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.
