The 157th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on June 5 included a deep discussion about the disaster in the Mideast between Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator, and the former Israeli Director of Peace Now, (also a former member of the Israeli Knesset), and a Palestinian-American journalist who founded the Community Media Network. The meeting also heard from the conductor of a symphony orchestra in rural Iowa, who is also a hog farmer, which led to a rich discussion of the role of culture in politics during the open Q&A session following the presentations.
Zepp-LaRouche opened by noting that the war fronts in Southwest Asia and in Ukraine are both increasing the danger of world war. Ukraine’s deadly drone strikes on a school in Lugansk on May 22 and on St. Petersburg on June 3, the opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), caused an angry response from Moscow, with Russia launching extensive bombing across Ukraine; it also led to broader discussion in Russia of “teaching” Europe a lesson by using a nuclear weapon. “Where are the adults?” she asked. She noted that some are calling on former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to be made a delegate to Russia, with many voices objecting, but she said, “Let him try.” On the other hand, said Zepp-LaRouche, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev has repeated his call for building a tunnel under the Bering Strait, thus connecting the Eurasian continent to the Americas—an idea long promoted by the LaRouche movement.
Germany recently lost the vote by members of the UN General Assembly to select Europe’s representatives on the UN Security Council; Austria and Portugal were voted in. This is a sign, said Zepp-LaRouche, that the Global South is disgusted with Germany’s support for war, and with its saying nothing about the U.S. bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline, showing that Germany is a virtual colony to the United States.
The next speaker was Mossi Raz, the former director of Peace Now in Israel, and a former member of the Israeli Knesset. He strongly denounced Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and called for Germany and all countries to support statehood for Palestine. The Arab League peace plan for the conflict should be the basis of negotiations. On Lebanon, he said, they are weak—weak government, weak army—and cannot deliver on the agreement they reached with Israel. What can be done? The President of the United States, Donald Trump, can do it, as was shown when he told Israel to stop the war on Gaza (although it is clear they never stopped -Editor), and to not bomb Beirut. Raz asserted that this made them stop, and the U.S. President—this one or the next one—is the only one who can make Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu stop. He added that Hezbollah takes orders from Iran, but added that Hamas does not take orders from Iran.
Next was Palestinian-American journalist Daoud Kuttab, founder and former director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He showed his book, State of Palestine NOW, arguing that all of the wars in the region are based on injustice to the Palestinians. He insisted that all nations must call for the recognition of Palestine, even if it is an occupied state, so that Palestine can negotiate with Israel on a state-to-state basis. He also insisted that the West Bank and Gaza must be de-linked from Israel.
Kuttab said the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has its problems, and PLO President Mahmoud Abbas is a weak leader—but he is the President of Palestine, and we need to recognize him. Foreign leaders who are not happy with Abbas, he said, should engage with the imprisoned Marwan Barghouti (24 years in prison) who was elected head of Fatah. He is strong, moral, honest, and is thought of as the true leader of the Palestinian nation. (Kuttab called him “the next President of Palestine,” much like a Nelson Mandela.)
Zepp-LaRouche agreed with Kuttab that Barghouti has “proven integrity.” She added, however, that with the destruction of Gaza, of Afghanistan, of Yemen, of Syria, a plan for “peace through development is required, as exemplified by the LaRouche Oasis Plan. (See Oasis Plan Is a ‘Model for the World’.) If even a few states backed it, she asserted, it could work.
Kuttab added that negotiations must be comprehensive, “not gradual, like the Oslo Accords.”
Raz added that he had met Mahmoud Abbas many times; choosing their leaders is the Palestinians’ business.
Zepp-LaRouche agreed that getting a Palestinian state is a starting point but insisted that what is required is a “grand design” for the entire region, from India to the Mediterranean, addressing the needs of all countries, including Israel. China has shown that it can achieve such a grand design, greening the deserts, building large-scale development corridors like the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). She said that with such a program, in ten years the desert would become a lush garden, as it was during the era of the Silk Road. What is needed is such a grand vision, to change the view of the future.
Harley Schlanger then gave a report on the May 30-31 Schiller Institute Conference The End of 500 Years of Colonialism: For a Dialogue of Civilizations—The Urgency of a New Global Security and Development Architecture. He summarized the presentations by China’s Zhang Weiwei, by Amb. Chas Freeman, by Pino Arlachi, the video by four young people from Uganda, by Dr. Wolfgang Bittner from Germany, and the cultural panel, with Iranian poetry, Chinese dance, and Western Classical music.
This was followed by Bob McConnell, conductor of the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra for 35 years, and also an Iowa hog farmer, who reported on the destructive economic policies dragging down rural areas, shutting down towns and institutions. He spoke of his commitment to defend and expand Classical music. Located in the center of the North American farm belt, he explained how he recruits people who know nothing about Classical music, to understand and appreciate it. Two short videos were played showing McConnell with the orchestra, demonstrating the opening and grand finale of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. This sparked excitement in the discussion period over the connection of beautiful music to intervening for peace.
Other issues brought up in the Q&A included one participant who said she was an economist but was searching for a means to get active politically—but not as an economist, which is “such a horrible profession.” She was very happy about doing it through music. Zepp-LaRouche said she was glad the person loved music, but that economics was not a “horrible profession,” noting that her late husband Lyndon LaRouche was a great economist but insisted that economists must also be scientists and artists. The problem, she said, is that nearly all economists today are monetarists, who know only about money, not real economics.
Another person called for a new “ideology” for the new world architecture promoted by the Schiller Institute and the IPC. Zepp-LaRouche replied, no, not an “ideology,” which is a construct; what’s needed is the search for truth. She quoted Norbert Brainin, the great lead violinist for the Amadeus Quartet, who called the work of their quartet “truth-seeking musicians, getting closer and closer as we go along.”
