May 2, 2025 (EIRNS)—For nearly two years, the International Peace Coalition, which was organized to unite peace movements from around the world without regard to ideology, has been holding weekly online conferences with over 55 nations represented and thousands of participants. On May 2, the Coalition celebrated a milestone with its 100th consecutive meeting.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder of the Schiller Institute, presented a sobering progress report. Despite the growing influence of the Coalition, “We are seeing a very disturbing increase in conflicts.” Though there may be regional causes to these conflicts, the underlying basis is the tension created by the decline of the old, colonial system, and the emergence of the new one. She addressed the new outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan, calling for an independent investigation of the terror incident which sparked it. The situation there is escalating. The use of nuclear weapons is being discussed on both sides.
A new deal was announced in Ukraine, where the U.S. can exploit raw materials and some U.S. troops will remain in Ukraine, which may be “not to the liking of the Russians.” Unfortunately, “some crazy Europeans are committed to keep this war going.”
On the trade war front, she warned that tariffs could trigger a default by developing nations and/or collapse of the financial system. President Trump has not thought this through.
Since March 2, Israel has blockaded Gaza, and using food as a weapon of war is a war crime. We have called for an international mobilization to put the LaRouche Oasis Plan on the agenda of a high-level conference which the UN has scheduled on the two state solution, to take place on June 2-4, 2025 in New York. The late Pope Francis called development “the weapon of peace,” making him an implicit supporter of the Oasis Plan.
As important as regional measures may be, we need to end geopolitics for a lasting solution. We need a new paradigm that puts the one humanity first. We continue to call for the Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture.
Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and former Virginia State Senator, warned that “during the Biden administration, the U.S. became wildly provocative toward China.” He offered a timeline of provocative acts, such as the visit by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and others to Taiwan for the express purpose of provoking China. “Consider the enormity of a possible war with China, and compare that to Vietnam,” said Black. The Vietnam War was costly to the U.S. and ended in defeat. China is 29 times the size of Vietnam, with a vastly larger population and far more advanced technology.
Ambassador Hossein Mousavian, former ambassador from Iran to Germany, described how Iran had endeavored to compromise with the West; they agreed to cooperate with the IAEA, and to export uranium enriched to 60% to Russia, in order to allay fears that they intended to develop nuclear weapons. The Trump administration had made some progress with negotiations, but then the U.S. technical team that was to be sent to Oman was canceled, apparently due to an intervention by Netanyahu, who said that Israel would only accept the “Libya model” (which culminated in the utter destruction of Libya.) U.S. Secretary of State Rubio claims that the only use of uranium enrichment is for bombs, which is a ridiculous untruth. Mousavian offered a long list of states that have enrichment programs but no nuclear weapons.
Ofer Bronchtein, a former advisor of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and President of the Paris-based International Peace Forum, is presently an advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron on the Israeli situation. He believes that the French/Saudi initiative for a two-state solution can succeed, and is trying to build a coalition to support it. Zepp-LaRouche asked him to join the mobilization for the Oasis Plan. He replied that Rabin understood the importance of water: “Without water, there won’t be peace.”
International Law Under Threat
Jonathan Kuttab, International Human Rights Lawyer, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America and Co-Founder of Nonviolence International, spoke on the problem of Israel’s “utter impunity of ignoring international law,” no longer even bothering to offer “the excuse of military targets.” More than 230 journalists have been killed by the IDF, more than in any previous conflict. “We now see a deliberate attack on international institutions, on international courts, and on international law itself.” This has implications that go far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Excerpts were shown of a video interview by EIR’s Gerald Belsky with Maoz Inon, an Israeli peace activist and leader of the peace demo in Jerusalem May 8-9, the People’s Peace Summit. He said that “the only way to change reality is in the field of dream.” We need to shout it, dance it, sing about it, to legitimize the dream. We need diplomacy, dialogue and negotiation. The current wildfires in Israel are a consequence of investment that should have gone into water management being diverted to military use.
LaRouche activist Robert Castle gave a youth outreach report. He has been working with the Jose Vega congressional campaign in the Bronx, intersecting students on the way to classes and “challenging the young citizens of our republic to ask themselves whether they have a moral responsibility to intervene in this crisis.”
Zepp-LaRouche fully agreed with Kutab: it’s not just about Gaza, the larger issue is the non-response of the world community to the Gaza genocide, which can lead to a complete collapse of international law and descent into barbarism. International law did not exist before the Peace of Westphalia, which made it necessary.
Discussion
Zepp-LaRouche answered a question on the India-Pakistan conflict by asking, cui bono? Many nations that aspire to join BRICS have been targeted with economic/financial warfare or violent destabilization.
Kutab was asked, what can civil society do when governments fail to take action? He endorsed BDS, and said we should organize football and cultural organizations (which played a big role in ending apartheid in South Africa.)
A German participant renewed his plea that solar energy be used in place of nuclear energy for the Oasis Plan. He was invited to participate in the upcoming conference, where that topic will be discussed. Co-moderator Dennis Small reminded him that energy flux-density is the metric for evaluating energy sources. Because the Iberian Peninsula went entirely for solar and wind, there was a complete collapse of their energy grid last week.
A question was posed: Was the November 1995 assassination of Rabin the tipping point for the current crisis? Kutab responded, “There’s no question that Rabin himself was trying to deal with that situation in a new way.” But there were problems both before and after Rabin.
Moderator Anastasia Battle reported that there has been an attack on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, which some IPC participants have been on board the flotilla. We hope for their safety and well-being.
In response to a question from the Chinese Media Group on the trade war, Zepp-LaRouche said, “President Trump is presently vacillating and responding to pressure.” She cited Nicholas of Cusa, who said that if you have a systemic problem, you cannot solve it by addressing side issues. The human creative mind always has the capacity to resolve the problem on a higher level than the level on which the problem arose. In conclusion, she renewed her plea for people to join forces with us in working to put the Oasis Plan and Ten Principles on the agenda for the upcoming conference in June.
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