of whom on June blocked roads to one inhabited outpost called Gilad Farm.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz reportedly told the settlers that the Bush Administration has put pressure on Israel to remove all outposts, which number about 100.

Nabil Abu Rudainah, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, derided the action: "This is a theatrical and insignificant step."

Meanwhile, the settlers' Yesha Council denounced the dismantling of the settlements. Its spokesman, Yehoshua Mor Yosef, said, "If we are evacuated, and I assume that the army will use force to evacuate us in the end, then we will return the next day to 10 hilltops. We will do everything we can to torpedo, obstruct, and to prolong this step."

Washington Times Highlights Israel-Hamas Link

In an analysis piece in the June 14 Washington Times, Joshua Mitnick, whose article was titled "Israeli retaliatory raids enhance Hamas' image," discussed what longtime readers of EIR already know: That Hamas owes its existence to Ariel Sharon, from the time of its founding in the 1980s, to the present. Times staff writer Mitnick reported that Hamas was founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. "At the time," Mitnick wrote, "the Muslim Brotherhood actually received funding from Israel, which was interested in cultivating a rival to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization. Palestinian Authority officials accuse Israel of providing the seed funding for Hamas, though Mr. Rantisi, a co-founder, denied this week that Israel had any part in Hamas' establishment."

Mitnick began the article by reporting how "The militant Islamic group Hamas has soared to new heights of prestige among Palestinians this week, even as its deadly attacks on Israel have brought sharp condemnation in Washington and retaliatory strikes against its top officers by Israeli security forces." He further reported that "Israeli missile strikes at Hamas leaders ... have only reinforced the feeling among Palestinians of the group's power."

Mitnick quoted Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab thusly: "When your enemies go for your leaders, it means that they're afraid of you and that means you are doing something right." Mitnick noted that Hamas' fortunes ebb and flow with the level of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. During the period of the Oslo peace accords, Hamas was marginalized, but now it's stronger than ever, and it has benefited directly from Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Authority.

Iraq Expert Tells EIR: 'Violence Everywhere'

In a discussion with EIR on June 12, University of Warwick [England] Professor Toby Dodge stated, "I just spent eight days in Baghdad, and the situation now inside Iraq is dreadful. The reality of what is going on, is being ignored by the international media." Dodge is one of Britain's leading experts on Iraq. He added, "The situation is so serious, that the Iraqi family I stayed with, forbade me to go out after 4 p.m. in the afternoon. By 7 p.m., all the streets are completely deserted. There is violence everywhere, and all semblance of security has broken down."

Dodge emphasized that the broader situation around Iraq is more and more dangerous, because "the group now running policy in Washington is committed to what can only be called 'permanent revolution.' Their idea seems to be, in order to draw attention away from the mess they've unleashed in Iraq, start something somewhere else. Obviously, they're committed to causing trouble with Iran. But Iran is not Iraq. Even these people must understand, that an invasion of Iran is impossible. But I'm sure they have a strategy of undermining the regime, causing energy blackouts, and unleashing special ops. This will likely only solidify support for the regime in Tehran, a phenomenon that often happens when the population of a nation feels threatened."

Informed of LaRouche's mobilization to impeach Cheney, Dodge responded, "Wonderful! This is exactly the kind of thing we need right now." He said this will have repercussions in Britain, where Tony Blair could be hit, at any moment, by a further escalation of attacks on the "Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" front, especially if "elements of the security services" decide to make a bigger issue of this, and "if a paper a trail is found, proving a deeper involvement of 10 Downing Street in playing with the intelligence than heretofore known."

OPEC Will Exclude Iraq as Long as U.S. Occupying Authority Is in Charge

OPEC "cannot have relations with Iraq until there is an internationally recognized government, that is a consensus," said Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, according to various press reports June 11. In other words, Iraq will not be permitted to attend OPEC conferences until the U.S. transfers power in Baghdad to a UN-recognized sovereign Iraqi government. "This does not mean we do not want Iraq in the organization," Ramirez added. "We do want Iraq in OPEC, and we think Iraq will want to stay in OPEC because they will need a reasonable price for oil."

The decision is expected to raise concerns in international oil markets, as traders fear that an isolated Iraq, under U.S. influence, could choose to leave the organization it helped create more than 40 years ago.

It is still unclear whether or not OPEC will recognize the Iraqi interim political council, which the U.S. plans to install in about four weeks.

Blix Blasts 'Bastards' He Says Tried To Undermine Him

In an interview to the June 11 issue of the British paper the Guardian, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said, among other things: "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much. It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant."

Blix accused the Bush Administration of leaning on his inspectors to produce more damning language in their reports. He accused "some elements" of the Pentagon of being behind a smear campaign against him; and accused Washington of regarding the UN as an "alien power" which they hoped would sink into the East River.

Asked if he believed he had been the target of a deliberate smear campaign he said: "Yes, I probably was at a lower level."

Even before he returned to Iraq after four years in which Iraq had banned weapons inspectors, Blix said, senior U.S. Defense Department officials were criticizing his having been chosen to lead the returning inspectors. That was just the beginning. By autumn, the married father of two was being branded in Baghdad as a "homosexual who went to Washington every two weeks to pick up [his] instructions."

A lot of the sniping "surely came" from the Pentagon, claimed Blix. "By and large my relations with the U.S. were good," he said, "but towards the end the [Bush] Administration leaned on us." Washington, he claimed, was particularly upset that the UN team did not "make more" of the discovery of cluster bombs and drones in March. He said Washington's disappointment at not getting UN backing for an attack was "one reason why you find skepticism towards inspectors."

Blix said he was convinced that "there are people in this Administration who say they don't care if the UN sinks under the East River, and other crude things." Instead of seeing the UN as a collective body of decision-making states, Washington now views it as an "alien power, even if it does hold considerable influence within it. Such [negative] feelings don't exist in Europe, where people say that the UN is a lot of talk at dinners and fluffy stuff."

Blix said he found this especially worrying given President Bush's openly proclaimed belief in the doctrine of preemptive strikes. "It would be more desirable and more reasonable to ask for Security Council authority, especially at a time when communism no longer exists and you don't have automatic vetoes from Russia and China," he said.

Similarly, it would be much more "credible" if a team of international inspectors were sent now into postwar Iraq to search for WMD, instead of the 1,300-strong U.S.-appointed group.

Sharon: First Israeli PM To Be Brought Before Knesset Hearing

According to the June 10 issue of the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, Ariel Sharon has become the first Israeli Prime Minister to be brought before a hearing of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament). He was forced to testify in his own defense at the Knesset State Control Committee over a conflict-of-interest case where he influenced the passing of a law that he would financially benefit from.

The case involves attempts by Sharon to get a law passed that would allow commercial use of farmland, a law from which Sharon, who owns several farms, would financially benefit. One of these farms is in Kfar Malal, to which the new law refers directly. The case was documented in a report by Israeli State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg. The violation is doubly outrageous, because Goldberg had formally warned Sharon when he became Prime Minister that he could not be involved in any discussions concerning any proposed law dealing with agriculture.

Sharon, as usual, claimed he broke no law, saying, "The fact that I placed the issue on the Israeli Land Authority's agenda does not signify participation in the decision making. What did you expect, that I would ask the authorization to get permission for a phone call?" This could lead to a criminal investigation if Attorney General Elykim Rubinstein has the guts to push it.

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