Dec. 13, 2024 (EIRNS)—The International Peace Coalition (IPC) has now reached its 80th consecutive Friday online meeting. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the meeting, saying that we are witnessing a “seismic change in the strategic situation.” The establishment is “quite hysterical,” trying to consolidate the position of the pro-NATO forces vs. the pro-BRICS forces before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Of all the erupting crises, the Ukraine situation is still the most dangerous, because of potential escalation to nuclear war. Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants of the Nov. 20 comments by Rear Adm. Thomas Buchanan to a meeting at the Washington-based CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), whereby he said that the United States would take the right to use nuclear weapons preemptively if the hegemony of the United States was at risk. The only problem was, one had to make sure to keep back enough nuclear weapons so that even after such a nuclear exchange, future adversaries could be deterred. The Dec. 7-8 conference of the Schiller Institute was intended to sound the alarm and provide a systematic alternative.
After the collapse of Syria, Western media are “jubilant,” and neighboring countries are carving out pieces from Syria’s carcass. Why did all of this happen? Syria was a modern and multiconfessional state, but then the flow of mercenaries and weapons from Benghazi, Libya began after the “Arab Spring.” Now everything is up in the air. What will be Trump’s Iran policy? Is the larger trend in history toward harmonious cooperation, “the forces of construction and building” in all countries? Zepp-LaRouche reminded the geopoliticians that every one of their attempts to conquer Russia has failed.
Vanessa Beeley, a Syrian-based independent journalist, peace activist and photographer, who just safely made it out of Syria, was scheduled to speak, but because of technical issues was not able to join the conference.
Frequent IPC participant Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), praised the IPC for being “the only group of its kind that’s doing this kind of work.” He commended Trump’s recent criticism of “collective Biden” for approving Ukrainian attacks on Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, such as ATACMS. Russia responded yesterday to the latest such attack with a massive missile and drone attack, taking out electricity infrastructure in Ukraine.
McGovern then turned his attention to the significance of Russia’s hypersonic ballistic Oreshnik missile, which he called a “game changer.” If the U.S. insists on belittling the Oreshnik, the Russians will be forced to respond. Russian President Vladimir Putin began warning in 2007 of the danger of NATO expansion, and in 2016 he underlined the point to Western journalists in St. Petersburg after the U.S. decision to station anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems in Romania, ostensibly to counter an imaginary threat from Iran. Russia knew they were lying. Putin said to the journalists, “I don’t expect you to report this,” and then described the geostrategic balance of power which existed before the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty. Rather than compete in costly and ineffective ABM technology, Russia opted to improve its offensive weapons, which, McGovern said, led to the Oreshnik.
During the discussion, McGovern reported that in his Tucker Carlson interview, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned Rear Admiral Buchanan by name for promoting the possibility of nuclear war between the superpowers. On the subject of Syria, McGovern said that the newly-minted leader of Syria, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, supposedly had a “Damascus conversion” from his earlier use of terrorism. The Western media are putting “a whole lot of lipstick on him.”
Haim Bresheeth, retired professor, author, filmmaker, and founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine, was recently arrested in Britain under the Terrorism Act 2000, and faces a 14-year prison sentence. Bresheeth described a pattern of U.K. persecution of journalists, with close to 100 arrested. Mainstream journalists are “carefully policed by their bosses.” Britain has become a “dystopian society,” with a “great silence, a season of fear.” Being a conformist Jew in the West has become “untenable,” said Bresheeth, and the support of Israeli Jews for genocide is “an unpardonable blot” on their honor. The only way to understand it is as “a deep disturbance, a cognitive dissonance,” and the “replacement of Judaism by Zionism.”
In response to McGovern, Zepp-LaRouche recalled that as the U.S. was setting up ABM systems in Poland and Romania, the Russians were debunking claims that these sites were intended for defense against Iran. They offered anti-missile sites right next to Iran, which the U.S. would have accepted if Iran were the actual concern. She reminded the IPC that her husband Lyndon LaRouche had warned that making the other side’s nuclear weapons technologically obsolete, as the Russians have done with Oreshnik, is the successful strategy, as he had done with his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) proposal. Zepp-LaRouche noted that the West is stuck in linear thinking, its mistaken axioms tracing back to Aristotle and British liberalism. The Russians and Chinese, she said, are proceeding with non-linear responses, in the spirit of Gottfried Leibniz and Nicholas of Cusa.
IPC co-moderator Dennis Small thanked Bresheeth, and reminded the participants that police-state tactics have also been employed in the U.S., in particular against Lyndon LaRouche, who was jailed in 1989 for his views.
During the discussion, Bresheeth was asked to describe what the British police said when they arrested him. He said that a British Zionist organization has a hit list which is provided to police. Initially they told him that he was guilty of “hate speech,” but when asked for specifics, the police became confused and made numerous calls. Ultimately, they changed the charge to “terrorism.”
A Canadian participant followed up: In Canada, there is a handbook with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of “anti-Semitism,” which includes any form of criticism of Israel. This is used to persecute anti-genocide opinions. Bresheeth replied that Britain is about ten years ahead of Canada in this respect.
He went on to say that two terrorist groups, Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Israel Defense Forces have taken over the Middle East. Syria is Humpty Dumpty; no one can put it back together. Who will stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from grabbing Syrian land? Israel has 200-300 nuclear devices, and they could use them against Iran, which has none.
Zepp-LaRouche said that the picture of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad painted by the Western media is completely wrong. Due to the Caesar Sanctions, 95% of Syrians live below the poverty line. Assad decided that fighting would be enormously painful for the Syrian population. Sanctions are intended to punish civilian populations in every case; they are a brutal form of warfare, illegal and unilateral.
An excerpt was presented of an interview with Chandra Muzaffar, founder and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST). “BRICS is an effort outside the West,” he said. BRICS should be cautious and not expand too fast. It should not exclude Western nations. It can become a global movement for humanity, for greater justice and integrity.
Dennis Small, in response to a question about war profiteering, said that the military-industrial-financial complex is owned by investment corporations like BlackRock. But don’t try to understand these wars as simple profiteering; there is a larger strategic game in play.
In conclusion, Bresheeth proposed that the Global South expel Israel from the UN, the way South Africa was expelled to end apartheid. McGovern and Zepp-LaRouche suggested a mobilization for a Christmas ceasefire and renewed efforts for peace. “Civilization hangs by a thread,” said Zepp-LaRouche.
