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June 6, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 157th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on June 5 included a deep discussion on the disaster in the Mideast between Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator, and the former Israeli Director of “Peace Now,” (also a former member of the Israeli Knesset), and a Palestinian- American journalist who founded the Community Media Network. The meeting also heard from the conductor of a symphony orchestra in rural Iowa, who is also a hog farmer, which led to a rich discussion of the role of culture in politics during the open Q & A session following the presentations.

Helga opened by noting that both war fronts, in Southwest Asia and in Ukraine, are increasing the danger of world war. Ukraine’s deadly drone strikes on a school in Luhansk on May 22 and on St. Petersburg on June 3, the opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) have increased the angry response from Moscow, with Russia launching extensive bombing across Ukraine and increasing broader discussion there of “teaching” Europe a lesson by using a nuclear weapon. “Where are the adults?” she asked. She noted that some are calling on former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to be made a delegate to Russia, with many voices objecting, but Helga said “Let him try.” On the other hand, she said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev has repeated his call for building a tunnel under the Bering Strait, thus connecting the Eurasian continent to the Americas—an idea long promoted by the LaRouche movement. She characterized Germany’s losing the vote by members of the UN General Assembly to represent Europe on the UN Security Council, to Austria and Portugal, as a sign that the Global South is disgusted with Germany’s support for war, and for saying nothing about the U.S. bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline, showing that Germany is a virtual colony to the United States.

The next speaker was Mossi Raz, the former Director of Peace Now in Israel, and a former member of the Israeli Knesset. He strongly denounced Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and called for Germany and all countries to call for statehood for Palestine. The Arab League peace plan for the conflict should be the basis of negotiations, he said. On Lebanon, they are weak—weak government, weak army—and cannot deliver on the agreement they reached with Israel. What can be done? The President of the United States Donald Trump can do it, as has been shown when he told Israel to stop the war on Gaza (although it is clear they never stopped), and to not bomb Beirut. Raz asserted that this made them stop, and the U.S. president—this one or the next one—is the only one who can make Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu stop. He added that Hezbollah takes orders from Iran, but added that Hamas does NOT take orders from Iran.

Next was Palestinian-American journalist Daoud Kuttab, founder and former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He showed his book, “State of Palestine NOW,” arguing that all of the wars in the region are based on the injustice to the Palestinians. He insisted that all nations must call for the recognition of Palestine, even if it is an occupied Palestine, so that they can negotiate with Israel on a state-to-state basis. He also insisted that the West Bank and Gaza must be de-linked from Israel. He said the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) has its problems, and PLO President Mahmoud Abbas is a weak leader—but he is the President of Palestine and we need to recognize him. Foreign leaders who are not happy with Abbas, he said, should engage with the imprisoned Marwan Barghouti (24 years in prison) who was elected head of Fatah. He is strong, moral, honest, and is thought of as the true leader of the Palestinian nation (Kuttab called him “the next President of Palestine” much like a Nelson Mandela).

Helga agreed with Kuttab, that Barghouti has “proven integrity.” She added, however, that with the destruction of Gaza, of Afghanistan, of Yemen, of Syria, that a plan for “peace through development was required, as exemplified by the LaRouche Oasis Plan—see Oasis Plan Is a ‘Model for the World’. She said that if even a few states backed it, it could work.

Kuttab added that negotiations must be comprehensive, “not gradual, like the Oslo Accords.”

Raz added that he had met Mahmoud Abbas many times, and choosing their leaders is the Palestinian’s business.

Helga agreed that getting a Palestinian state is a starting point, but what is required is a “grand design” for the entire region, from India to the Mediterranean. Addressing the needs of all countries, including Israel. China has shown that it can achieve such a grand design, greening the deserts, building large scale development corridors like the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). She said that with such a program, in ten years the desert would become a lush garden, like during the era of the Silk Road. What is needed is such a grand vision, to change the view of the future.

Harley Schlanger then gave a report on the May 30-31 Schiller Institute Conference, “The End of 500 Years of Colonialism -For a Dialogue of Civilizations—The Urgency of a New Global Security and Development Architecture.” He characterized the presentations by China’s Zhang Weiwei, by Amb. Chas Freeman, by Pino Arlachi, the video by four young people from Uganda, by Dr. Wolfgang Bittner from Germany, and the cultural panel, with Iranian poetry, Chinese dance, and Western classical music.

This was followed by Bob McConnell, conductor of the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra for 35 years, and also an Iowa hog farmer, who reported on the destructive economic policies dragging down rural areas, shutting down towns and institutions. He spoke of his commitment to defend and expand classical music. Located in the center of the North American farmbelt, he explained how he recruits people who know nothing about classical music, to understand and appreciate it. Two short videos were played showing McConnell with the orchestra demonstrating the opening and grand finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. This sparked excitement in the discussion period over the connection of beautiful music to intervening for peace.

Other issues brought up in the Q&A included one caller who said she was an economist but was searching for a means to get active politically—but not as an economist, which is “such a horrible profession.” So, she was very happy about doing it through music. Helga said she was glad she loved the music, but that economics was not a “horrible profession,” noting that her late husband Lyndon LaRouche was a great economist, but insisted that economists must be also scientists and artists. The problem, said Helga, is that nearly all economists today are monetarists who know only about money, not real economics.

Another person called for a new “ideology” for the new world architecture promoted by the Schiller Institute and the IPC. Helga said, no not an “ideology,” which is a construct, but what’s needed is the “search for truth.” She quoted Norbert Brainin, the great lead violinist for the Amadeus Quartet, who called the work of their quartet “truth seeking musicians, getting closer and closer as we go along.”

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Report on IPC #155

May 22, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 155th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with comments by coalition initiator and Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She announced that the immediate target of the IPC’s mobilization will be the special open debate of the UN Security Council which will be held on May 26, with the theme of “Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and Strengthening the UN-centered International System,” to be chaired personally by Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, this month’s UNSC rotating chair.

She reviewed the proposals which came out of last week’s EIR roundtable discussion, and added that it was heartening that more proposals, such as the Africa 2063 plan, are emerging that complement her proposals and those which have been presented at IPC meetings.

Zepp-LaRouche has composed a special letter addressed to the UNSC session “What we are interested in is to be putting on the table an entirely different approach,” she said, not the usual geopolitics, but “long term survivability of the region and all the countries involved.” The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned this week that, due to resource shortages which are a consequence of the Iran war, on top of the ongoing economic financial breakdown, we are already in the initial stages of a “food price shock,” potentially leading to famines. She warned that those who planned the war anticipated such an outcome; “There are all these crazy Malthusian ideas in the background,” including the policy of so-called “controlled disintegration.”

Science and Religion

Dr. Abdullah Ahsan of Pakistan, Professor of Comparative Civilization at Istanbul Şehir University in Türkiye, identified three stages of a solution to the present crisis. In the short term, there would be former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s proposal for a neutral third party—he proposed Pakistan, Indonesia, Türkiye and Malaysia—to manage the Strait of Hormuz, because the United States and Iran have reached a total deadlock and the entire world has become “victim of this Hormuz situation.” In the middle term, we must revive the concept of a Dialogue of Civilizations, which has been advocated in various forms by various parties, including the Schiller Institute and the government of Iran. In the long term, we must address the view that there is a conflict between science and religion. Modern secularism, Dr. Ahsan asserted, stems from the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Ahsan’s studies, however, “suggest that all civilizations in history are rooted in divine guidance.” He cited the subject of evolution, where science and faith appear to diverge.

Later in the discussion, co-moderator Dennis Small posed a solution to the apparent conflict. Man has the capability to creatively modify the physical universe, which is a demonstration of free will and thereby moral capability, and represents a so-called “metaphysical” dimension in what most consider physics, the existence of which refutes the theories of Kant. He cited LaRouche’s Oasis Plan as an example of a creative idea impacting the physical universe.

Still later, Helga Zepp-LaRouche weighed in on this topic. She contrasted the dogmatic vs. the philosophical view in religion. Saint Augustine pointed out that Plato had earlier arrived at similar conclusions to those of Jesus Christ, demonstrating that there is no contradiction between faith and knowledge. Fifteenth-Century Catholic Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa said that evolution takes place through the “lifting” of the lower domain by the more developed organizing principle of the higher domain, and Zepp-LaRouche went on to describe how the Russian/Ukrainian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky arrived at the same conclusion with his conception of the Noösphere. This idea is also reflected in the book of Genesis, where Man is said to be imago viva Dei, in the living image of God, because of his capacity for creativity.

The Worsening Crisis in Agriculture

Jesus Holguin Cazares, President of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, reported that the costs of chemicals necessary for agriculture have gone up dramatically due to the Iran war. This places an extraordinary and unsustainable burden on smaller, independent producers. In addition, the cartelization of agriculture poses a threat to smaller producers who cannot compete with enormous agribusinesses, and this translates to higher prices for consumers. Corporations are buying up distressed farms, leading to further cartelization.

Jon Baker, Vice President of the Iowa Stockgrowers Association also reported on the crisis in farming and ranching, which he said was getting much worse as a result of the Iran War, for example, with its effect on pushing up prices for diesel, essential for agriculture. He also took aim at the predations of speculators and agribusiness. Baker gave the example of his own operation, which lost $80,000 in value over the past two days, just due to so-called “market factors.” The mega agro-cartels are increasing their concentration, while independent farm operations decrease.

Dennis Small followed Holguin with a report from the National Front to Save the Mexican Countryside, which just held a 3,500-person demonstration in Mexico City and met with the country’s Agriculture Minister to discuss policy solutions to the crisis. The Front calls for an agriculture policy in Mexico which prioritizes feeding the population rather than coddling the speculators of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and the destructive neo-liberal economic policies such as those associated with Ludwig von Mises of the Austrian School. They are calling for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to change policy, but they are not joining the efforts of U.S. speculators and the U.S. President Donald Trump administration to undermine and destabilize her government.

Independent U.S. congressional candidate in New York’s 15th congressional district (The Bronx) Jose Vega offered a report on the progress of his campaign, and commented on how essential it is for American citizens to take up the profound ideas discussed at the IPC meetings. He led a rally at the United Nations yesterday to shape the discussion at the May 26 UN Security Council special session.

Discussion: Fighting the Oligarchy

Zepp-LaRouche elaborated on the various facets of the drive for war being promoted by the leading “Western” faction, emphasizing that “unilateral sanctions are a form of war,” and expressed the hope that these conflicts can be resolved with a new international security and development architecture. In response to a question, she called for global support for Cuba, a major victim of U.S. sanctions, particularly in light of Cuba’s benevolent role in assisting other nations with medical support. Zepp-LaRouche observed that the “Davos men,” AKA the Epstein Class or “the super class of the dead souls,” are interested in perpetuating the crises for the purposes of advancing their geopolitical agendas.

Dr. Ahsan raised the question of how to end oligarchic control over politics, and offered the example of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which exerts economic pressure on the Israeli regime, as a small step in the right direction.

In conclusion, Zepp-LaRouche reiterated her warnings that both the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the wars initiated by Israel in Southwest Asia, are potential flashpoints for nuclear war. Co-moderator Dennis Speed noted that next week’s meeting will mark the 156th-consecutive weekly meeting of the IPC, the three-year anniversary of its founding. The sort of persistence demonstrated by the IPC in carrying on these meetings will be important in building the grass-roots machine required to change the policies of the United States and Europe. [eir]