International Peace Coalition

DENNIS KUCINICH: First of all, I want to thank you for the invitation to join and to thank each one of you for your personal commitment for peace and social and economic justice. The journey that each one of you took to this moment is honored; and I’m grateful to participate if only for a few minutes.

I keep going back to this point—it’s like we need a new language to describe the horror that’s going on—but justifications, rationalizations that have been made cry out for our response. The political system has been bought unfortunately, and there are not many people who can go to the media who are inside the government to protest what’s going on in Gaza in particular. So, we have this anesthetizing, a kind of numbness that has taken place. People are still breaking through, groups of people around the country and certainly around the world are going to the streets. And I think ultimately that’s the kind of nonviolent action that will help tip the balance. It was when students in particular went into the streets during the Vietnam War that Lyndon Johnson decided that he couldn’t defend it anymore, and he stepped down. Of course Nixon and Kissinger kept it going for quite a few more years, but the ferment that was out there in the country helped to force a reconsideration of America’s role.

But here we are again—the mass violence. You had Vietnam, Iraq, Gaza, and it’s an arc of inhumanity in our country. In the United States—I know there are people on this call from outside the States—but the United States is a principal initiator of this. So, we have a lot of work to do inside our own country. It’s not just at the policy level; even before we get to the policy level we have to think about the consciousness from which these murderous policies are derived. That’s a shift that takes place through the instrumentality of our own beings and speaking out and gathering people; and that’s why I say thanks for what the IPC is doing and for all those of you who do this work. Any way that I can be of assistance to what you’re trying to do, tell me.

ANASTASIA BATTLE: Thank you so much Mr. Kucinich for that. I know Ray McGovern is so excited to have you on; he really wanted you on today. I know your time is limited—

KUCINICH: Well, Ray is one of my heroes, so it’s great to be with you.

BATTLE: Wonderful! We wanted to make sure if you were available, if you could stay a little bit to hear what he had to say, and then you guys could have a conversation.

KUCINICH: You know, I’d love to hear what Ray has to say, and then I would say I can push things back here; just let me do a quick text. I’m good until 11:40 Eastern time, so yes, Ray, go ahead.

RAY MCGOVERN: What a gift to have all these Dennises on there; all three of them, especially my friend Dennis Kucinich, who is probably the direct successor of my real hero, and that was John F. Kennedy; a man of peace, but a man of courage and a man of justice. And that’s what I want to talk about now. We come out of the same faith tradition, and that means a lot to me as well. I noticed that Father Bury is going to be on, and Jack Gilroy; my God, we’ve got a bunch of macro-snappers on here. A bunch of Roman Catholics coming out of a wider ecumenical tradition, and I stress that.

Francis is dead. What did Francis do about Gaza? Francis made pious statements about Gaza. His most “specific” statement was, “You know, I’m told by my advisors that a lot of people think that there might be a genocide going on there in Gaza, so I think we should have an investigation.” This is months after the world court had already indicted Netanyahu and Gallant. It reminds me of World War II and Pius XII, who couldn’t find his voice. There are structural indignities no matter what Francis may have wanted to do, he didn’t do it; that’s my reality. He’s a nice guy; he’s a mensch, OK? But when my webmeister put my little article up about this, he said, “Nice guys don’t win ballgames, and nice guys don’t stop genocide.”

What’s the bottom line here? Well, it’s good news and it’s bad news. It’s up to us; and that’s just good news, because we’re up to it.

Let’s go back a ways. Yahweh to Cain after he had murdered his brother. “So, Cain, where’s your brother?” “How am I supposed to know? It’s none of my damn business?” Or, more faithful to the text, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well, I think the people on this call are brothers’ and sisters’ keepers; and those people in Gaza are very much in need of our help right now. So, we have that witness there from the Bible story, we also have my favorite rabbi, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who famously said, “When injustice takes place, few are guilty, but all are responsible. Indifference to evil”—look at Cain for example. Who cares about me? Who cares about my brother?—“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself.” Abraham Heschel, very active during the Vietnam days and so forth.

Who else? Well, how bad is it in Gaza? There was an Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who actually ministered to Nelson Mandela, and knew apartheid in South Africa back and forth, right? What did Tutu say when he was asked, “Could you compare apartheid in South Africa and apartheid in Palestine?” He said, “Yeah, of course I can compare that.” Here’s what it is. “Life in Palestine is far more brutal and repressive than in apartheid South Africa.” And my friends, that was before the genocide.

Now, I often quote a fellow named Albert Camus, and you know the story if you’ve been listening to these things about how he talked to the Dominicans about the absence of a voice from Rome during World War II. To me, an agnostic? A voice from Rome? Yeah! Then I was told there was an encyclical. I said, “What’s an encyclical?” Then he said, what has to happen is that the voice has to come through loud and clear so the simplest man or woman can understand it; and that’s not enough. What he also said to a friend, during the height of the war in 1943, “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” He got the Nobel prize in 1957, where he expressed “the hope that the quality of the new generation and its increased unwillingness to adopt slogans or ideologies and return to a more tangible value system. We have nothing to lose,” says Camus, “except everything. So, let’s go ahead. This is the wager of our generation.” We could be led by people like Dennis Kucinich. “If we are to fail, it is better in any case to have stood on the side of those who refused to be dogs, and are resolved to pay the price that must be paid so that men and women can be more than dogs.”

Lastly from Camus, in 1943, a letter exchange with a young German who was very proud. He was going to make Germany great again. OK, comparisons are invidious, but these are his words. “You told me that the greatness of my country, Germany, is beyond price,” this young fellow wrote. “Anything is good that contributes to its greatness. Those who, like us young Germans, are lucky enough to find a meaning in the destiny of our nation, must sacrifice everything else.” 1943; already we knew the genocide was going on. “No,” says Camus, “I told you, I cannot believe that everything must be subordinate to a single end. There are means that cannot be excused, and I should like to be able to say I love my country and still love justice. I don’t want for my country a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive, and keep justice alive.”

I want to finish here quickly by just referring to things that happened more recently. Let me talk about Heschel again. He was at Selma; he marched in all kinds of justice processions and demonstrations. This is what he said. “For many of us, the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Lakes are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet, our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying, or my legs were demonstrating.”

How about a more recent one? One of my favorite theologians is Annie Dillard. Here’s what she said: “It’s really up to us. There never has been any other; not Popes, not any, not moral leaders that could exert leadership…. There are enough of us, but what we need to do is amass half-dressed in long lines like tribesmen and shake our gourds at each other to wake up. Instead, we watch television and miss the show.”

OK, I’ll go back to a biblical story, and I’ll talk about Isaiah; something most people don’t know. Did you know that he walked around for two years stark naked? Well, it’s in the Bible, folks; look it up. What was he trying to say? He was trying to garner attention to himself. People said, “Oh, that’s awful! You’re stark naked.” And what he said was, “I stripped myself of clothes. You are stripped of the gifts given you by Yahweh. The vision of justice and shalom.” Shalom is nothing more in the Biblical sense than the existence, the presence of justice. So, we can have peace, but we have to have justice first.

Last thing I’ll say is that we have to keep our heads on straight and look at the benefits of being in solidarity with one another. I used to say when I’d speak, “Look around you, for God’s sake! How can you not be encouraged with such fine companions in this struggle?” One of the consolations for me was that I have Stone. He warns us, he says, “Look, the only kinds of fights worth fighting are those that you can lose, because somebody has to fight them. And somebody has to lose, and lose, and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do, wins.” Well, in the process, we have to keep our sense of humor and have some fun. A friend of mine was a priest and had a brother who was a priest and they both came back to their Irish mother and talked about all the dogma they had learned. She said, “Tell me now, was there any fun at this meeting of yours?” They were stunned; because they realized that without some fun, nothing is going to happen.

So, let’s be justice people, let’s have some fun; but let’s stick with it, as Dennis Kucinich and many of you have already done. Thanks for letting me speak.

BATTLE: Thank you, Ray! Mr. Kucinich, if you want to say anything?

KUCINICH: I want to thank Ray as well for that erudite presentation. It is on us. What I’m doing right now is writing; I post on substack if you get a chance to go to denniskucinich@substack you can get a free subscription. I’m writing exactly about these topics we’re concerned with.

Thank you for the work that all of you do. Thanks again, Ray. And I’ll look forward to seeing you, joining you again. Keep going! Thank you.

MCGOVERN: Wish me luck; and those of you who are praying types, please hold me in the light. This afternoon I’m going to Moscow together with Oliver Stone. We have several meetings and panels set up. And best of all, we’ll be there at the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, when we were allies. We want to stress that we were allies then. John Kennedy, in his wonderful peace speech, said that almost alone among major powers in the world, the U.S. and Russia have never been at war. We’re going to try to speak and spread the word around. Maybe some of it will come back to the U.S. as well. But the idea is that this is something to celebrate; it is the possibility that this fellow Steve Witkoff, who’s in Moscow as we speak and just finished talking to Putin, will have some good news for us. I think that’s where the game is being played. So, wish me luck, and I probably will not be able to join you next week, but I’ll be with you in spirit.

DENNIS SMALL: I do have one piece of advice for you, Ray, for your trip. Have fun!

MCGOVERN: Perfect! OK, on that note, thanks very much folks.

A little bit later:

FATHER HARRY BURY: What is really significant to me is that Helga has been arguing about the importance of seeing people as all good. And the Holy Father, Pope Francis, treated people as all good. One of the reasons for the conflict in the world, it seems to me, is because we misunderstand what justice is about. We think that justice is vengeance. So, we think that the way to end evil-doing, to prevent people from doing bad things, is by punishment. And punishment is violence; and when you use violence, you lead to vengeance. And that’s what we are experiencing, and both Helga and Pope Francis have argued against that.

And the Oasis Plan calls for equity; that means to treat everybody equally. So, the Schiller Institute and Pope Francis were speaking the same message. And I hope that people have begun to understand that; that the reason people all over the world have liked Pope Francis is because he thinks of the people on the margins. And there wouldn’t be any people on the margins if we had the Oasis Plan in which we get peace through development. So, it’s important for me anyway, to understand and to promote the Oasis Plan because it’s in the spirit of Pope Francis. Thank you.

DENNIS SPEED: Thank you, Father Bury. Let me just say something, because many people who will be on will not know this about you. I will just read something from his biography.

“Father Bury’s activism started as a new priest, serving at the University of Minnesota’s Newman Center in the 1960s, when young Catholic men asked him to write letters for them as Conscientious Objectors for the Vietnam War. In 1971, at the request of some Vietnamese, he and three others chained themselves to the U.S. Embassy gate in Saigon to protest the Vietnam War.”

So, that was not a protest here that Anastasia was referring to. That’s a protest in Saigon in the 1970s. That’s very much in the Rabbi Heschel mode. Then in 2005, he was in Gaza, serving as a human shield, when he was temporarily abducted at that point. So, this is a man who clearly has done exactly what Ray McGovern was talking about before. We’re always honored to have him with us, and we are particularly honored about his clear idea about the Oasis Plan that has been put forward and will be being discussed by the way at our conference.

So, Father Bury, I just wanted to make sure you got recognized for that. And thank you again, very much for your remarks.

BATTLE: Next I’d like to go to Carolina from Mexico. She has a report on the youth recruitment process. As has been reported over the last few weeks, we’ve been making a huge effort going into the May conference to go to universities, places where many young people are, to get them active. Mexico in particular has had quite a bit of traction. So, we’re happy to have Carolina Dominguez on to give her report.

CAROLINA DOMINGUEZ: I want to tell you about the activities we have not only in Mexico, but in Ibero-America. I want to start first by mentioning something that has helped us in the work with the youth. This document that I want to mention is a book by Martin Luther King called Why We Can’t Wait. It’s a very extraordinary book that I recommend to everybody. He dedicates it to his children, but in his Foreword, he says that he hopes that in the future his children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by their character and their actions.

In this book, he presents the famous letter he wrote in the Birmingham Jail, in which he answers the critics in his collaborators who said his actions were not correct, and that was why he was in jail. He says something very funny. He says, I don’t answer to my critics, because if I do, I will not be able to do anything. What is important are the actions, and in that sense he responds to something that for us has been fundamental—work with youth. It’s the concept of nonviolent action. His response is that while they have to do demonstrations and activities, he says the best way to come to agreements is through negotiation. Martin Luther King says that is true, but when the leadership doesn’t want to negotiate because they don’t consider what the other side is presenting is important, we need to provoke that negotiation; provoke a tension. That’s what he’s talking about in creating tension through direct action. The individual has to be clear that he’s not in agreement with what is going on. Morally, the individual has to be very clear that what is occurring is not what he believes in; he has to be very clear on that not only in his heart, but in society. Those nonviolent actions create a tension that allows them to be heard.

That for us is very important because of course many people consider that our mobilization or demonstration or some action to be in disagreement with the ideas has to be violent, but not the idea that this will open the way for a proposal. What we are doing with the international youth movement, not only in Mexico and Ibero-America, but internationally before with the leadership of Lyndon LaRouche and now with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, we are doing precisely that. We are generating that tension, not to use youth as scapegoats as is being done with the wars and political parties using them during the elections; where afterwards they are just discarded.

In the Schiller Institute we have a constant campaign of education in profound ideas that allow the youth to become leaders. Those ideas involve economic proposals. In that process of working with the youth, you first have to understand that they need a level that allows them to heard. The youth have a lot of potential; not only because of their age, but because they are taking decisions about their moral quality for the long term. We need to provide them with the tools so that when they decide the moral quality of the path they choose, they will have sufficient knowledge to do what is right.

In that work with the youth, we are having international meetings and dialogues which include representatives from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Europe, and the United States. They are presenting their concerns about the situation today. Of course, they don’t want a war, but they don’t see any options for what they can give to society. We just had an international youth dialogue last week where they presented several proposals about energy, kinds of jobs youth will have, what they can do in order to change the situation. They were very open and had basic questions that should be answered. I want to say that when we are generating this tension, when some Congressman or leader says “OK, I will listen to you,” what do you have to tell them? We need to be ready with what we are going to say, because there is a state of tension. We have to have those proposals, and the youth have to know how to change the economy. That’s why we have these youth dialogues. That’s why we are working with them on what an economy is; that it has to give value to people; because the main product in an economy is people. LaRouche said the main thing that moves the economy is creativity; the ideas that are generated by individuals who want to make things better. So when they are talking to a leader, and they say “What do you have to tell me?”; they have to be very clear that what we are presenting is what will work for the economy. That’s what we are teaching the youth: what is productivity; what is an economy. It has been very polemical. We have heard about this in these meetings. What is the best type of energy that can work for their countries; what kind of jobs? We think this has been very optimistic. The youth meeting was very good, because people were able to express how things were going and their proposals.

I thought it was very funny the types of problems we have with the youth. There was one young man from Brazil who will go from Brazil to the New York conference in May. The interpreters were translating from English to Spanish, but there was a moment when he started to speak in Portuguese. It was very funny, because we were all quiet; there was no way to interpret his words from Portuguese into Spanish or English. That changed the geometry of the meeting; thinking about how we can hear the proposals of young people from Ibero-America in their language, and how we can transmit these ideas to other young people in the world. Those are the types of topics we want to address in this youth dialogue; how we can answer what they are presenting and what we are doing.

We are having these meetings all the time, especially with Helga. This time we had the participation of Megan Dobrodt and Jason Ross. It was very productive and there was a lot of optimism that through this work with the youth, as Martin Luther King said, we are doing it because it’s necessary and the people who are criticizing that he was creating this tension don’t understand.

I want to finish with another quote from the same letter by Martin Luther King. Like Socrates, he believed it was necessary to create a state of tension in the mind in order for people to overcome their dependency and create a way to become individuals. [actual quote: “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.”]

That’s what is happening with the youth. We are inviting them to register and participate in the May conference. This will be very important. We will be having a youth panel which will present these proposals and the work we are doing with them. That’s what I wanted to present. Thank you very much.

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.” 

International Peace Coalition #94 Report

March 21, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 94th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) today was opened by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, who reported that March 18 was a “fateful day” due to two events:

1. The phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which represents a return to diplomacy. “Any sane person should be highly happy about this event,” she said, but the Europeans are not happy.
2. The historic vote in the German Parliament to loosen the “debt brake,” not for productive purposes, but to “open the sluices” for a military buildup. They used “parliamentarian trickery” by scheduling the vote in a lame-duck session of the Bundestag, knowing that the incoming session would not vote to approve.

Zepp-LaRouche went on to debunk various neocon narratives: One narrative is that “Putin” is preparing to attack Europe. But, according to military experts, Russia can only mobilize 1.5 million troops, not enough to attack Europe (if that were in fact Russia’s intention). Regarding the fiction that Russia’s entry into Ukraine was “unprovoked,” she cited eyewitness reports, including by Jack Matlock, who, as Ambassador to the Soviet Union, was one of many who called attention to the broken promise of no NATO expansion.

She reported that Israel has renewed its genocide campaign. This can lead to a blowback. We are “sitting on a time bomb, which is the pending financial collapse.” In a war with Iran, the U.S. would lose, not for military reasons, but because it would trigger the financial collapse.

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), reminded viewers that NATO was originally set up to “keep Russia out, America in, and Germany down.” Regarding the German plan to re-arm in order to take on Russia, Russians have “been there, done that.” The U.S. and Russia have a mutual interest in not letting this get out of hand.

McGovern addressed the issue of trust between nations. Putin pulled U.S. President Barack Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire after the 2013 false flag chemical-weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria. But trust plummeted after the 2014 Maidan coup and the bogus Minsk Agreements in Ukraine. McGovern displayed his “Putin-Versteher” button, noting that being a “Putin understander” is no longer completely pejorative.

Dennis Fritz, director of the Eisenhower Media Network and Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret., U.S. Air Force), responding to McGovern on the question of trust, and Zepp-LaRouche on the role of Jack Matlock, he described an ad published by the Eisenhower Media Network. He went on that the Schiller Institute and social media have begun to counteract the devastating impact of pro-Israel propaganda in the U.S.

Water for Peace

Two Palestinian experts addressed the crucial issue of reconstruction for Gaza. A video was presented of H.E. Ambassador Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark, interviewed by EIR’s Tim Rush. He emphasized that there is no military solution to this conflict, and we need to search for common ground in economic solutions to overcome political jingoism. He said that the reconstruction plan of the Palestinian Authority is compatible with the Egyptian plan, but strongly endorsed Lyndon LaRouche’s Oasis Plan as a step further in the right direction.

Fernando Garzón, executive director of the Ecuadorian-Palestinian Union , a professor at Universities in Ecuador, and consultant on development and land use planning for international organizations, added to the Ambassador’s comments, saying that reconstruction cannot be done outside of regional development (as best seen in the Oasis Plan), and requires a sovereign government for Palestine, recognized by the UN.

Garzón reported that the UN has provided information as to the extent of the destruction in Gaza. More than 73% of structures have been destroyed, 68% of roads are impassable, 92% of all housing units are gone. This represents not only genocide, but terracide, the destruction of nature and the land itself. Some 95% of the water is not potable, and 90% is controlled by an Israeli private company. Billions of dollars in identified natural gas reserves belong to the Palestinians, and this will be essential for reconstruction. The BRICS New Development Bank should play a role, not the anti-development IMF. Trump’s “Riviera” proposal is “an offense to common sense.”

Marcia Merry Baker, an agriculture expert who serves on the editorial board of Executive Intelligence Review, gave a presentation on water development, beginning with a satellite photo of Egypt which shows the green delta of the Nile, in contrast to the great desert around it. Egypt has been studying how to transform that desert with water and agriculture. They built the largest wastewater treatment center in the world near Alexandria. She also reported on “precision agriculture” in Tunisia, successful despite lack of water, and terraforming the deserts east of the Aral Sea with canal building, which has progressed in Afghanistan despite the economic warfare against it. China has developed the concept of the Shelter Belt, made of trees and grassland, to defend against desertification. They have developed plant varieties that can tolerate desert climates. An area the size of Portugal has been reclaimed from desert, with the participation of the Chinese military.

We Don’t Have To Kill Each Other

Zepp-LaRouche commented that Baker’s presentation shows the possibility of a positive role for the military. She contrasted the neocons’ imperial conception of the military as a killing machine, typified by Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State, versus the ideas of Gerhard von Scharnhorst and the Prussian Reformers. We must transform the military-industrial complex for peaceful reconstruction purposes, and establish a purely defensive role for the military, moving away from “this crazy world where people think they have to kill each other.”

The role of water development in building peace was explored in the discussion session. IPC co-moderator Dennis Small presented a report from Mexico, on how a large gathering of hydraulic engineering students heard a presentation on Schiller Institute water proposals for conflict zones around the world. This may be seen as a prelude to the upcoming Schiller Institute conference in May.

Garzón added that planning requires taking into account national borders, but also ecosystem borders.

Marcia Merry Baker answered two questions which came in on this topic:

1. Why is solar energy not included in the Oasis Plan? Solar is good for remote regions where there is insufficient infrastructure to support energy-dense sources. However, for real development, energy-dense sources are indispensable.
2. What about Muammar Qaddafi’s water plan for Libya, and Egypt’s Aswan Dam? Baker gave these endeavors her hearty endorsement.

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed recalled Lyndon LaRouche’s accurate warning that unless there was an immediate move to get “shovels in the ground,” the 1993 Oslo Accords for peace between Israel and Palestine would fail.

New York congressional candidate Jose Vega said that he sees both sides in the conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt over how to exploit the water of the Nile. Baker intervened to say that border disputes over water are never justified; there will always be plenty with proper development. She recalled the Jonglei Canal project for the White Nile in Sudan, which was suppressed by environmentalists.

Conclusion

Zepp-LaRouche closed on a philosophical note: “The big challenge in front of humanity at this conjuncture is how do we use aesthetic education to get more and more people to take the side of humanity.” We must stop going through the world as if everything were self-evident, and look at things with fresh eyes. In the Stone Age, we were using a stone to kill our neighbor to get his food. Now we look at the store and see iron ore or rare earths. Artificial Intelligence, for example, could be used for evil, or to free humanity for life-long learning “instead of having to labor like a mule.” “We will not be miserable forever”; every individual discovery enriches all of humanity.

[eir]

International Peace Coalition Meeting #92

March 7, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 92nd consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) took place on Friday, March 7. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the proceedings with a focus on Europe and Ukraine, where “things are going completely haywire.” President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has announced a “Re-Arm Europe Plan” which will cost €800 billion.

Friedrich Merz, projected to be the next Chancellor of Germany, announced the end of the federal budget-limiting “debt brake” in order to have a military budget of €400 billion. (On Feb. 23, Merz’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, won the German federal election with a promise not to undo the debt brake.) The historical precedent for such an action is Nazi Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht’s “Mefo bills,” which were set up in 1933 to finance purchases from armament manufacturers without leaving a paper trail. It is estimated that it would take up to 100 years for Germany to reach levels of armaments, military production, and troops equivalent to what they possessed in 2004.

There are many implications of United States President Donald Trump’s recent pronouncements, including a possible end to intelligence sharing by the U.S. with the British-dominated Five Eyes intelligence cartel. Although France has its own independent nuclear force, the U.K. is dependent upon U.S. technical support for use of its nuclear weapons.

European leaders, habituated to a litany of “let’s ruin Russia,” cannot adjust to Trump’s nascent peace initiative. If they were smart, they would reflect on how Trump’s election expresses public opposition to the last 35 years of failed neocon “unipolar world” policies.

In Southwest Asia, Egypt’s plan for Gaza reconstruction is “a baby step in the right direction” of the Oasis Plan. “You don’t get a two-state solution if you don’t change the entire dynamic of the region,” emphasized Zepp-LaRouche.

The next speaker was Dr. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, founder of the Wasatia Movement in Palestine, and director of the Wasatia Graduate Academic Institute. He grew up as a Palestinian in Jerusalem and described how, over time, he switched his attitude from “us or them,” because he “started to see the human side of my enemy” after witnessing Israeli doctors treating Palestinian patients. He said the current problem is that both sides of the conflict want their own state “from the river to the sea,” which is a fantasy. We need a coalition of Israelis and Palestinians for peace. His goal is to create a culture of moderation, which is the meaning of “Wasatia.”

Zelenskyy Goes to London

Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host, began by saying, “NATO is, shall we say, an imperial project.” He shared some things that are currently being discussed in Europe. For example, MI6 is good at playing divide and rule and setting up puppet governments, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an MI6 project; “When he got punched around a little by Trump, he goes right to London, and they hug him.”

Nixon listed some developments which can work to the advantage of peace activists. Elon Musk is beginning to release videos of brutal conscription practices in Ukraine. Musk has also promoted a video of U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) boasting that the U.S. was behind the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine. He noted that Trump has admitted complicity, in that he provided Javelin missiles to Ukraine, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio admits it is a proxy war. It must be recognized that the reality of the Ukraine war is complex, not a simple “good guys vs. bad guys” narrative in which former President Joe Biden created the problem and Trump will fix it.

Miguel Cabrera of the Dominican Republic, a journalist, author, former university professor and current host of the weekly TV program “Science, Technology, and Society,” praised Trump’s initiative for peace in Ukraine. He characterized the Trump Presidency as a “light at the end of the tunnel” because he is willing to talk to Russia. He stressed that the Ukraine war is not Russia vs. Ukraine, it is Russia vs. NATO. He also emphasized that Israel has carried out a massacre against Palestinian people. A long-time supporter of the Schiller Institute, he pointed to Lyndon LaRouche’s Oasis Plan as a solution to the Middle East crisis.

Excerpts were aired of an interview conducted by EIR’s Mike Billington with Dr. M.K. Bhadrakumar, a retired career diplomat with India’s Ministry of External Affairs, who held diplomatic positions in the Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Türkiye, where he served as India’s Ambassador. Dr. Bhadrakumar decried the West’s “wanton acts of motiveless malignity and hubris.” In regard to the U.K., he described how British intelligence is able to persuade American officials to believe that British policies are actually their own. Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets are actually planned by British intelligence. Ukrainian leaders who now speak of assassinating Trump were trained by MI6. He presented an unusual perspective that Iran is America’s natural ally in the region; the Iranian elite are pro-Western. The U.S. working with Iran could be as significant as normalization of U.S.-Russian relations.

An unannounced guest was Kirk Wiebe, a former senior intelligence official and whistleblower with the United States National Security Agency. He said that recent events have “set the stage” for the realization of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s New International Security and Development Architecture. No country today is prepared to go to war; all of our assets are stretched thin. The U.S. has $36 trillion in debt. He sees the possibility of negotiated peace.

In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that it will not be weeks and months, but rather years before Europe will be ready for war. But, contrary to neocon propaganda, there is no proof of any inclination on Russia’s part for a European war.

A participant asked Dr. Dajani how his plea for cooperation can work when the Israelis do not operate in good faith and they have made no concessions. He insisted that there are moderates and extremists on both sides, and we must teach our children to have “a heart of flesh, not a heart of stone.”

Discussion Period: The Continuing Problem of Colonialism

Zepp-LaRouche said that we need to examine the extent to which Western outlook is still colonial. The role of the British is starting to receive scrutiny in this regard, and the powers which instigated the Sykes-Picot Treaty are the ones behind the Ukraine war.

Garland Nixon said that the geopolitical fixation on Russia stems from colonialism: If you’re a colonial power, and you have a parasitic orientation, you are losing your hosts around the world, and Russia is the prize because of its vast resources.

A participant asked whether there are situations where the campaign for peace may come into conflict with the aspirations of colonized peoples, citing as examples Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nixon said he didn’t believe such a conflict were necessary, and that we must look at outside powers involved, keeping in mind the history of colonialism.

Veterans for Peace leader Jack Gilroy praised the Oasis Plan as a template for similar solutions around the world, to which Zepp-LaRouche reminded that in 2014, the Schiller Institute published “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” as a blueprint for rebuilding the world. [eir]

Feb. 7, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 88th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) convened in the aftermath of the Feb. 4 meeting at the White House of U.S. President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At a press conference following that meeting, with a smirking Netanyahu at his side, Trump declared a “plan” to remove all Palestinians from Gaza, have the U.S. take it over, and build a new “Riviera” over the rubble. This shocking development provided the basis for an intense debate during the IPC proceedings, involving Palestinians, Israelis, former U.S. CIA officials, and others, who discussed its implications.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the discussion, noting that Trump had answered a question about who would live in the “Riviera,” saying “the people of the world,” not the Palestinians. She noted that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had already ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to prepare for moving the population out. She also noted the irony of Trump officials saying “if you have a better plan, let us know,” since the Schiller Institute and the IPC have been presenting such a “better plan” that would actually work to prevent war and create peace and development, the LaRouche Oasis Plan. The Oasis Plan was first proposed by Lyndon LaRouche in 1975—a massive water and power development policy, not only for Palestine, but for the entire region. She called for a mobilization worldwide to have the body of the Oasis Plan presented at the Conference on Palestine now planned for June at the UN.

Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of the Friends of Sabeel North America and co-founder of Nonviolence International, said Trump’s “plan” was not sincere, but a gift to Bibi Netanyahu. This is what radical Zionists have always wanted—no Palestinians, and a “Greater Israel.” The only truthful thing Trump said, he suggested, was that Gaza is unlivable, but without mentioning that the person grinning next to him is the reason that it is uninhabitable. The one thing proven, however, is that Netanyahu has failed. For a solution, he said there are criteria which must be met for any plan to succeed: justice; self-determinism; democracy and human rights; cooperation and co-existence.

Without Development, There Will Be No Justice

Zepp-LaRouche added that these criteria are correct and necessary, but there must be economic development to make those criteria possible to achieve. Kuttab added that there is a problem: that “most people say they want economic development, but it is a substitute for freedom and sovereignty.” Helga responded: “We are not most people.” She added that the notion of “human rights” in the West is not real human rights—China, which has lifted 800 million people out of poverty, demonstrates real human rights; that ending poverty is the biggest contributor to human rights.

Prof. Fernando Garzón, leader of the Ecuadorian-Palestinian Union, consultant for various international development agencies, and an advisor on strategic regional development plans for Ecuador, said that there must be an emergency plan for Gaza based on the Oasis Plan and sovereignty for the Palestinian people. He said the BRICS should be called upon to provide a solution, not only from China but from all the Global South countries.

The former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar said the role of the U.S. and the West being the primary negotiators regarding the Middle East does not function, as their policy fully supports Israel. He proposed that all the members of the UN Security Council must be equal partners in the discussions, so that Russia and China have an equal role. He contended that the other countries were appeasing the United States, just as Panama and Canada have recently caved to Trump’s demands. He said the situation is very dangerous, like that of the pre—World War II era when the West appeased Hitler until it was too late.

Zepp-LaRouche responded that the UN Security Council does not function because the U.S. uses its veto power to prevent any possible solutions. She said perhaps the BRICS could fill that role. President Ramotar replied that the problem is the U.S. will not accept the BRICS either, and there must be a means to get Russia and China engaged.

Dr. Gershon Baskin, an Israeli who has played a leading role in facilitating Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, including a role in the Oslo Accords of 1993 in cooperation with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said that there was “no chance” that the Palestinian people will be removed from their homeland, noting that even if some people wanted to migrate, they were “not welcome.” He ironically suggested that perhaps the U.S. could invite them to settle along the Gulf Coast. He said that the Trump “Riviera” plan, like the similar, earlier plan of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, was “delusional.” The potential result of this process could be the collapse of the ceasefire, and even of the existing Israeli peace agreements with the Arab states. He said that he was participating in a conference in Cyprus next week with representatives of Israel and the Palestinians.

A Successful Peace Requires No Exclusion

Jonathan Kuttab agreed, but added that he saw one problem with Dr. Baskin’s proposals—he had proposed that Hamas should be kept out of any new government for Gaza. Kuttab said that he does not support Hamas, but they can not be excluded, since they represent a significant layer of the Palestinian people. There are factions in the Israeli government whose ideas and policies are abhorrent, but they also cannot be excluded. Asked by LaRouche movement leader Jose Vega if there were interim steps toward peace that could be implemented right away, Kuttab said “yes—lift the siege, let the construction goods come in, let the Palestinians begin rebuilding their homes.”

Dennis Speed noted that President Dwight Eisenhower had proposed in 1968 building nuclear powered desalination plants in the Mideast, to start providing fresh water to green the desert. It was needed then and still today.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, who conducted an interview with Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Feb. 5, offered an alternative view of Trump’s proposals in the meeting with Netanyahu. He said it was not a “plan,” since there was no money offered, no time frame, and no troops involved. He said he was surprised when the extreme Zionists in the Netanyahu circle praised it, since Trump had asserted that when the war ended, Israel would turn Gaza over to the U.S.—but this contradicted the Zionist plan for a greater Israel under Israeli control. He reminded participants that the ceasefire was widely recognized as coming from Trump, and that Trump had posted a video of economist Jeffrey Sachs on his Truth Social site, denouncing Netanyahu as a genocidal monster. “I think he is trying to create a narrative which will lull the extreme Zionists,” he said. He added that the IDF, with 15 months of massive bombing, with total control of the borders and air space over a trapped population, had nonetheless failed to defeat Hamas, as shown by the armed Hamas fighters turning over the hostages. “The IDF can kill more Palestinians, but they cannot defeat Hamas.” The thousands of Palestinians marching north along the coast to return to their destroyed homes demonstrates the stamina and dedication of the Palestinian people.

Johnson added that Trump has made a serious opening to Iran, showing (as he had done with Kim Jong Un in North Korea) that he prefers a deal over war.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche said she would consider Johnson’s remarks. She agreed with Helmut Käss and called on participants to listen to a speech by German Gen. Harald Kujat (ret.), whom she called a “voice of reason” regarding the Ukraine war and relations with Russia, coming just weeks before the German elections. In that speech, Kujat warned against the geopolitical methods of Henry Kissinger; that Ukraine should act as a bridge between East and West; and that leaders of the West must not allow themselves to sleepwalk into world war, as was the case with World War I. [eir]