| http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2002-15/this_wk.html#Anchor-Th-36364 >From the Vol.1,No.6 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK: The Brewing Showdown As this week's issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly goes to press, a major showdown is brewing in Washington, ostensibly centered around the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territories, and the Bush Administration's response to the mounting evidence of Nazi-style genocide on the part of the Israel Defense Force against the Palestinian population. But, in fact, the conflict touches on many other areas of strategic policy, and the outcome may very well determine whether George W. Bush becomes a lame-duck President within the first 18 months of his first term in office, throwing the United States and the planet as a whole into an even graver state of crisis than already exists at this moment. The outcome of this policy fight cannot be forecast at this time. Nevertheless, the fact of the conflict's rapidly nearing a turning-point for urgently needed new changes in policies, represents the most significant news development of the week, and is, therefore, the primary subject of this week's strategic review. On Monday, April 8, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United States, following extensive April 4 consultations with Ariel Sharon, the man he hopes soon to replace in the Prime Ministership. Despite this point of friction between the two men, Netanyahu was dispatched to Washington on a vital mission by his rival Sharon: To rally radical pro-Israeli factions in both the Democratic and Republican Parties, to force President Bush to acquiesce in Israel's drive to exterminate the Palestinian Authority, from top to bottom, thus setting in motion the early eruption of a general war in the Middle East. The instigation of such a "Clash of Civilizations" war has been the number one priority of a faction of the Anglo-American financial oligarchy since no later than the winter 1998-99. According to one well-placed Washington diplomatic source, the Netanyahu mission was at least partially motivated by reports that President Bush was being urged to deploy former Secretary of State James Baker III to the Middle East, as part of the follow-on to Secretary of State Colin Powell's current mission. Such a Baker deployment, while of dubious benefit, would not sit well with the Jabotinskyite fanatics in Tel Aviv, including Netanyahu, Sharon, and the newly appointed Cabinet Minister, Gen. Effie Eitam, an open advocate of the total ethnic-cleansing of all of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and inside Israel proper. Upon arriving in Washington on Tuesday, April 9, Netanyahu staged a series of public provocations against the President of the United States, virtually accusing him of sabotaging the "war on terrorism" by refusing to give his public blessing to the extermination by the IDF of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the entire PA structure. At a public briefing at the United States Capitol, flanked by 20 members of the U.S. Senate from both parties, Netanyahu equated Yasser Arafat with Saddam Hussein, and threatened that the U.S. would soon be facing Palestinian suicide bombers at suburban shopping malls, unless Israel were given full Washington backing for the Warsaw Ghetto-modelled atrocities being conducted by the IDF against Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin, etc. Netanyahu was hosted at this public event by Senators John Kyl (R-Ariz) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn). Netanyahu's mission was also abetted by the neo-conservatives inside the Bush Administration, who occupy key second-tier posts in the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House. One unnamed "senior Bush Administration official" told the New York Times midweek that Secretary Powell's mission to Israel was dead on arrival, thus signalling, for the first time, a public factional attack against Powell from within the Executive Branch. While the identity of the specific Administration official who delivered the comment to the Times is not known, the list of leading candidates is no secret: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz heads a cabal of Sharonists inside the Administration, which also includes Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle, State Department arms control negotiator John Bolton, Pentagon comptroller Dov Zakheim, National Security Council deputy Elliott Abrams, and a dozen others. Firm IndecisionIt is no secret that President George W. Bush personally despises Ariel Sharon, and that those feelings have intensified since the Israeli invasion of Palestinian Area A began several weeks ago. It is also no secret that White House political strategist Karl Rove has warned the President, repeatedly, that any untoward public criticism of Sharon, coming from the Administration, will jeopardize Florida Governor Jeb Bush's November 2002 reelection campaign, by instigating an outpouring of Israeli Lobby "Mega" funding of Bush's Democratic challenger. A November 2002 defeat of Gov. Bush would spell doom for the President's reelection prospects, according to the Rove logic. Thus, domestic political considerations have been insinuated into the policy deliberations on issues of global war and peace. Anyone carefully observing President Bush's reactions to these conflicting factors, from the time he delivered his Rose Garden speech on April 4, announcing the deployment of Colin Powell to the Mideast, has witnessed a process of psychological stress, bordering on disintegration. Lyndon LaRouche characterized Bush's state of mind as one of "firm indecision." The same disease has infected others in the policy-making arena who, by virtue of their experience, should know better and do better. Nevertheless, this is the reality of the situation at the present moment. Only a firm intervention by the United States--against Sharon's war drive--at this late moment, can prevent the outbreak of general war in the Middle East, a war that will trigger a new oil shock, at a moment that the global economy and the global financial and monetary system cannot survive such a shock. A sudden price spike in petroleum, to $35-40 per barrel, would wreak instant havoc on Japan, Euroland, and many other parts of the world. The events of the past 72 hours in Venezuela, the third largest supplier of oil to the United States, add to the chaos. The situation is untenable, and the Netanyahu deployment has placed President Bush in a position where he can not sit on the fence for very much longer. The fact of an open insurrection against Secretary of State Colin Powell from within the Administration cannot go unnoticed or unchallenged. Israel's increasing drive for a multi-front "breakaway ally" war against the Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, Syria, etc., cannot go unchallenged without devastating consequences, including the highly probably eruption of a "Clash of Civilizations" global war, along the precise fault lines demanded by Samuel P. Huntington, Bernard Lewis, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Henry A. Kissinger. |
