In this issue:

ElBaradei: Israel Should Destroy Its Nuclear Weapons

U.S. Adopting Israel's Nazi Military Tactics Will Lead to Defeat

Sharon Is Ever Closer to Indictment

Geneva Accord Organizers Get Warm Welcome in U.S.

From Volume 2, Issue Number 50 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Dec. 16, 2003
Mideast News Digest

ElBaradei: Israel Should Destroy Its Nuclear Weapons

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has called on Israel to give up its nuclear weapons as part of general Middle East peace agreement. In an interview with Ha'aretz Dec. 12, ElBaradei said that Israel should follow the path taken by South Africa, which destroyed its nuclear weapons, under IAEA supervision, in 1989. He said that Israel should also join the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Although Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, ElBaradei said that, "we operate under the assumption that Israel has nuclear arms," which, he noted, Israel does not deny.

ElBaradei refuted the idea that Israel is safer with nuclear weapons now, than it was 50 years ago: "I am not happy with the status quo, because I see a lot of frustration in the Middle East due to Israel's sitting on nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons capability, while others in the Middle East are committed to the NPT," he said. Israel and its neighbors should begin a dialogue on eradicating weapons of mass destruction, he added. "My fear is that without such a dialogue, there will be continued incentive for the region's countries to develop weapons of mass destruction to match the Israeli arsenal."

U.S. Adopting Israel's Nazi Military Tactics Will Lead to Defeat

The fact that U.S. forces adopted an escalation of Nazi-like violence against not only against the insurgents in Iraq, but the population which is supporting them, is the road to defeat for the United States. While Lyndon LaRouche is broadly circulating a proposal for U.S. withdrawal in favor of the UN, the revival of elections, and government based on Iraq's 1958 Constitution, the U.S. military, under neo-con fanatics run by Cheney and Rumsfeld, are repeating the disastrous tactics of the Israeli occupation.

In February 2002, it was revealed—and acknowledged by a Sharon spokesman—that Israeli officers were even studying Nazi Gen. Juergen Stroop's detailed 1943 report on the extermination of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a guide for the IDF's combat with Palestinians.

For the U.S. military to adopt the Israeli approach, which it is now openly doing, points to doom for the U.S. in Iraq. As Seymour Hersh details in the Dec. 8 issue of the New Yorker magazine (see InDepth), the U.S. military has brought in Israeli consultants, and is explicitly following Israeli "counterinsurgency" tactics in the Iraqi theater. An official denial by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Dec. 9, is not credible.

Wrote Brig. Gen. Michael A. Vane, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Doctrine Concepts and Strategy at the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, in the July issue of Army, "Experience continues to teach us many lessons, and we continue to evaluate and address those lessons, embedding and incorporating them appropriately into our concepts, doctrine, and training. For example, we recently travelled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their counter-terrorist operations in urban areas."

Reflecting the Israeli attitude, Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman, the American battalion commander responsible for the area that includes Abu Hishma in Iraq, said, "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people we are here to help them." This "doctrine," if among U.S. officers in Iraq, is a recipe for disaster.

The tactics U.S. forces are copying from the Israelis were described, in broad brush, by the New York Times on Dec. 7. U.S. troops are surrounding an entire town, Abu Hishma, with razor wire, and requiring all male residents of the town to have ID cards before they can come and go through the only checkpoint. A U.S. Army captain of the 4th Infantry Division is quoted, "You have to understand the Arab mind. The only thing they understand is force—force, pride, and saving face." Even prior to creating such ghettoes, the occupying forces had taken to razing houses in towns where guerrillas are suspected, and even arresting their relatives, including children, in order to "encourage" those being sought to come forward. This "strategy" is taken from the Israelis, who knock down whole apartment buildings as "collective punishment" for families of suicide bombers.

Hersh quotes an adviser to the U.S. civilian authority in Iraq: "The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We're going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We've got to scare the Iraqis into submission."

For those who want to actually win the peace, Treaty of Westphalia principles of working for the "advantage of the other," as expressed in LaRouche's Nov. 29 statement of proposed policy, are the key.

Sharon Is Ever Closer to Indictment

Ha'aretz correspondent Amir Oren reports that the indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is close at hand, with a new phase to begin with an expected indictment of financier David Appel on bribery charges, on Dec. 15. Oren claims that Sharon's dropping of hints of a new diplomatic plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is an attempt to divert attention from his troubles.

There are three criminal investigations targetting Sharon. The first is the illegal financing of his 1999 primary campaign. The second is the way he paid back those contributions. This involves Cyril Kern, who allegedly loaned the money to pay back these debts. The third involves alleged bribe-taking from Israeli contractor and Likud Party financial backer David Appel.

The third case could come up very quickly. David Appel has already been indicted for bribing several lower-level government officials. This indictment might be "corrected" to include Sharon as one of the officials who received bribes. The question is: Will his name be added as a co-defendant, or as simply one of Appel's targets, which would mean Sharon was not actually indicted? This could happen as early as Dec. 15. Even if his name were added as a non co-defendent, it might make it impossible for Sharon to function.

Geneva Accord Organizers Get Warm Welcome in U.S.

Also putting pressure on the Israeli government, is the relative success, so far, of the Geneva Accord. Accord negotiators Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo went directly from the signing ceremony in Geneva, to the United States, where they had meetings with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. While President Bush is under enormous pressure to reject the Accord, he did permit Powell to have the meeting.

Speaking on U.S. TV on Dec. 7, Beilin told the U.S. audience about the growing support in Israel: "If you judge it by really seeing what's happened in the last six weeks, it is almost a revolution. And we are using the biggest asset that we have in our democracy, which is the public opinion. The public opinion was very enthusiastic about it. We got 40% support, which is quite beyond our expectations. And we want to change—to continue and get more and more support in order to change the policy of the government." Beilin and Abed Rabbo addressed several high level gatherings at U.S. think tanks during their visit.

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