In this issue:

LaRouche: Israel Invasion of Gaza Is Its Greatest Strategic Blunder

Cheney's Gift to Obama: Joint U.S./Israel Declaration of Hostilities Against Iran

Jewish MP in Britain Compares Israeli Actions to Nazis'

Pentagon in the Dark About Israeli Visitor

'Roman Troika' To Rule Israel?

LaRouche: Israel Invasion of Gaza Is Its Greatest Strategic Blunder

Jan. 15 (EIRNS)—Israel's invasion of Gaza, with its 19 days of continuous, brutal killing of civilians, children, humanitarian workers, and observers, has trapped Israel into a strategic blunder that could turn into an existential threat to Israel itself, warned Lyndon LaRouche, as the death toll reached about 1,028 Gazans, with over 4,800 wounded.

"This operation should be blamed on Dick Cheney—he is nothing but a British asset," said LaRouche. "The Israeli invasion of Gaza will turn out to be the biggest strategic blunder ever committed by Israel. This may prove to be an existential blunder."

This morning, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the headquarters of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNWRA) in Gaza City, which is the main, and often the only source of food for more than 1 million Gaza residents. The IDF used phosphorus bombs, causing fires that cannot be put out with water, which only produces toxic fumes. According to John Ging, the director of UNWRA in Gaza, who was interviewed on CNN, the UN team was in constant contact with the Israeli military the night before, as Israeli bombs got closer and closer. There is no way in the world that this bombing was an accident. More than 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge there, and the phosphorous fires incinerated "thousands of tons of food" and disabled all the transport vehicles that were delivering food and medical supplies to Gazans.

The Vatican has dared to equate Gaza with a concentration camp. On Jan. 7, Renato Cardinal Martino, director of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, told the Italian daily newspaper Il Sussidiario, "Conditions in Gaza increasingly resemble a big concentration camp." After receiving much criticism from Israel for these remarks the Cardinal told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, "They can say what they want, but the situation in Gaza is horrible."

Two days after Martino's statement, Pope Benedict XVI took up the Gaza tragedy in his Jan. 9, "State of the World" address to the Vatican diplomatic corps. He called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, where there is "enormous suffering of the civilian population."

Cheney's Gift to Obama: Joint U.S./Israel Declaration of Hostilities Against Iran

Jan. 16 (EIRNS)—Having failed to achieve his desired war against Iran, British asset Dick Cheney's parting gift to incoming President Barack Obama is a U.S./Israeli agreement promising that the United States will hunt down and intercept Iranian shipments of weapons to Hamas and other groups in Gaza, and will organize the international community—including NATO—to do the same. The model for this effort is British asset and former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton's "Proliferation Security Initiative" of 2003, which organized some ten nations to agree to intercept naval vessels on the high seas to search for "weapons of mass destruction." A similar scheme against Iran was pushed by the Cheneyacs earlier this year, as a "naval blockade" against Iran to prevent the delivery of refined petroleum products. However, the insane naval blockade idea was rejected by wiser U.S. military leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A blockade is considered an act of war.

From the outset of the attack on Gaza, Israeli government officials have identified the war against Hamas as a surrogate war against Iran.

Now, a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been prepared, which is a prescription for world war. On Jan. 16, Israeli Foreign Minister, and lead candidate for Prime Minister, Tsipi Livni, made an emergency trip to Washington to sign the MOU with the Bush Administration. It allegedly binds the United States to intercepting and stopping Iranian arms shipments to Gaza, particularly to Hamas. According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Livni, they are also seeking to get Britain, France, and Germany to join in this effort to track down Iranian arms shipments to Gaza.

Jewish MP in Britain Compares Israeli Actions to Nazis'

Jan. 16 (EIRNS)—During the debate in the British Parliament today, Gerald Kaufman, a Jewish Labour Party Member of Parliament, compared the Israeli military action in Gaza to that of the Nazis: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza." Kaufman accused the Israeli government of "ruthlessly and cynically exploiting the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."

Kaufman called for an arms embargo on Israel and said Israel needed to seek real peace and not peace by conquest, which would be impossible.

Pentagon in the Dark About Israeli Visitor

Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Pinchas Buchris, the director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, made what the Jerusalem Post described as a "lightning trip" to Washington to discuss with Pentagon officials the military operation in Gaza, including the use of particular weapons that the U.S. Defense Department is interested in, the Iranian nuclear threat, and other issues.

"Israel is hoping to secure commitments from the U.S. military on continued technological cooperation regarding systems that Israel and the U.S. both use and could be applied in the event of a military strike against Iran," said the Post. Yet, the Pentagon was unable to answer a press query from EIR seeking more information about Buchris's meetings. Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said, "That's the first I've heard of it." The relevant Pentagon press officer later told EIR that he had been unable to reach anybody in a position to know about any such meetings.

'Roman Troika' To Rule Israel?

Jan. 13 (EIRNS)—Commentator Amir Oren forecasts in Ha'aretz that the next Israeli government will be a "Roman Troika" that would include Ehud Barak of the Labor Party, Tzipi Livni of Kadima, and Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud. He writes that confrontation with Iran will be at the top of the agenda of this government.

"The next government will serve in the shadow of the great confrontation with Iran, which is approaching military nuclearization. It will have to decide whether to disobey Barack Obama if he firmly objects to deploying the Israeli Defense Forces, and especially American fighter planes, against Iran's nuclear facilities." He writes that this is the issue that is now determining the shape of the next government.