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Zepp-LaRouche’s CGTN Article Presents Alternative to Trump’s Tariffs

China’s CGTN today published an article by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “What Could U.S. Tariff Policy Lead To?” in which she described what an alternative should be to Donald Trump’s import tariffs.

Quoting from the White House statement on tariffs, Zepp-LaRouche wrote that it “lumps together very different cases. While China has lifted nearly 850 million of its own citizens out of poverty, eradicated absolute poverty, created a middle-income group of 400 million people with an enormous purchasing power, and beyond that, become the engine of development for the Global South, the situation for Germany is quite different.

“The introduction of the eurozone in 1999 was criticized heavily at the time because it integrated very differently developed economies into one currency zone, which was not an ‘optimal currency zone.’ When Gerhard Schröder implemented ‘Agenda 2010,’ a series of reforms, as the German chancellor in the early 2000s, it did suppress domestic wages, and in that way increased the competitiveness of the German economy relative to the less industrialized countries of the eurozone. It increased the weight of the German economy at the expense of the other European countries, since they could not devalue their currencies anymore.

“As a result, Germany became the ‘export world champion’ for a while, but many domestic investments, such as renewal of basic infrastructure, were neglected, and the buying power of the domestic market was relatively weakened. Naturally all of this was overshadowed by subsequent developments, such as the loss of access to cheap Russian gas, and the loss of the Russian market for geopolitical reasons. Theoretically, the Trump tariffs could be a wake-up call for Germany to put its own house in order.”

Globalization and outsourcing had a similar impact in the U.S., and Trump wants to reverse this, but instead of listening to his free-market ideologues, he should “return to sound physical economy principles: investment in scientific and technological progress, international space cooperation and innovation in general. That means the education systems of the U.S. and European nations have to be reorganized to serve this orientation, and incentives have to be given to train a highly skilled labor force for this purpose.”

The alternative to unilateral actions to destroy the old order “is a cooperative approach, where real development perspectives for Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe are put on the agenda for joint ventures and cooperative investments in infrastructure, industry, agriculture, science, health and education systems, financed through productive credits.

“The trade imbalances will be removed by making the pie bigger, taking into account the different characteristics and levels of development of the individual economies in a fair division of labor. ‘Humanity first’ will lead to a win-win outcome for everyone.”


International Peace Coalition: Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire?

April 5, 2025 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the 96th consecutive weekly Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on April 4 with a warning to the Trump Administration, regarding its contemplated attack on Iran. She characterized it as a trap, designed by the war party for President Trump, and predicted that such a war could lead to dramatically higher oil prices and could trigger a financial collapse. This leads not to a “decapitation” of Iran, but a “decapitation” of President Trump. Many of the MAGA supporters during Trump’s election campaign had hoped for a reversal of the “endless war” policy, and they are now disillusioned; angry over the war with Yemen and possibly Iran. Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear program, like every sovereign country.

Turning to the European situation, she said that the EU is proving that U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was right in his Munich remarks, when he said that Europe is no longer democratic. The latest evidence is the court decision barring Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s Rassemblement National (RN) party, from participating in the presidential election. Le Pen was found guilty of misappropriating funds. Zepp-LaRouche compared Le Pen’s case to that of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in 2016, who was convicted as French Finance Minster of misappropriating a much larger amount as French Finance Minister in 2008, but served no jail time because of her “international reputation.” Zepp-LaRouche described this as a “double standard to the hilt.”

Not ‘Unprovoked’

She also stressed the importance of a “breathtakingly shocking” article which just appeared in the New York Times on the Ukraine war. It decisively debunks the neocon narrative that the Russian invasion was “unprovoked,” and according to Zepp-LaRouche, “It confirms that the Russian version of the story was the correct one.” U.S. military and CIA operatives in Wiesbaden, Germany have been engaged continuously throughout the war in planning and technical support. The Biden Administration officially withheld permission for certain operations, but secretly gave it. It has been a proxy war from the start. Zepp-LaRouche urged participants to demand that their politicians “correct what they have been saying about it.”

Steven Starr, former director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, presented video excerpts, with his own commentary, from several of his colleagues. These included Patrick Henningsen of 21st Century Wire Media, who observed that Iran is not the only nuclear threshold state, but Trump doesn’t threaten these others. Starr recalled that Israel has 200-300 nuclear weapons. In another video excerpt, Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector, charged that Iran “is waving the red flag in Trump’s face,” and the consequence could be an all-encompassing strategic air campaign against Iran, including the use of nuclear weapons. Iran has 60% enriched uranium which could be made quickly into weapons.

While Ritter focused on this as a regional war, his colleague Larry Johnson, a retired CIA analyst and a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), who participated in the same video interview, said that he does not think the Russians could just look past an attack on Iran. In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that Ritter overlooks the larger game. Southwest Asia is just the cockpit of the Anglo-American geopolitical ambitions. The fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump began a dialogue is what is motivating the war drive, both there and in Europe. Starr added that if Trump thinks he can compartmentalize his relationship with Russia and keep it separate from a war against Iran, he is mistaken. He also warned that the Christian Zionists in the Trump Cabinet are not rational, and their policy stems from fundamentalist religious beliefs, citing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an example.

A Scandal Every Day

Hillel Schenker, a longtime Israeli peace activist who is co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in deep trouble, with scandal after scandal erupting every day. A clear majority of Israelis oppose him. Schenker asserted that in multiple political polls, the majority of Israeli citizens want to return to the ceasefire agreements, with a clear disapproval of the Netanyahu government. Despite the fall in his approval, Netanyahu still holds 87 seats in the Knesset (parliament).

Schenker called for a global alliance for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is optimistic based on the role of the Saudis, the de facto leaders of the Arab world, who need good relations with the U.S. and Israel in order to build a modern post-oil economy. Saudi Arabia will embrace those relationships, provided there is a pathway to a Palestinian state.

Gershon Baskin, an Israeli columnist, social and political activist, and a researcher of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process, in a video interview he gave to EIR’s Gerald Belsky, said that Netanyahu claims renewed military pressure on Gaza is intended to free the Hamas hostages, but we know from experience that it is actually a hindrance, and that Netanyahu has entirely different motives. Baskin reviewed the ongoing efforts to get a two-state solution, and said we must break the deadlock where both parties believe that they have no partner for peace on the other side.

Jose Vega, interventionist, political organizer, and congressional candidate in the Bronx, reported on activism being carried out all over New York City by his campaign.

Former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar castigated the corporate news media for refusing to report on the true extent of the tragedy in Gaza, and noted the efforts of the Trump Administration to silence any criticism of what the Israelis are doing. He agreed with Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche that the New York Times article should be widely circulated. He echoed the concerns of other speakers about a war against Iran, and praised the courage of the Houthis in trying to combat the genocide against Gaza Palestinians. He also observed that the American Administration is engaged in an attempt to discredit international institutions, including the UN, while also undermining the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed cited Martin Luther King’s response to the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War: What is needed is security for Israel, and development for the Arabs. Zepp-LaRouche said in response that we may consider King an implicit supporter of the Oasis Plan.

Discussion

IPC co-moderator Dennis Small responded to a question on the new tariffs by warning that they could unleash the total blowout of the financial system. He likened the policy to lighting a match in a room full of dynamite.

A participant who is the author of several books on nuclear weapons responded to Scott Ritter’s comments by saying that Iran enriched uranium to 60% only after Trump blocked their access to medical isotopes, and said as well that an attack on Iran would lead to global, not regional war.

Choosing her words carefully due to the present environment of censorship, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that European leaders “deserve a criminal investigation.” In Europe, they are going into schools, trying to recruit 17-year-olds for military service. In her concluding remarks, she returned to a common theme of the IPC meetings, her proposed “Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture.” 


Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Peace without Visions Does Not Work

April 4, 2025 (EIRNS)—Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed the Swedish Schiller Institute annual conference on Sunday, March 30, 2025.

Read Transcript


An Oasis Plan for the Mutual Development of Southwest Asia – by Jacques Cheminade

The following is an edited transcript of the March 18, 2025 address by Jacques Cheminade, president of Solidarité & Progrès, made to academics at the Académie Géopolitique de ParisThe presentation was broadcast live and posted on the Academy’s YouTube page and webpages.

Paris Academy of Geopolitics

Jacques Cheminade speaks at a meeting of the Paris Academy of Geopolitics in March. His speech was titled, “Which EU Diplomacy for Palestine?”

Thank you, Mr. Ali Rastbeen [President of the Académie], and thank you to everyone who is here, because together we must help address a challenge that is fundamental to humanity.

Peace is not simply the rejection of war. It requires an agreement to bring together the conditions of power, or rather of a potential to live together. It is from this human conviction, which was that of the authors of the Treaty of Westphalia in Europe in 1648, that a solution can be found. A difficult solution, but a real one—not only for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but to avoid the conflagration of the whole of Southwest Asia.

This is the basis of the Oasis Plan proposed by our International Peace Coalition and the Schiller Institute. It is a plan for mutual development and growth, an economic development project based on three interdependent key factors in this part of the world: water, energy, and food. Not some nice words, but water, energy, and food! This does not mean putting aside the political conditions to achieve this, but rather creating the framework and economic conditions to achieve a political solution. This should be Europe’s plan, and France’s first and foremost.

An oasis is not just a place where one passes, but, when the oases are many, they become sources that bring together the caravans. It was the American economist Lyndon LaRouche who conceived this project from the year 1975, following interviews with the leaders of the Iraqi and Syrian Ba’ath parties, and of the anti-colonial tendency of the Israeli Labor Party represented then by Abba Eban. I myself met on several occasions Maxim Ghilan, who directed in Paris the magazine Israel & Palestine condemning the Israeli colonial excesses, and was a back-channel interlocutor of Yasser Arafat and his friends.

I will describe this plan here, the basis of development and mutual security that must therefore benefit the entire region, as was equally the intention of Bashar al-Assad’s Five Seas Plan. I wanted to show you that this is not a chimerical project, coming from nowhere, but the fruit of a dialogue between adversaries in search of a common good.

After describing its foundations, I will show you the various trial projects that preceded it, and how the three wars fomented by oligarchies from outside the region—the Suez War in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War in 1973—all these wars were operations launched to sabotage the plans for peace through mutual development. And then, of course, comes the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s suppression of the intifadas and the rise to power of Benjamin Netanyahu, his alliance with the Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the racists Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who organized the genocide in Gaza and the crimes of the occupiers in the West Bank.

Dynamics of the Oasis Plan

Karel Vereycken, May 2024

Map of the Oasis Plan for Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.

The Oasis Plan is based on the reparation of these crimes, the offenses inflicted on others, and the implementation of major projects for mutual benefit, initiating and expanding a dynamic. It therefore provides for water, energy, and food.

Water: Israel has to give up its exclusive control over water resources, in favor of an agreement for the equitable sharing of resources among all countries in the region. This means the immediate installation of a floating, underwater, or offshore desalination plant on the coast of Gaza.

Currently there are very few, small desalination units. And as you know, two weeks ago, by cutting off electricity to two desalination plants in the Deir Al-Balah area of central Gaza, Israel is condemning Gaza to not have drinking water. Our plan is the creation of a water supply system: water galleries [conveyance systems] from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, and from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, composed of tunnels, pipelines, pumping stations, and hydroelectric power.

It’s also energy. Before being desalinated, the seawater arriving at the Dead Sea will enter into a dam reservoir. Then, it will fall into a 400-meter vertical shaft—you know, the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level—allowing with turbines the creation of hydroelectric energy. Once down, the salty seawater will be desalinated.

Desalination will create fresh water that can go to Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. The brine will be used to save the Dead Sea, and that is essential; we must save this body of water in this region. Some of the water passing through the Mediterranean–Dead Sea water supply system could be desalinated in Beersheba, the capital of the Negev, whose population could double thanks to the new freshwater reserves.

Then there’s food, living conditions, and transportation. New cities and development corridors will have to be organized around the new water supply system. It’s about managing water in development corridors, for human beings, for industries, for services.

This water management involves the recovery of surface water and rainwater, drip irrigation, drip fertigation, and desalination, of course—and this will lead to rapid agricultural development. Israel today has water beyond its needs—which must be shared.

CC/Sadalmelik

Topographic map showing Israel, Palestine, and part of Jordan.

Courtesy of the Israeli Meteorological Service

Mean annual rainfall (in millimeters, mm) across Israel and Palestine from 1981 to 2010.

An end to the settlement policy in the West Bank: Settlers must be encouraged, either fiscally or by more direct means if required, to reorient themselves to the Negev, where they can, working and living in harmony with the Bedouins, Palestinians, and others, take on productive jobs and make the desert flourish. There is room for everyone in the region.

Finally, there is the reconstruction and economic development of the Gaza Strip, including Yasser Arafat International Airport, which was inaugurated in 1998, bulldozed by the Israelis in 2002, and which will have to be rebuilt; and a large seaport, serving a hinterland equipped with transport, industrial and agricultural infrastructure.

So, is it idealistic? Is it impossible? First, there is no other choice than a win-win agreement for the people if we truly want to achieve peace. Only a dynamic of mutual development can escape a dynamic of war.

This is the Oasis Plan method. Let’s be frank, it has characteristics specific to this region of the world, but to ensure its lasting success, it must be situated within the context of an international architecture of mutual peace and security, beyond this region. The only war worth winning is the war against the desert.

Today, the win-win system of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, supported by what is becoming the global majority, is laying the foundations for this new architecture of peace on a scale that is itself global.

Necessary Political Conditions

There remain two political conditions attached to the Oasis Plan. Immediate recognition of the Palestinian state, by all, so that there can be two official interlocutors. The Oslo Accords failed because it did not foresee this from the outset.

Freeing Marwan Barghouti, who is recognized as the leader who is capable of bringing together all Palestinian factions, and a commitment for each party to work for the benefit of the other, without seeing each other as an existential enemy—as Carl Schmitt[fn_1] wanted—not only on the scale of Europe, but also on the scale of the Middle East. So, once again, utopia? No, it is the result of the implementation of multiple effects.

CC/David Shankbone

The Dead Sea, 420 meters below sea level, is highly saline.

There are a few key facts for this region that I want to point out. If you look at the region’s overall geological relief, you see that there is the Sea of Galilee, 200 meters below sea level; the Dead Sea, 420 meters below sea level; and the coasts.

The Dead Sea has a salinity (fraction of the total mass of the water, including the dissolved salt, which is salt) of 27%, while the Mediterranean has a salinity of 2 to 4%. So, we can create the conditions to revitalize the interior. We have water resources and we can develop the region. This is an axis that would first be the Mediterranean–Dead Sea, and then the Red Sea–Dead Sea. It’s a huge challenge because of this terrain, but also an opportunity for the entire region.

Then there’s the inequality of natural water resources in the region. There are favored regions—Türkiye, for example, has more water per capita—while Jordan is at the bottom, and Palestine, too, both having extremely limited resources. While in Israel and the settlements, 47% of the land is irrigated today; it’s only 6% in Palestinian land.

CC/Borisshin

Israeli drip agriculture using Netafim technology.

Then there are the efforts that were made to resolve the issue. First, there was the Johnston-Eisenhower Plan, as early as 1953. The aim was to undertake development between Israelis and Palestinians, taking the water resources of the Jordan Valley, irrigation, hydroelectricity. Israel and the Arab League did not support this agreement, because there were wounds from Israeli colonization that had not yet healed.

And then there was the Franco-Anglo-Israeli Suez expedition in 1956, which was due to water. It is said that it was Nasser who wanted to nationalize the Suez Canal, but that’s not quite how it happened.

It was first John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles who wanted to prevent the Aswan Dam from being built. Nasser said: If that’s how it is, I’ll nationalize the Suez Canal. And at that time there was the Anglo-French-Israeli expedition, which was stopped by the United States, at the time of President Eisenhower; and obviously at the time, in the USSR, Malenkov and, I believe, also Kaganovich, who stopped it. So, the war left its mark, and the already very fragile trust among Jews and Arabs completely disappeared.

Then there was the Six-Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. And despite that, in 1975 there was a plan by German engineers named Herbert Wendt and Wieland Kelm, which was the following: to build a water conveyance system from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea.

Taken from above the sea with a 7-km canal, then a 55-km hydraulic gallery through the relief, we arrive at a 3-km-long reservoir and then there is a 400-meter drop toward the Dead Sea, and we create hydroelectricity from there. This is how we can save the Dead Sea at the same time. It doesn’t work, because obviously it was done unilaterally by Israel, and in any case a project developed in this way cannot be accepted.

On December 16, 1981, the United Nations General Assembly demanded that Israel halt construction of the canal linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, and urged the Security Council to prevent the project from going ahead. It was therefore because of the conflict between the two parties, fomented from outside, and because the unilateral project was contrary to international law, that it was then stopped.

The Dead Sea–Red Sea aqueduct project was also on the drawing board. Unilateral projects are doomed to failure.

CC/NielsF

The National Water Carrier of Israel (1964), has become less and less adequate as population grows. It pumps water from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the center and the dry south, with pipes, canals, tunnels, reservoirs, and pumping stations.

Consequences of Rabin’s Assassination

Then came the 1993 Oslo Accords. They included a little-discussed Annex 3, which provided for Israeli-Palestinian economic cooperation based on water and electricity, with a permanent committee for economic cooperation. This is why it was approved by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and in particular by Marwan Barghouti, of course, but it was never implemented; it was sabotaged.

On November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Despite the efforts of Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat, and the King of Jordan, all that remains of this is the canal along the Jordan River, which is intended to supply Jordan with water and is on Jordanian territory.

Netanyahu wins: He was Prime Minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999, then from 2009 to 2021, and now from 2022. You have to see who Benjamin Netanyahu is. His father, Benzion Netanyahu, was the main collaborator and personal secretary of Vladimir Z. Jabotinsky, who was—let’s be polite—a neo-fascist.

He is pushing the insane Ben Gurion Canal navigation project to beat Egypt. And now, the genocide in Gaza is the political turning point of Israel.

With the Oasis Plan things can be turned around. You see, you have a vision—I don’t have time to go into it, but we have all the elements of the Oasis Plan here [shows 38-page report].

Let’s end on a note of hope. The only alternative to the Oasis Plan is war, permanent war in the Middle East. Therefore, the Oasis Plan is an indispensable, safe, economic benchmark; it must be adopted by a desire for peace, therefore a desire that must come from within, a desire for internal peace, but also from the outside, it must be imposed by the United States in particular, with the leverage of Russia and China, Türkiye, and Iran playing a role.

So, let’s remember that the Chinese government has managed to settle relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia; it is the same type of challenge, but much deeper, that we must face here. What this Chinese government shows is that the world can change if you change your way of thinking; if the obsession with geopolitical domination is replaced by win-win projects. This is not a matter of blissful humanism, but a necessity.

Today, there is the Cairo Plan. In Cairo, an extraordinary summit of Arab countries—the Arab League—united in denouncing the odious attempts to displace the Palestinian people and adopting the plan drawn up by Egypt for the reconstruction of Gaza in five years.

The first phase is the clearing of debris and landmines. The second phase involves providing temporary housing to 1.5 million people on these sites during the reparations period, as well as reconstruction, which is scheduled to last until 2030. It is planned to rebuild roads, networks, public services, and to implement the idea of mutual development, which was included in Annex 3 of the Oslo Accords and which has always been sabotaged.

So, this is a first step, but the foundation still needs to be established: water, energy, and food, which are found in the Oasis Plan, but not yet in Egypt’s plan. There are people in France working on this—obviously with a pro-Israeli bias.

There’s Ofer Bronchtein, who is Emmanuel Macron’s special advisor on Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement, and he says we need to think in terms of generations, and certainly not elections, especially in Israel. And obviously, with this bias, he has a pessimistic view of a dialogue that, he says, will take generations. I don’t agree with that; I say we need to move much faster.

Finally, to those who keep saying, “they will never be able to agree,” or, “too many crimes have been committed,” I can tell you that the former South African Minister of Foreign Affairs—she was actually the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, and she was also a minister several times—Naledi Pandor, endorsed the Oasis Plan that I have just presented to you. She emphasizes that Nelson Mandela’s approach, which avoided a bloodbath in South Africa by establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, would be an approach worth exploring for the Middle East.

Two-State Solution

Now I come to the subject that we always discuss to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict: two-state solution? One-state solution? Today, a two-state solution is necessary, because a Palestinian state must have its place immediately for the negotiations to have meaning; for them to be able to begin.

The Oasis Plan is therefore consubstantial with an immediate recognition of the right of the Palestinians to a state. Tomorrow, no doubt, a single state, because the dimensions of the territory are too limited, and Gaza and the West Bank cannot remain geographically separate. A single state, therefore, in the spirit of Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said’s “Divan,” composing a political orchestra that can achieve, through the dynamics of its playing, a harmony of what are still dissonances.

You will notice that I have said little about the European Union. It is not a nation, it has not played the role it should have played on the ground. It has given money, but it has not provided the means—physical or human—to establish peace. Today, I must say, neither has France. So, I hope that this Oasis Plan can be, for it, the inspiration, so that it contributes to establishing a spirit of national sovereignty that can combine patriotism and service to humanity.

[applause]

Answering a question following his presentation, Cheminade said the following:

You should never expect a solution from those who are the cause of the problem. There’s something called the international community. Victor Hugo would have called it a “gang of criminals,” a “mafia” [laughs]. These are Western European powers that have fallen under the thumb of financial interests, and the “great laundry” of dirty money in the world—I mean the City of London.

This is not a new phenomenon! Their enemy is the nation-state. Their enemy was Gamal Abdel Nasser and Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority—if it were a true Palestinian authority, that is; if it represented the interests of the Palestinian people.

So, this isn’t new; it goes back to long before oil, to 1840 at a conference in London on how to contain what’s going on. Why is that? Because Muhammad Ali and his son, Ibrahim Pasha, were in the process of founding a society that was a “Greater Syria,” as it was called at the time. Whom were they working with? With immigrant French revolutionaries, who were highly skilled technically, and revolutionaries from other European countries. And they were forming an embryonic nation-state. It had to be destroyed!…

In London, they said, “How? Shiites versus Sunnis, that’s a fine way to destroy them, but we need to add something else: the Jews in the middle, so we can use them to divide and rule.” And that’s really what formed the basis of what we now call a “rules-based order,” which is both financial in its conception and imperialist in its ideology.

So, what about the European Union? I’ll just say one thing: It has founded a European diplomatic school in Bruges, where they teach “European” diplomats, not nation-state diplomats, and the room where they meet is called “Madeleine Albright”![fn_2]

So, there you have it…. That’s all there is to it, and I’ll say no more about the European Union.

I’ll end on a note of hope: I think that today, Palestine can be a rallying point for change and transformation in the world. I mean, what is emerging, in this global majority, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS, all the people who are demanding the right to self-determination and also the right to economic development. So, I’m happy to see the reappearance of what de Gaulle called “La Détente,” “L’Entente,” “La Coopération” pour l’Avenir [Cooperation for the Future], around these people—but I hope it will happen in France.


[fn_1] Carl Schmitt (1888-1985), a German jurist, political theoretician, and prominent member of the Nazi Party under Hitler, was known for espousing the views of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Hobbes promoted the idea that mankind is in a perpetual war of “each against all,” and that only a strong governing authority (i.e., dictatorship) can maintain peace. [back to text for fn_1]

[fn_2] Trained by geopolitician Zbigniew Brzezinski (himself a follower of Bernard Lewis), Madeleine Albright was Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State. Faithful to her mentor, she pushed for NATO enlargement and invented the “color revolutions.” Her disciples were at the center of the Anglo-American “war party”: Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland. [back to text for fn_2]


Live with Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Stop Rearmament, Defuse the Debt Bomb, April 2nd, 11 am EDT/5 pm CET

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the mobilization to end the ‘Special Relationship’ in celebration of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Republic. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org

March 31, 2025 (EIRNS)—There is a grave escalation of the threat of direct military strikes and warfare against Iran by the United States, with involvement of Britain. Terrible in its implications of needless death and havoc spreading throughout the region, it is part of the effort to stop the renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia, whose potential cannot only resolve the Ukraine crisis, but that of other conflicted areas, even the current horrors in Western Asia.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute leader, spoke of these developments today as the darkening of “the clouds of war.” She warned against this escalation, heading toward havoc across the region, and also pointed out the larger context and implications.

Confrontation with Iran is one of the traps set for President Trump to spring, intended to take down key figures in his new government, and most importantly end the world-important normalization of U.S.-Russia relations, which he has begun. SignalGate is being used for this purpose.

The British-French Coalition of the Willing, the EU ReArm Europe and EU “Reassurance Force” for Ukraine can be seen as ludicrous, except they are deadly. The militarization demand they are pushing is, in actuality, another financial bubble, the terminal bubble in the sequence of bubbles, following on the global “Green” fraud, also pushed by the political-financial centers of the City of London, Wall Street, and satellites. The war economy bubble is untenable. As for the leading figures of Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and others, they are toy soldier Napoleons—but playing with nuclear fire. Rallies and voices are rising against them in Europe.

As this kind of call to action reverberates across the trans-Atlantic, we also see the response of those cornered: They perpetrate intimidating and illegal actions to squash opposition. In France today, judges handed down a ruling that prevents political activity by Marie Le Pen, of the sizable Rassemblement National (National Rally) party, for five years. Moreover, this action against her lifts the gate for another political figure to make gains, who has aligned himself with all that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing. In the other “democracies” across Europe there are similarly blatant interventions, as we have seen in Romania.

Find out more, and what can be done at this Friday, April 4th weekly meeting, the 96th, of the International Peace Coalition.

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the mobilization to end the ‘Special Relationship’ in celebration of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Republic. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org


Schiller Institute’s Karel Vereycken Presented ‘Water for Peace’ at Paris Academy for Geopolitics

March 31, 2025 (EIRNS)—Today the Academy for Geopolitics in Paris posted the video and transcripts of their March 28 conference titled, “Report—What Destiny for Palestine?”

Among the speakers was Karel Vereycken, Researcher with the Schiller Institute-France, whose presentation was titled, “Water in the Middle East: A Permanent Casus Belli or a Cornerstone of Lasting Peace?” In his 33-minute presentation he covered political history of the region as well as physical economy and technology, including LaRouche’s Oasis Plan, which had been presented to the group earlier in March by Jacques Cheminade.

Eight speakers participated in the event, whose purpose, as described by the Academy, was to undertake “to review all the geopolitical and diplomatic themes and issues linked to the evolution of the Palestinian question, looking beyond the exacerbation of the current crisis and considering the question of its peaceful resolution.” 


Stop the ‘Remilitarization’ of Europe, Build a World Peace Movement

The 95th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) was held on March 28, with speakers from Germany, France, Iran, Argentina and Mexico. People from 32 countries participated in the online event. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, opened the meeting by warning that the effort to restore relations between Russia and the United States by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to end the war in Ukraine, was endangered by attempts to draw the U.S. into a war on Iran, and by the mass remilitarization policy being pushed by the British and EU leadership under the false claim that Russia is a military threat to Europe. She said that a war on Iran would provoke chaos—economically, militarily and politically—and could lead to world war.

The “Coalition of the Willing,” promoted by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders, held a meeting of 30 countries this week, trying (unsuccessfully) to get a united European policy of deploying NATO troops into Ukraine, a policy certain to provoke full scale war with Russia. The German population, she said, is horrified at the billions of euros being proposed for a military build-up, even while the economies across Europe are in a state of collapse. She noted that within the U.S., even within the Republican Party, there is division over the bombing of Yemen and a threatened war against Iran, since Trump had campaigned to stop the perpetual wars.

*[Two Trumps**

The first guest speaker was former Iranian Ambassador to Germany Seyed Hossein Mousavian. The Ambassador said that in regard to U.S. policy toward Iran, there were two Trumps: The first Trump, before the U.S. presidential election, wanted peace with Iran, and said that the only requirement was that Iran not build a nuclear weapon. He promoted a new agreement between the nations, to which Iran responded positively. But the second Trump, after the election and the inauguration, turned more to the Zionist lobby, announcing a return to the “maximum pressure” policy from his first term, which was announced while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was with him in Washington. Trump expanded the demands to include a general dismantling of the nuclear program, announced by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, which is impossible according to the Ambassador.

Trump’s letter to Iran’s leadership, the Ambassador said, had all the major points from the anti-Iran policy from Trump’s first term. He said both Trump and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were opposed to a war, but Trump’s problem is that his Administration is not united. Several U.S. policies indicate a preparation for war, including the bombing of Yemen, more weapons to Israel, aircraft carriers deployed to the Persian Gulf, B-2 bombers sent to the Diego Garcia military base, and Israel breaking the ceasefire in Gaza with U.S. approval. To prevent war and to build peace, he said there must be “mutual respect” which follows international law, and which includes economic cooperation and people-to-people relationships. The U.S. and Iran have never been enemies, he asserted, and should be friends.

Col. (ret.) Alain Corvez, a consultant in international affairs and former advisor to the French Ministry of the Interior, who has addressed the IPC several times, said he considers the accusation by certain U.S. leaders that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons capability to be “propaganda.” The real issue is that it does have an advanced missile capability, representing a powerful deterrence capacity, which was demonstrated by its successful breach of Israeli defenses in the April 2024 military exchange between the two countries

Disdain for the EU

The recent Iran-Russia-China joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman show that any attack against Iran will likely see Iranian support from both Russia and China. He concurred with Ambassador Mousavian that the Trump Administration is divided, and that the so-called “Signalgate” leak of Yemen war plans by The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was run by the Deep State to undermine Trump. He praised U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s show of disdain for the European Union, adding that “I share this disdain.” The British Empire has been weakened, but the British retain their power over the world’s monetary system, while the financial oligarchy controls the media, feeding the population with anti-Russia, anti-China and anti-Iran lies.

Carolina Domínguez, a long-time leader of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Mexico, reported on three forums held on campuses in Mexico, with over 400 students and professors, addressing the issue of participation in an international peace movement. She said the meetings demonstrated that “youth do not want war.” According to Dominguez, there was a strong response to the call for youth to join the IPC, to participate in an April 22 online international youth conference with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and in the May 24-25 international conference of the Schiller Institute.

Cliff Kiracofe, a former senior professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and author of the book Dark Crusade: Christian Zionism and U.S. Foreign Policy, concurred with Zepp-LaRouche that there is a divide in the Republican Party, including within the Trump team. Vice President JD Vance, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, FBI chief Kash Patel, and CIA Chief John Ratcliff are firmly in Trump’s camp, but National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and his assistant Alex Wong, Kiricofe said, are not.

Wong allegedly included Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine in the Signal chat group used by top-Trump officials to discuss plans for bombing Yemen. Both Waltz and Wong were part of Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, which was part of the neoconservative movement against Trump. Wong has also worked as an aide to arch-neocon Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Jeffey Goldberg, who leaked the contents of the Signal chat to the press, Kiricofe said, is an avid Zionist who once served in the Israel Defense Forces as a prison guard.

Alberto Portugheis, an Argentine pianist who has performed as a soloist in leading concert halls worldwide while also promoting peace, asserted that as long as the military-industrial complex exists, there will be no end to war. He praised U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for saying that “no war is an accident.” The military-industrial complex destroys nations as well as the environment, and must be eliminated.

Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting by encouraging everyone to subscribe to the EIR Daily Alert service, in order to keep informed on the rapidly changing political crises around the world and the necessary solutions. She said we must stop the “remilitarization” insanity in Europe, which is wasting trillions of euros on the false claim that Russia is preparing to invade Europe. She said that EIR is preparing a report on this. [eir]


Live Dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche: The LaRouche Plan for Peace and Prosperity (March 26, Noon EDT, 5pm CET)

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her weekly live dialogue and send your questions, comments and organizing reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org

Discussion between the U.S. and Russia, as led by Presidents Trump and Putin, has walked the world back from the brink of immediate nuclear confrontation, and toward normalized relations between the world’s two largest nuclear powers—an indispensable condition for any viable and peaceful future of mankind as a whole. Within that, negotiations are proceeding toward a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, likely, according to several sources that include U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, to involve new elections in Ukraine.

On the other hand, the situation in Southwest Asia hangs by a very thin thread, as Gaza has once again, and with the apparent approval of President Trump, been turned into a genocidal war zone under Israeli assault. Along with the resumption of direct military attacks, supplies to Gaza have been completely cut off, and food, fuel, and medical supplies are quickly dwindling. Catastrophic injuries and deaths are once again beginning to pile up, mostly among children, women, and the elderly.

The claim is that perhaps now Hamas will be willing to accept the terms offered, with nary a mention made that it was Netanyahu’s Israel which broke the ceasefire deal by refusing to negotiate the promised Phase 2. However, the historical dynamics operating under the surface, those behind Netanyahu in Israel, the transatlantic military industrial complex, and beyond to the historic British and U.S. intelligence role in the manipulating conflicts in the region, tell a more complex tale that can’t be addressed by reacting to mere events.

Not only does the conflict in Southwest Asia not have a purely local cause, but it cannot be solved with a purely local solution. The only viable approach is that called for by Helga Zepp-LaRouche: We must now form a new, global security and development architecture that takes into account the interests of all countries.

For someone who thinks the diseased thoughts of geopolitics, that all nations must secure their interests against those of all other nations, such a new system would never work; for someone who thinks the thoughts of a creative human being, such a proposed system is the natural, next evolutionary step of human society, as we overturn geopolitics and adopt a new way of thinking about human relations which puts the interests of humanity as a whole first.

An example of this principle in practice is the LaRouche proposal of the Oasis Plan for Southwest Asia. This plan was presented on March 18 by President of Solidarité & Progrès Jacques Cheminade to a meeting of the Académie de Géopolitique de Paris, at which he rightfully asserted that “there is no other choice than a win-win agreement for the people if we truly want to achieve peace. Only a dynamic of mutual development can escape a dynamic of war. This is the Oasis Plan method…. It has characteristics specific to this region of the world, but to ensure its lasting success, it must be situated within the context of an international architecture of mutual peace and security, beyond this region. The only war worth winning is the war against the desert.”

Peace in one part of the world must lead to peace in all parts of the world. Though the situation with regards to the war in Ukraine is hopeful, we must act rapidly to ensure that triggers aren’t pulled somewhere else to blow up the situation. All concerned citizens of the world must do their part to make the dynamic of peace, as exemplified by the Oasis Plan, the agreed-upon basis of a new world system. Until then, our job is not done.

Take Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s remark to the 94th meeting of the International Peace Coalition as a mission statement: “It is my deepest belief that only by changing the paradigm completely can we avoid a catastrophe.”

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her weekly live dialogue and send your questions, comments and organizing reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org


Press Release: Schiller Institute Launches LaRouche Oasis Plan Endorsers and Resources Webpage

On March 20, 2025, the Schiller Institute posted its new Resource Page for LaRouche’s Oasis Plan,
presenting details of LaRouche’s Oasis Plan in order to aid in organizing for its
implementation, and get endorsements for it. As the introductory page states, the fifty-year
battle for the realization of this idea, despite agreement that LaRouche’s plan is a “good
idea,” has been stymied by the contention that ‘a political agreement’ must come first. “So
now, fifty years of lives lost, bloodshed and geopolitically motivated wars, later, proves the
truth of LaRouche’s point: it is once you have economic cooperation that, then and only then,
both sides will find a common interest to work together for peace and shared prosperity.”

The new landing page has three primary features: 1) a page of Oasis Plan concepts which
contains the details of LaRouche’s design as well as other contributors whom have put forth
expanded ideas for it; 2) an Endorsements and Other Voices page featuring both those who
have endorsed the LaRouche Oasis Plan, with a separate section of what other prominent
individuals are saying about its importance; and 3) a Videos, Events and Other Resources
page of an initial listing, with links, of videos, articles and press releases on the plan.

The Endorsements page leads off with a recent quote from Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “It is now,
in my view, the moment where we should all push the Oasis Plan, because Trump has said of
himself many times that he is a builder, and he does understand something about
construction. . . Building the Oasis Plan, providing fresh new water for all the countries in the
region,…” will eliminate a key source of conflict. The current list of 26 endorsers includes
ambassadors, professors, former elected officials, peace activists, religious leaders, from all
over the world from Africa to Europe to Palestine, to the United States. The remaining
section, “What prominent leaders are saying about LaRouche’s Oasis Plan,” includes former
Guyana President Donald Ramotar and South Africa’s former Minister of Foreign Relations
and Cooperation Dr. Naledi Pandor, among others.

The intent of this new resource is to educate people on the essentials of this plan, and then
organize for its implementation. Southwest Asia is known as the crossroads of civilization,
and its people must be allowed to live and prosper in peace. To overcome the cycle of
violence for good, we must give hope to a new generation of youth in Palestine, Israel, and
the Southwest Asia region as a whole, by creating a durable development. This is what the

Oasis Plan provides. The blood stains upon the collective soul of humanity must be and can
be cleansed with hope for a beautiful future—if we finally build it.


Stop the Bombing, Rebuild with the Oasis Plan: Palestinian Ambassador to Denmark Dr. Manuel Hassassian Gives Interview to Schiller Institute

Palestine’s Ambassador to Denmark Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian gave an interview here to the Schiller Institute’s Tim Rush on March 19. The Ambassador had been one of the featured speakers at the Advocacy Summit that the Churches for Middle East Peace held in the city.

The 7-minute video interview is titled “Stop Bombing Gaza, Rebuild with Oasis Plan: Palestine Ambassador to Denmark Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian.” The full transcript is available below.

Hassassian explained that the current situation in Gaza following the resumption of massive Israeli bombardments is totally unacceptable. His message to the conference was that the church leaders and their governments have to put pressure on Israel to stop the war and return to peace talks. Violence begets violence. There is no military solution.

The ambassador said the Schiller Institute’s Oasis Plan can play an imperative role in bridging the gaps through development, progress and building common ground. The Palestinian and Egyptian Gaza plan could be integrated with an Oasis Plan international dimension, as a neutral, scientific approach that would not be rejected by the Americans or Europeans. He said that he has spoken about the Oasis Plan at many Schiller Institute conferences and in Palestine and in Schiller Institute interviews with him.

Tim Rush explained that the Schiller Institute has lobbied for the Oasis Plan on Capitol Hill in Washington, as a means to create a future vision of economic benefits. In the 1960s, former President Eisenhower proposed a “Water for Peace” plan, which was supported by then-President Johnson. A week before the June 1967 Israeli-Arab War, the International Conference on Water for Peace took place in Washington on May 23-31, with delegates from 94 countries. But the project was derailed by the war.

In conclusion, H.E. Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian said that the war cannot be sustained. Peace must be based on mutual understanding and respect, and Palestinian independence. To promote the longevity of peace, we need to be partners in economics, in trade relationships, and in developing our natural resources for the benefit of all.

Transcript


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