In this issue:

Extremist Rabbis Put Pulsa Denura Curse on Sharon

Threat to Sharon Will Come from 'His Own Shadow'

Iraqi Insurgency Will Continue Until U.S. Occupation Ends

Sistani Reaffirms Commitment to Political Process in Iraq

Fourth Bombing Against Christian Area in Lebanon

Former UN Arms Inspector Warns of U.S. Attack on Iran

Extremist Rabbis Put Pulsa Denura Curse on Sharon

Yosef Dayan, former close adviser to the late Jewish-American terrorist, Rabbi Meir Kahane, has been given permission to enact a "pulsa denura"—Aramaic for "lashes of fire"—or curse of death—on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, reported the Jerusalem Post on March 30. It was Dayan who pronounced such a curse on former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, prior to his assassination in November 1995. He was given permission by Yeshua Ben Shushan, a kabbalistic rabbi who in 1980 was arrested for being part of a plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock on the Al Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount.

Commenting on this threat against Sharon, EIR founder Lyndon LaRouche warned that this religious curse from fundamentalist Jews is a serious danger, and is part of the religious-warfare scenario that includes the current ongoing destabilizations of Lebanon and Syria (see this week's InDepth).

Dayan and Ben Shushan both believe in creating an Israeli monarchy, and since Dayan claims a lineage that goes back to King David, it's obvious who would be king. Dayan is a key leader in this most extremist of right-wing movements. In October 2004, Dayan reenacted a First Temple-era water libation ritual at the Siloam spring in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, with the goal of removing Sharon from power and instituting a Jewish monarchy.

Ben Shushan is one of the leaders of the Temple Mount terrorists—i.e., those Jewish extremists who believe that they will build the Third Temple of Jerusalem on Temple Mount, which requires the destruction of the existing Islamic mosque, the Dome of the Rock, which stands on the same site. When he is not plotting to blow up mosques, Ben Shushan spends his time looking for "red heifers" to sacrifice, fulfilling a Biblical prophecy, so that he and the Temple Mount crazies can build the Third Temple. According to Ben Shushan, it was the lack of a red heifer which was one of the "spiritual difficulties" which led to the failure of the earlier plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock.

On March 30, Yedioth Aharonot reported that Israeli police refused to issue a permit for collaborators of these organizations to hold a mass demonstration planned for April 10 on the al Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount site. The so-called Revava organization was the organizer of the demonstration, and it claimed it expected 10,000 people to participate. Founded by David Halvri, Revava is directly linked to the Jewish terrorist Kach organization, founded by Meir Kahane. The police have also banned Baruch Marzel, Baruch ben Yossef, and Iramar Ben Gvir, all of whom are members of Kach, from entering the al Haram al Sharif.

Fearing a provocation at the site, police have held a meeting with senior Palestinians from East Jerusalem to discuss these potentials.

Threat to Sharon Will Come from 'His Own Shadow'

Senior Israeli security correspondent Amir Oren wrote April 1 in Ha'aretz that the threat to the life of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not come from a lone assassin like Yigal Amir, who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin. Oren writes that the security around Sharon is so thick that a Yigal Amir does not stand a chance. The real fear is that the attack would be of a commando-scale operation, or a rocket attack. Also, the fear is that there would be no forewarning. The two groups whom officials fear most are those who supported Sharon, and those created under his own shadow. The first is from Brooklyn—the extended Jewish Defense League network—and the other is Sharon's old buddies in the intelligence services and the old Stern Gang apparatus.

Of the first, Oren writes, "If four people are at this moment sitting in Brooklyn and plotting to murder Sharon, be they opponents of the evacuation or mercenaries, planning to land at Ben-Gurion International Airport, ... they will be discovered only at the moment of the assassination attempt, or at the earliest [when] indications of their activity are uncovered...."

On the second possibility, Oren paints a picture of the type of threat that the mafia boss encounters after he double-crosses one of the "families." He writes "that the adversary now pitting itself against protective security in the Shin Bet is a copy of its shadow, an exact negative. It's a handful of people, maybe a dozen, who served in the elite units in the army and the Shin Bet, in the Mossad and the police, who know how to blend into their surroundings and attack, some of them perhaps second-generation underground, sons of members of the special units, maybe also former fighters who served under Sharon in the prestigious Unit 101 and in the Paratroops. The participation of security personnel in terrorist attacks is known from the period of the Jewish underground and in political assassination...."

The fact that over half of the Israeli security services that deal with VIP security for government officials are being deployed to protect Sharon, not only reflects a level of danger, but the level of fear that Sharon has—like the mafia boss.

Iraqi Insurgency Will Continue Until U.S. Occupation Ends

The Iraqi resistance will continue until the United States presents a plan for the withdrawal of its occupation troops, Sunni Sheikh Harith al-Dari stated, as reported in the New York Times March 29. As a leading member of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), al-Dari said, "We ask all wise men in the American nation to advise the administration to leave this country. It would save much blood and suffering for the Iraqi and American people." He said that once that occurs, "I think Iraqi leaders could speak and appeal to the resistance. they could tell them: 'If you want to liberate your country, liberation now is coming without any price. So you must save your efforts and money.' "

According to the Times, the AMS wants to have Sunnis in the Interior and Defense Ministry positions of the Iraqi government now being created.

Al-Dari is being courted by Iraqi political figures, in hopes of getting him to help bring some Sunnis into the government. Al-Dari is a tribal leader, from a family that was prominent in the 1920 rebellion against the British.

As EIR warned, before, during, and after the U.S. invaded Iraq, the Dick Cheney-led destruction of Iraqi institutions such as the Ba'ath Party civil government structures, the Iraqi economic and infrastructure ministries, and the orders disbanding the Iraqi military, would lead to ungovernability. The last two months' impasse in creating an Iraqi government is a reflection of the lack of credibility that George W. Bush's "democracy" has inside the country.

Sistani Reaffirms Commitment to Political Process in Iraq

In the continuing political crisis, where the new Parliament proves incapable of putting a government together, on March 29, Iraq's Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani stated: "Whenever it is necessary, I will participate in the country's developments. So far, I have played a role in my country's development whenever it was necessary, and from now on I will continue to be on the scene whatever the circumstances," as reported by the Iranian news agency IRNA March 29.

Fourth Bombing Against Christian Area in Lebanon

On April 1, a bomb exploded in an underground parking lot of a shopping and residential complex in the mountain resort of Brumana, 20 kilometers east of Beirut, in the Christian area. It is the fourth bombing against Christians since March 17. In the April 1 incident, about a dozen cars were destroyed in the blast, which caused heavy material damage. The eight-story center contains a branch of the Mediterranean Bank, owned by the Hariri family. Rafik Hariri, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, was killed in a highly sophisticated bombing of his motorcade on Feb. 14, an incident which kicked off a crisis in the country, which could erupt into renewed civil war.

For background, see this week's InDepth.

Former UN Arms Inspector Warns of U.S. Attack on Iran

Scott Ritter, a former UN arms inspector, is convinced that the United States will move against Iran, even as early as June 2005, according to a lengthy op-ed carried in Aljazeera.com on March 31. The former U.S. Marine officer reports that he had been approached by someone close to the Bush Administration, after the 2004 elections, and asked about the situation in Iraq.

Ritter writes: "There was a growing concern inside the Bush Administration, this source said, about the direction the occupation was going. The Bush Administration was keen on achieving some semblance of stability in Iraq before June 2005, I was told. When I asked why that date, the source dropped the bombshell: 'because that was when the Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive aerial attack against Iran, Iraq's neighbor to the east, in order to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.' Why June 2005? I asked. 'The Israelis are concerned that if the Iranians get their nuclear enrichment program up and running, then there will be no way to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon....' "

Ritter went on to list all the statements made by Washington, indicating intent to hit Iran, and ended saying that John Bolton's appointment as Bush's UN Ambassador is the clincher, since Bolton has been the point man for the anti-Iran campaign.