The Lead

‘Free Palestine, Oasis Plan Now!’

by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Feb. 21, 2024

That is the cry that must become a drumbeat, a campaign around the world to break the current trajectory towards a genocide that is engulfing the entirety of Palestine, and especially the 2.3 million desperate people of Gaza. As anti-war demonstrations in the United States and Europe take up that call; as people’s attention is drawn to the existence of a solution known as LaRouche’s Oasis Plan, and to the 15-minute video which presents that concept clearly and convincingly; the imagination of forces opposed to the current policies can be captured, and quickly turned into an effective political force where it is most needed: the United States and the nations of Europe.

“What’s required is not a one-time action,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche insisted today. “What’s needed is a campaign; keep at it until you have things in the right place.”

The urgency is underscored by the ongoing week-long hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on the subject of the decades of occupation and oppression of Palestine by the state of Israel. The urgency is punctuated by the last 100 days of torture that the people of Gaza are being subjected to, escalating with a “precipitous slide into hunger and disease,” as the World Food Program warned on Feb. 20.

As a result of Israel’s war against a defenseless population, with over 29,000 Palestinians killed to date, and the remainder subjected to deliberate withholding of food, water and medical humanitarian aid—crimes against humanity prosecutable under the Nuremberg principle of “knew or should have known”—the world today is watching the children of Gaza be killed off as if they were not human souls. UNICEF reports that 65% of Gaza families eat only one meal a day, with 90% of adults restricting their own food to ensure small children can eat. More than 90% of children endure severe food poverty, and a similar percentage have infectious diseases, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the last two weeks.

And where is the government of the United States at this morally decisive moment for Humanity? On Feb. 20, the U.S. once again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is not a government of, by and for the people; it is a government of, by and for the City of London and Wall Street bankers, and their unipolar world order of perpetual wars and economic collapse.

It is the case that the fight against undiluted evil can often bring out the best in people. The courageous actions of South Africa in charging Netanyahu’s Israel with genocide, is one good example. Another is Brazilian President Lula’s restating at last week’s African Union summit, of the charge of Nazi-like genocide against Israel for what it is doing in Gaza, and his ongoing campaign to free the developing sector of onerous debt by converting it into investment in infrastructure. As one Brazilian newspaper wrote: “Lula freed the cry that was stuck in the throats of millions.”

As a group, the BRICS nations (of which Brazil is a founding member) have taken up the challenge of constructing a new international security and development architecture to replace the bankrupt trans-Atlantic system. As Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told a local TV station after meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who promised him that, “as the group’s chair this year, Russia will facilitate the process” of Venezuela’s desire to join the BRICS:

“The old colonial world with wars, interventions, genocide and a superiority complex” is being replaced by “a new world with BRICS,” Maduro stated. “The trend of the emergence of a new world and the consolidation of BRICS is irreversible, and Venezuela will soon be part of BRICS,” he promised.