Southwest Asia News Digest
Dubai Daily on LaRouche, Vernadsky, Physical Economy
Nov. 28 (EIRNS)Al-Bayan, the main Arabic daily in Dubai, published an article by "the representative of the international LaRouche Movement in Sweden," Hussein Askary, under the title "Human Thought as a Universal Geological Factor." The article is a commentary on an earlier piece, published simultaneously in Al-Bayan and the Bahraini daily Al-Waqt Nov. 2, by Bahraini author Abdul-Jalil Al-Nuaimi, who mercilessly attacked the free-market system and invoked both V.I. Vernadsky and Lyndon LaRouche on the solution for the current world financial crisis, in the form of shutting down the "monetarist system" and returning to what LaRouche describes as "physical economy," and agreements among sovereign nation-states to establish a Hamiltonian system.
Askary, who welcomed Al-Nuaimi's call in his article, clarifies certain mistaken concepts about the relationship between man and nature which Al-Nuaimi made in describing Vernadsky's Noösphere concept. Askary also expands on how LaRouche ("The last survivor of the school of physical economy") incorporated Vernadsky's concepts into his own idea of physical economy, and how that enabled him to both forecast the demise of the current system, and also present the solution to the current world financial/economic crisis, and the building of the Eurasian Land-Bridge, and the Oasis Plan for greening the desert.
It is ironic (if not planned) that this article appears as the world is discussing the demise of the Dubai bubble. Al-Bayan, which is owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Al-Maktoum's family, is still stubbornly resisting the idea that the Dubai bubble is finished, and attacks Western media for exaggerating the magnitude of the credit and debt default crisis.
Al-Bayan has boycotted LaRouche since the British Foreign Office and the Bush Administration's State Department threatened the United Arab Emirates, as the preparations for the invasion of Iraq were under way in January/February 2003, to stop any positive cooperation with LaRouche and his representatives after LaRouche's groundbreaking visit to Abu Dhabi in May 2002, to address the international conference on "Oil in World Politics," hosted by the Zayed Center. The Zayed Center itself was shut down through pressure from the British and the George W. Bush Administration immediately after the Iraq invasion.
LaRouche, in his speech to that conference, brought to the attention of his high-level audience, his forecast of the collapse of the current system, and also his solution. He proposed that the nations of the region use their oil and financial resources to develop infrastructure, nuclear-powered water desalination, greening of the desert, and world-class petrochemical industries. None of this was done; instead pies in the sky were built and sold to suck the region and the world into the British game.
Dubai Leadership Visits London Prior to Announcement
Nov. 29 (EIRNS)Prior to the announcement Nov. 25 that Dubai is asking for a six-month "debt standstill" on Dubai World's debt, Sheikh Mohammad, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of Dubai, was in London visiting Britain's most senior politicians.
On Nov. 22, Sheikh Mohammed wrote about his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, commenting, according to the Sheikh's Twitter stream, "It's been a good day." During the visit, U.A.E. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan also met Lord Peter Mandelson, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The following day, Sheikh Mohammed met with Queen Elizabeth II, and visited the London Business School, where he was honored for his support of education.
On Nov. 24, the Sheikh visited the headquarters of the Conservative Party, where he and Tory leader David Cameron "exchanged views on the future direction of our countries' relationship ... [and] also discussed a number of other issues concerning the scale of investment, as well as economic and technical cooperation between our nations." The Sheikh then met with the chairman of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce before visiting the British Museum.
Later in the day, a lavish reception was thrown by Lord Mayor of the City of London Nicholas Anstee, which was attended by (among others) Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai; U.A.E. Foreign Minister Al Nahyan; Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority; Abdul Rahman Ghanem Al Mutaiwee, U.A.E. Ambassador to the U.K., Edward Anthony Oakden, U.K. Ambassador to the U.A.E., and a number of businessmen and economists from both countries.
This was the day that the debt moratorium was announced. Sheikh Mohammed said that the announcement had been "carefully planned in advance."
By Nov. 29, however, the situation shifted, and the United Arab Emirates banned all copies of the Sunday Times of London, because it had insulted Dubai's ruler.
Beilin: Obama Mideast Policy Has Become 'Ridiculous'
Nov. 26 (EIRNS)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a partial ten-month settlement freeze that covers only the West Bank. It also allows for the thousands of houses under construction to be completed. The move is seen as a blow to the Palestinians by observers across the political spectrum. Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, stated that President Obama's Middle East policy has become "ridiculous."
U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell made a short televised statement saying the action falls short of a full settlement freeze, but it is more than any Israeli government has done before. He said he hoped it would lead to renewal of peace talks.
Beilin commented, "It's almost a joke to say that such a thing is a gesture to Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas]. Instead of preparing an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, we are making an agreement with the Americans behind their backs which is hurting Abu Mazen. The Americans are basically indirectly legitimizing construction in East Jerusalem, and this is something Abu Mazen will never be able to accept."
Ha'aretz commentator Akiva Eldar wrote that "no peace process will come out of it," because Abbas cannot accept it, since it entails no freeze in East Jerusalem and calls for the completion of 2,500 partially built houses. "The question," Eldar writes, "is what will be the response of Obama to this phony freeze."
Israeli Attorney Gen. Menachem Mazuz told the cabinet that, with only 14 housing inspectors, the so-called freeze is unenforceable.
Israeli General Favors 'Fayyad Plan,' with American Backing
Nov. 24 (EIRNS)Israeli Gen. Shlomo Brom (ret.) gave a briefing and took questions on a Nov. 23 teleconference sponsored by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), in which he gave significant, but conditional, support to the plan put forward by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad to declare a Palestinian State by the end of 2011.
The topic of the IPF teleconference was to address President Obama's historically low approval rating in Israelonly 6%the lowest in recent times. The IPF had held a seminar in Israel to sound out different factions as to what Obama's problem is. Obama is seen as somebody who neither has yet, nor can get anything accomplishedwhether it is moving the peace process, or crushing the so-called Iranian "threat" to Israel.
Brom, the former head of military intelligence, and now a senior figure at the Jaffe Center, was one of the Israelis who had accused the U.S. and Britain of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in order to justify war against Iraq. He is a supporter of an independent Palestinian state, for which he proposed that "provisional" borders be seriously discussed, but only in the context of providing a way forward to a final status agreement. The new Palestinian state should have the same area as the Palestinians had prior to June 4, 1967even though land swaps could be negotiated. But, he emphasized that the Fayyad Plan could not be successful without simultaneously moving negotiations forward.
And, in the blunt language for which he is known, Brom said it may be "cynical" to say, but, in his view, the reason that the Ariel Sharon government endorsed the Road Map of the so-called Quartet (United States, Russia, UN, EU), is that it never expected the Palestinian Authority to live up to the terms. But, "surprise, surprise," said Brom, they did, and now it is Israel's turn to live up to its endwhich included the end of settlementsthousands of which have been built since the Road Map was high on the agenda.
Another way to move forward is for President Obama to provide a letter of intent for the Palestinians, addressing some of their concerns, such as possibly changing borders from the June 4, 1967 line.
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