Southwest Asia News Digest
LaRouche On Justice for the Palestinians
At his Oct. 6 LaRouche PAC webcast in Washington, D.C., LaRouche was asked to comment on a listener's concern about the foreign policy espoused by Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards. An excerpt from Mr. LaRouche's reply follows.
"Well, if I'm President, I wouldn't have a problem, would I? First of all, in the Arab world, I'm probably the only American politician the Arab world would trust, right now. The only one. If Kerry wants to get out of the problems in the Middle East, he'd better come and talk to me: Because I have the credentials, he does not. And he didn't help himself, the other way around. What we do then, if they would trust methey wouldn't trust anybody else, and they'd watch me like a hawk, because they're very suspicious.
"But we could get it, because we have to get one thing, and this is where Kerry and Edwards will not bite the bullet: You have to deal with justice for the Palestinians. You can not scream that the problem Israel has, is a bunch of crazy Palestinians. You've had a war going on, between Palestinians and Israelis for some period of time. You had a relatively sane phase under the Labor government, and I dealt with the Labor government back in the middle of the 1970s. And we had a plan for a peace plan for the Middle East. At that time, Labor government leaders, including Shimon Peres, were supporting me and praising me for what I was doing: Because what I proposed is a development program, including water development and power development for the region, so that people would have enough water and power to live and develop together. That without a constructive economic development plan, there can be no peace in the Middle East.
"You have to have a broker who sort of forces it down the throats of the parties. The only effective broker would be the United States, as Clinton correctly thought. He may not have handled it perfectly. He may have been misled on some points, but he had the right idea, of going in that direction. Only the United States can bring about the condition of Middle East peace. If you can not bring about Middle East peace between the Palestinians and Israelis nowand it could be doneyou have no possibility of settling the general crisis in the Middle East today."
(See this week's InDepth for LaRouche's opening speech to the webcast; the complete audio, with animated graphics, can be found at www.larouchepac.com)
UN Warns of Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza Strip
According to a United Nations report, as of Oct. 6, eighty-two Palestinians had been killed in the Israeli invasion of Gaza (see article, InDepth), including 24 children under the age of 18, and the death toll is rising, according to international press reports Oct. 7. Over 50,000 Palestinians are trapped in their homes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, which has now become a war zone. Another seven Palestinians were killed on Oct. 7.
Twelve UN organizations released the above special report, warning of the impending humanitarian disaster as a result of Israeli military operations, and conditions of siege imposed in the Gaza Strip. Their findings testify to the criminal policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his generals. Sixty-six percent of the population lives below the poverty linedefined as earning less than $2 a day! This is expected to rise to 72% within a year. The number of homeless Palestinians has reached 24,547, in the last four years, because of house demolitions, a Class A war crime. Despite the fact that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been making a desperate attempt to help feed 1.5 million Palestinian refugees, chronic malnutrition among children under five years old is at 12.7% in the Gaza Strip, and is expected to rise.
Palestinian Envoy Charges Israeli War Crimes; U.S. Vetoes UN Resolution
Speaking in New York on Oct. 3, Palestinian special envoy to the UN, Nasser al-Kidwa, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, to end the Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip. Al-Kidwa said the Palestinian government condemned the strikes against Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip by the homemade, "rudimentary" Qassam rockets, but he detailed how the Israeli reaction had thus far killed 82 people, including 20 children, wounded more than 350 others, and demolished many homes, using 2,000 soldiers, 100 tanks and a "massive use of helicopter gunships."
Al Kidwa stated, "Israel persists in committing war crimes and acts of state terrorism against the Palestinian people. There is no justification for this Israeli hysteria, for this widespread killing and deliberate destruction."
The same day, Algeria, the only Arab country on the Security Council, called for, and successfully succeeded in convening a UNSC meeting to consider a resolution to end the "terrifying ... war of extermination" against the Palestinians.
The resolution calls for "immediate cessation of all military operations in the area of Northern Gaza," and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from there.
Motivating urgent action on the resolution, Algerian UN Ambassador Abdalla Baali said, "The Palestinian people are exposed to a virtual war of extermination.... The unfettered use of brutal force is terrifying."
On Oct. 2, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had issued a statement which said:
"On Sunday, the Secretary-General called on the Government of Israel to halt its military incursions into the Gaza Strip, which have led to the deaths of scores of Palestinians, among them many civilians, including children.
"The Secretary-General likewise called on the Palestinian Authority to take action to halt the firing of rockets against Israeli targets by Palestinian militants. He reminded both sides to this conflict that they have a legal obligation to protect all civilians."
But it is well known that such "balanced" statements have been totally ignored by the Sharon government in the past, which continues its military operations until it has completed whatever plan it is implementing. This reality is well-known to Kofi Annan, who is faced with the opposition from the U.S., which is armed with the veto power.
The U.S. support for Sharon was articulated by U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Danforth, who said, according to an Oct. 4 report in The Age of Australia, that another resolution was "one more step on the road to nowhere," and charged that the UNSC "acts as the adversary of the Israelis and cheerleader to the Palestinians." Danforth added, "That is not the way to peace. That is not the road map to peace."
On Oct. 6, the U.S. vetoed a resolution that called on Israel to cease its heavily armed tank and helicopter assault on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli peace group, Gush Shalom has called on the Israeli government to cease the operation, and to end the charade of Sharon's "unilateral withdrawal" from Gaza. Like other peace organizations, Gush Shalom says that Sharon's Gaza plan is a farce, and only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can achieve any success.
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