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Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, kicked off the 82nd weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) today, wishing everyone a good New Year, “especially a whole New Year, because that is not yet certain.” She reviewed the various zones of military conflict, noting the U.S. is setting up a new military base in Damascus. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently said that Russia has received encouraging signals from the pending administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, but it remains to be seen whether they are supported with facts.

Zepp-LaRouche assessed the appointments of the incoming Trump administration, saying they “are very, very mixed.” The first two hopeful strategic signs: the Japanese Foreign Minister visited Beijing and the two nations made a number of constructive agreements, including to foster each other’s classical traditions. Secondly, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after meeting with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, agreed to have Slovakia as a venue for peace talks with Ukraine.

In Southwest Asia, the new Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leaders in Syria were all founding members of al-Nusra and related terror organizations. The situation there is a powder keg, with an assortment of factions and states vying for control. The danger is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “may feel that the wind is in his sails,” and be emboldened to take ever more provocative actions, including against Iran. Israel continues its unspeakable genocide against the children of Gaza, and now has bombed Yemen’s international airport in Sana’a, nearly killing the Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Zepp-LaRouche concluded, “Geopolitics is a mental disease; it should be eradicated.”

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), said that Zepp-LaRouche really should be briefing the incoming President of the United States. With the recent revelations by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding his 2021 meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, when Biden tried to convince Putin that China was a threat to Russia’s security, McGovern said “These guys really don’t get it,” adding that the word that comes to his mind is the German “Wahnsinn,” an expression which is “stronger than just crazy,” and perfectly describes NATO’s delusions. NATO, he said, combines Wahnsinn with sociopathy, having no empathy. Then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, when asked in a “60 Minutes” interview about the deaths of half a million children in Iraq due to sanctions, replied, “I think that it is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.” McGovern concluded, “We’re at a liminal point here.” Hopefully, we will be able to breathe a lot easier in three weeks.

Larry Johnson, retired CIA official and a co-founder of the VIPS, began with “the mess that is Syria,” suggesting that the nation most likely to wind up in control is Türkiye. Turkish President Erdoğan has “climbed into bed with Israel.” HTS leader and former head-chopper Abu Mohammad al-Jolani is being presented as “Mahatma Gandhi with a beard.” But HTS is not in control and not able to make the state function for its inhabitants. There is now a civil war. Israel has been fighting Hamas, a lightly armed guerrilla force, for 14 months and can’t beat it. Yet Israel wants to control part of Syria? The more they extend themselves, the faster they will weaken themselves.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche agreed with McGovern on the topic of Wahnsinn, and with Johnson that a current in Türkiye wants an empire. When she and her husband Lyndon LaRouche met with Turkish President Turgut Özal in the 1980s, she was astonished at the degree to which “Greater Turkey” was on his mind. Johnson replied, “The vanity of Erdoğan is clouding his judgment.” He believes that he’s in a position to restore the Ottoman Empire.

Ray McGovern discussed the delusions that arise when a group of people believe that they are “exceptional.” During the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry dreamt of “aligning the forces in Syria.” Helga Zepp-LaRouche agreed, asserting that exceptionalism leads to geopolitics, “like Germany 80 years ago.” McGovern soberly added, “Chosen people, indispensable people … each case leads to disaster.”

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed reported on the podcast in the U.S., where an advisor turned critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an interview contrasting the “official view” on Putin, that Putin had launched a military aggression against Ukraine, to his own, unofficial view: that Putin is the most pro-Western Russian official in memory. Putin proposed to join NATO, create a joint missile defense, and offered to provide a base for U.S. forces during the initial stage of their war against Afghanistan. Zepp-LaRouche replied that this “unofficial view” is “totally in cohesion with what I have observed over the years.”

Dr. Nidal Jboor of Doctors Against Genocide, announced that Kamal Adwan, the last remaining hospital in northern Gaza, has been burnt, and all doctors arrested. His [organization](doctorsagainstgenocide.org) will hold a live-stream this Sunday, Dec. 29, with colleagues in Gaza, urging IPC participants to attend.

Larry Johnson said that the last 10 years have convinced even the most pro-Western people in Russia that the West cannot be trusted; they are “like a ravenous locust that wants to consume everything.” McGovern said that “Putin has a long record of reaching out and speaking to the deaf and dumb.”

The balance of power between the U.S.S.R. and the West used to be more or less even. Now Russia and China work together, and Russia has technical advantages that they never enjoyed before. Johnson added that thanks to social media, we have a video record of new missile technology in action. In addition, offensive drones are a game-changer.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche reiterated: The only hope she can see, is for the West to say, let’s stop geopolitics and move from confrontation to cooperation. There are huge swaths of territory in the U.S. which are underpopulated. Clearly it should shift its emphasis from seeking hegemony, to developing its tattered economy. This is the road to solving the migrant problem and bringing peace.

French Solidarité et Progrès leader Jacques Cheminade suggested that the interests of Israel and Türkiye will no longer coincide. This raises the question of what will happen with Iran. Will Russia keep its bases in Syria?

Finally, there was a discussion of the role of churches, and the Pope’s Urbi et Orbi Christmas call for peace. Joe Biden, who identifies as a Catholic, will shortly visit the Pope; McGovern mused, “I don’t know how a practicing Catholic can enable genocide, it’s beyond me.” He said wryly that Biden has a lot to confess.

About Trump’s recent statements on annexing Panama, Canada, and Greenland, Larry Johnson called these “the most bizarre statements I have seen.” There are hardly any U.S. ships going through the Panama Canal. “Trump likes torturing Trudeau…. I must say, I can’t blame him.”

Zepp-LaRouche concluded that “der Wahnsinn is increasing” in Germany. It is being said that “the Bundeswehr should get ready to fight right now,” and that is insane. There is an explosion of voices coming out in alternative media saying that there is “no longer a coincidence of interests between Europe and the United States.” She reminded the participants of the summits of culture represented by Schiller and Beethoven. Discussion of a humanist image of man, should give us the strength to intervene.

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.

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened today’s 72nd consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition, emphasizing that with the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the escalation of war is looming in Southwest Asia, contrary to the proclamations of some U.S. leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to attack Iran; Russia has warned Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran has received advanced missile systems from Russia which require Russian specialists to help operate them, while 100 American troops are in Israel to help operate the new THAAD missile system there. This could become a direct U.S./Russia confrontation. Meanwhile, the ethnic cleansing continues in Palestine, with Israel declaring 400,000 civilians in northern Gaza to be “combatants.”

In Ukraine, “there is no chance in the world that Ukraine could win against Russia.” Nonetheless, acting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who “has no concern for reality at all,” demands that Ukraine be immediately admitted to NATO, or be given nuclear weapons. Either scenario leads to World War III.

Zepp-LaRouche said she was encouraged that the Director-General of China’s Department of Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry Sun Xiaobo has made a call similar to Zepp-LaRouche’s call for a new Security and Development Architecture. Because the existing security structures are not adequate to prevent nuclear war, we have to catapult our proposal in the tradition of the Treaty of Westphalia onto the international agenda.

Mossi Raz, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, former director general of Peace Now, and a former IDF paratrooper, said: “It’s really clear that there is a conflict here that is not only between two partners…. This has become global war, which we must bring to an end.” Peace activists in both Palestine and Israel are saying the same thing: release hostages on both sides and end hostilities, and go toward a two-state solution. Raz reported positively on the Oct. 17 discussion at the Vatican between Pope Francis, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa, on an Israel-Palestine peace proposal.

Graham Fuller, former U.S. CIA official, senior political scientist and Islamic scholar, warned that Israel’s actions in the broader Middle East are the key accelerator of the crisis throughout the region. He decried the “stunning Western inaction.” He said he was encouraged by student action in the U.S., and that foreign policy is now beginning to play a small role in the presidential race.

Israel, Fuller said, is no longer simply seeking revenge for Oct. 7; it’s an excuse for broader ethnic cleansing and Israeli expansionism. Other states in the region are putting their differences aside in a way that was unthinkable even one year ago. “The geopolitical center of gravity is shifting away from the West.”

Zepp-LaRouche responded, saying that we need to stop the drive for “Eretz Israel” (Greater Israel) and move to policies in the mutual interest of everyone in the region.

She also addressed the Vatican meeting as hopeful, but not enough. This led to a very fruitful exchange between her and Mossi Raz. She said, “These partial solutions are very, very important if they are embedded in an overall new security architecture as was accomplished with the Peace of Westphalia.” Today that includes Russia, China, the U.S. and the BRICS. Raz responded, “I fully agree.” The Nasser Al-Kidwa and Ehud Olmert proposal are important, and offer hope, especially from people of their experience and stature. That proposal, along with the Arab League proposal, can work in the context of the Schiller Institute’s broader Oasis Plan for the region.

LaRouche independent Congressional candidate in the Bronx Jose Vega (CD15) read from newly published letters of the late Leah Rabin, widow of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who negotiated the Oslo Accords and was assassinated 29 years ago on Nov. 4, 1995. He asked for a response from Raz, who said that he agrees with Leah Rabin. However, the problem is not only Netanyahu, just as with Hamas, it’s not only Sinwar. The majority of Israelis support the war. If we have leaders who will mobilize us for a peace agreement, maybe we can win.

An excerpt was shown of a video interview of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and public policy analyst and a professor at Columbia University, speaking with Mike Billington. Sachs described the arrest of students calling for peace in Palestine, with university administrators bullied by Congress. Universities forgot that they are universities. On the upcoming Oct. 26 Sare-Vega peace concert and rally, which will include Classical music, Sachs recalled that he attended a concert with leaders of G20 and saw how they were touched by a performance of the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. There is a deeper problem than the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was started soon after the close of World War II by the U.S. Deep State—the Security State—but went into “hyperdrive” during this century; the “extraordinary claim that it’s the sole superpower” has to be reexamined.

Diane Sare, LaRouche independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, said, “We have to somehow change the trajectory of the United States…. The adversaries of civilization truly have a misunderstanding of power,” because they think it emanates from the use of force. Martin Luther King had a different and better understanding. “Judging from the candidates other than myself and Jose [Vega], the election is not going to solve our problems.”

During the discussion period, video coverage of an antiwar demonstration in Germany was presented. Zepp-LaRouche emphasized that the Russians did not cause the conflict with Ukraine. In response to a question about a dialogue among cultures, Zepp-LaRouche said that when people from various cultures assemble informally and meet face to face, they get along amicably. That is because people are basically good. The conflict and misery are created by powerful interests that have their own motives. She went on to endorse a proposal from a participant who suggested an event be organized where children from around the world would present cultural contributions from their respective nations in the interests of peace.

When Zepp-LaRouche was asked to comment on the role of the British, she asked: Who is always egging the United States on? This comes from the old British Empire idea of divide and conquer, “always sowing mistrust to manipulate.” She reminded the participants of the 1955 Bandung Conference, in which leaders of the Global South reminded the U.S. that the American Revolution was the first anti-colonialist revolution. The British Empire still exists in a camouflaged form, and the U.S. has regrettably been persuaded to use it as a model for foreign policy. She described the international “Green” movement as an expression of the British Empire’s Malthusian doctrine.

In her concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche mentioned that there have been heavy-handed attempts to destabilize the BRICS nations, and in one case, Argentina, they were able to reverse that nation’s decision to join. She added, “Many of the leaders of the BRICS are incredibly wise and mature statesmen.” At one time we had statesmen in Europe like Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle, but today we have leaders who have a “stature like dwarves.” We must overcome geopolitics, because the present effort to divide the world into two blocs is the source of the war danger.