In Southwest Asia, in addition to Israel’s continuing genocide warfare in Gaza and southern Lebanon, Israel this week perpetrated the emblematic act of bulldozing into the ground buildings in the West Bank provincial capital of Tulkarem, where the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been carrying out aid to the Nur Shams camp. UNRWA, mandated since its founding in 1949 to provide aid to Palestinians in the transition to Palestine becoming an independent state—a transition wrongfully extended for decades, has been unilaterally outlawed this week by Israel, and is now physically under destruction. In Lebanon, one estimate of the devastation there is that nearly a quarter of all buildings have been destroyed in 25 municipalities near the border with Israel.
In Ukraine, the Collective West/Global NATO continues its warfare against Russia through the Ukraine proxy, under the concocted narrative that combat must be continued “until Russia is defeated.” The reality is, as pointed out today by Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine, “Russia has won.” Reason should prevail and the situation resolved, instead of killing thousands more by the day. But instead of the approach of reason, more fuel is spread on the fire. The scare-narrative now, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the press yesterday, is that 10,000 North Korean soldiers are in training in Russia, and “information has it” that 8,000 are in Kursk fighting Ukraine, or if not, they will be there soon. Blinken spoke alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their counterparts from South Korea, who are in Washington for a 2 by 2 meeting.
Going over the top, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), Chairman of the House of Intelligence Committee said in an interview dialogue with Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe, reported Ukrainska Pravda, “I think the United States and NATO allies should seriously discuss and consider attacking directly North Korean troops that are in Ukraine.”
This is the Hell-on-Earth outlook in action. If it is not stopped, the madness will result in nuclear exchange, annihilating civilization.
At today’s meeting of the International Peace Coalition—the 74th consecutive weekly session—where Scott Ritter gave his evaluation, IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche, leader of the Schiller Institute, stressed that, “the alternative is visible” to the evil and war madness. She reviewed the way forces are coming together, as shown in the Oct. 22-24 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia and other manifestations. Today is the second of the two-day meeting in Belarus, of the “Second International Conference on Eurasian Security.” Representing 40 countries, the 600 attendees are deliberating on “the promising contours of future Eurasian security,” as host Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in his opening remarks.
There is motion even in Europe. In Vienna yesterday, a conference on peace was addressed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They spoke of the necessity of pulling back the war forces and moving to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
Zepp-LaRouche’s evaluation is that these positive developments indicate that “a completely different design of world politics is possible.” She announced that the Schiller Institute would sponsor an international online conference on Dec. 7-8, and released the following preliminary perspective for the conference. Details will be forthcoming soon.
Conference Theme: In the Spirit of Schiller and Beethoven: All Men Become Brethren!
It is no exaggeration to say that the world is currently experiencing the most profound crisis in its entire history, if simply for the reality that if any of the regional wars should escalate into a global war, the existence, and as good as certain, use of nuclear weapons would lead to the annihilation of the human species.
It cannot be expected that the U.S. Presidential election will resolve that danger. Depending on who wins the election, there may be an easing of this or that aspect, but the underlying reasons for the crisis as a whole, the mistaken axiom of geopolitics, will remain.
On Oct. 30, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X his Oct. 28 letter to the President of the UN General Assembly, prefacing that: “Today, even as we look into the faces of children in Gaza, some of whom we know will die tomorrow, the rules-based international order is crumbling in a repetition of the horrors that led to the establishment of the United Nations, and in violation of commitments to prevent their recurrence.” Making that historic parallel is a stark accusation, but who wants to debate it?
It is not only international law which is being buried under the crumbling “rules-based order,” but the Orwellian doublespeak and double standard are giving away the systemic nature of the crisis. Where have we arrived, if Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán can point to evidence that the EU Commission is attempting “regime change” against one of its member states?
If that same EU Commission attests that Ukraine is making progress in fulfilling the preconditions to join the EU, ignoring its cancellation of elections, and outlawing of parties and religions? And if that EU Commission threatens Georgia with an end to all negotiations, if Georgia does not break with Russia?
Is Russia “isolated,” when a large part of the Global Majority meets in Kazan, making hopeful plans for the future, based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and engaging in long range development plans? And what does it mean about who is self-isolating themselves, when a UNGA vote comes down with 187-2 to cancel the U.S. sanctions against Cuba, in which only the U.S. and Israel voted to keep the sanctions?
If we don’t overcome the evil of geopolitics, which resulted in two world wars in the 20th century, there is the danger of the world dividing into two separated blocs, a Global NATO on the one side, and a BRICS-Plus Global Majority on the other side. In that case we face not only economic chaos, but the immediate danger of a global nuclear conflagration.
The Kazan Summit of the BRICS nations represents a milestone in the effort to overcome the era of 500 years of colonialism forever, and to establish a more just and equitable world economic order, which will overcome poverty and underdevelopment, and create middle-income countries around the globe.
The obvious and easy way to overcome the danger of war and confrontation is obviously to
convince the countries of the Collective West—the European nations and even the U.S.—to adopt a mode of cooperation with this growing Global Majority. If the West would join hands with the BRICS and help the Global South to industrialize, we could not only stop the geopolitical competition, but we could also start to overcome the migrant crisis in the only human way: namely to create conditions where the people who are now refugees, have, instead, a perspective to be involved in the buildup of their own home countries.
For this to become possible we need to establish a new international security and development architecture, which takes into account the interests of every single country on the planet, in the tradition of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended 150 years of religious war in Europe, because the warfaring parties realized that there would be nobody left alive if the fighting continued. How much more is that true in the age of thermonuclear weapons!
In order to put such a new architecture on the table, the Schiller Institute plans to convene an Internet conference on Dec. 7-8, with leading representatives and experts of the Collective West and the Global South to discuss the principles on which it must be based. And we also want to add an example of the dialogue of cultures and civilizations, with beautiful examples of great art, to show the way to establish a civilization based on—not hatred, but love.
