by Daniel Platt

May 3, 2024 (EIRNS)—Amid the tumult and policy crisis created by the unexpected explosion of opposition to the Biden Administration’s financial and political support of the outlaw Netanyahu regime of Israel, the International Peace Coalition (IPC) held its 48th consecutive meeting today. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the original initiator of the IPC, opened this session with her oft-repeated demand that “We have to replace geopolitics with the idea of cooperation instead of confrontation.” Zepp-LaRouche emphasized the importance of the internationalization of the student movement against the genocide in Gaza. She pointed out that, while there are now 90 to 100 solidarity actions in universities around the United States, there are now also corresponding actions in France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and many other nations.

On the other hand, Zepp-LaRouche warned of the “new definition of anti-Semitism” being pushed in the form of legislation by frantic genocide apologists in the U.S. Congress. (Such laws, if passed, are against the United States Constitution, whose First Amendment stipulates that government must in no way interfere with the content of speech.) She singled out the brutal police deployments against the demonstrators, saying that with that sort of repression “the word ‘democracy’ has become completely hollow.” She was especially touched by the message of the children of Gaza, expressing their gratitude to the American students for attempting to save their lives in the name of humanity.

Zepp-LaRouche, on the subject of the war in Ukraine, reported that German General Harald Kujat (ret.) recently stated that Ukraine’s aspiration to restore the 1991 borders is not realistic. In addition, the goal of the United States was to weaken Russia, so negotiations have been sabotaged. There is therefore no exit, and no winning strategy. Ukrainian men are now unable to obtain passports, because every last one of them is a candidate for conscription into the military. Worse, of the $61 billion in military aid voted up by the U.S. Congress, only about $10 billion is for new weapons; the rest has paid for weapons already produced and delivered!

Zepp-LaRouche also warned against the “loud and wrong” proposals that the U.S. seize Russian assets in Western banks, saying that in reaction to such a confiscation the Global South will come to the conclusion that their assets are no longer safe with the dollar system. The likelihood is that their response to such confiscations will be a decisive move to replace the U.S. SWIFT system, with an alternative global financial framework, as the Global South realizes that the Wall Street/City of London financial “axis of evil” empire is finished.

News From the Freedom Flotilla

The meeting received reports from organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, which is attempting to leave Türkiye with 5,500 tons of food and medicine, and six ambulances, bound for Gaza.

In an interview updating the status of the Flotilla, pre-recorded for the meeting, Dr. Mubarak Awad, founder of Nonviolence International, said Israel prevailed upon the Guinea Bissau International Ships Registry to withdraw its flags from the two lead vessels. The Turkish government offered their flag, but wanted a unit of Turkish soldiers onboard. This option was rejected by the leaders of the Flotilla as it could be construed as a warlike gesture. Dr. Awad stressed that nonviolence was a cornerstone of the Flotilla’s policy. “We are willing to be shot at by the Israelis,” he said. “We have people coming from 40 countries. I would hope that we could even have a ship of Israelis.”

He was followed by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent, whistleblower, and member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), who just returned from Türkiye. She was very impressed by the involvement of IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. She mentioned a recent article on the Flotilla in an April 21 issue of the Washington Post, which included quotes from VIPS member and Flotilla leader Col. Ann Wright, despite the cited Israeli characterization of the IHH as terrorist.

Rowley was asked: “Is Israel a terrorist state?”

She warned against oversimplification; there are many Israelis who oppose the Likud’s policy. She quoted the late actor Peter Ustinov, “Terrorism is the war of the poor; war is the terrorism of the rich.”

The Inception of the Zionist Ideology

Prof. Cliff Kiracofe, president of the Washington Institute for Peace and Development and former senior professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, presented a précis of his book Dark Crusade: Christian Zionism and U.S. Foreign Policy. He began with Great Britain’s Lord Palmerston, who dominated British foreign policy during 1830-1865, when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power. Palmerston said that to compete with Russia and France in the Middle East, the British Empire should sponsor a Jewish return to Palestine. The ideology of Christian Zionism was concocted in the 1830s and ’40s to support Palmerston’s plan.

One of its proponents was the Rev. John Nelson Darby, who traveled to the U.S. to promote the doctrine. Consequently, from 1858 to the present, Christian Zionism has permeated many Protestant churches in the United States. A central feature is the Armageddonist/End Times dogma that we must gather Jews in the Holy Land to trigger the Apocalypse when we confront Russia, China, and Persia, our principal opponents. Southern Baptists and Pentecostals have all embraced this heresy, which Kiracofe called “a bizarre and dangerous ideology.”

He described how the influence of this doctrine explains why the Congress passed the new definition of anti-Semitism. Influential Protestant clerics like Rev. John Hagee have been calling for war against Iran since the beginning of this century.

In response to Kiracofe’s presentation, Zepp-LaRouche replied, “Anything that comes from this kitchen of poison must be overcome.” She characterized the collaboration between Israelis and Christian Zionists as an “unholy alliance.”

Jacques Cheminade, the head of France’s Solidarité et Progrès party, added a quote from the Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz: “The idea that a country or any other specific place has an intrinsic sanctity is indubitably an idolatrous idea.”

Discussion

Moderator Anastasia Battle invited students to participate in the discussion period, promising to protect them from “doxing,” which is the practice by opponents of free speech such as Bill Ackman, to publish personal information on political “undesirables” as a means to harm their professional careers.

Veterans for Peace activist Jack Gilroy reported on antiwar activism around the U.S., noting he had declined to pay a $250 fine after being arrested at an action against military contractor BAE. He intends instead to put BAE on trial.

Independent Congressional candidate Jose Vega reported from the streets of his constituency in the Bronx, where he is gathering petition signatures to get on the ballot. New York City is “on the precipice of change,” he said, and suggested that students from Gaza should be invited to come to the U.S. to study, as were Ukrainian students, since all the universities in Gaza have been destroyed. Rutgers University recently announced that they will admit some. Vega’s opponent, AIPAC darling Rep. Ritchie Torres, announced on Friday, May 3, that he plans to introduce the blatantly unconstitutional COLUMBIA Act, (College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability Act), to impose “third-party anti-Semitism monitors” on institutions of higher education.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche concluded by reminding the participants that the Oasis Plan gives everyone in the region a “beautiful vision for a joint future,” and that it is the only way to break the cycle of violence and revenge.