January 3, 2001

TO PRESIDENT CLINTON

For Peace in the Middle East, Develop Water;
Lack of Water Is a ‘Formula for Death’

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr

Speaking at an EIR seminar in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2001, newly announced Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche in an answer to a question from journalists from the Dominican Republic, called for President Bill Clinton to move immediately, to announce a policy on Middle East water development, as the only means of reaching a Middle East peace agreement. The alternative, he emphasized, is a general religious war spreading from the region.

LaRouche raised the Middle East question as an example of the kind of decisive action required to flank, and solve, apparently intractable problems. His answer, as follows, was prescient.

So, we have, in the Middle East, we have the cockpit for igniting the “Clash of Civilizations”: [which] is an Israeli-Palestinian, and an Israeli-Arab war. This is being provoked, now, how? It’s being provoked, because there’s only one solution for peace in the Middle East. I’ve been working at it since 1975, in a very active way. I’ve been dealing with both Israelis and Palestinians, and others, in this area, since—especially heavily, since April of 1975.

The one thing you never get agreement on—you get some Israelis who agree, some Arabs who agree, but you never get general agreement, because the Middle East is an area where there’s not enough water to drink for everybody who lives there. There’s no way you can supply water from the existing aquifers, by water-sharing among the existing population. You have a formula for death.

There’s only one way you can have peace in the Middle East, and it has to be done now, or you’re going to have war. You’re going to have a new Middle East Arab-Israeli war, which will probably spread into Iran, and spread to other countries of Asia. We’re on the verge of it right at this moment. That’s why Clinton’s effort is so important; and there’s also a reason why he’s failed so far: because the only way you’re going to get peace in the Middle East, is on the basis of a large-scale salt-water desalination project, which raises the level of water supplies throughout the Middle East, to more than meet the demands of the existing population, and allow for improvement of agriculture and industry.

If you have a peace based on a commitment, based on the same principle as the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended nearly a century and a half of religious war in Europe—from about 1511 to 1648, Europe was dominated and destroyed by religious war; permanent, religious war. And in 1648, in the Treaty of Westphalia, that was brought to an end.

You need a Treaty of Westphalia, an ecumenical agreement in the Middle East. It has to be based on a solid foundation of justice for the people of the region—for everyone. Past crimes forgotten! Past issues forgotten! Respect for religious rights. Past crimes forgotten. You must have peace, and the peace must be based on water, must be based on economic development. It must be based on equity and justice for the children of those who are living today. There must be hope for the children! There must be a future for the children! How can you have peace, without a future for the children?

The United States has not had the guts to do it. The policy of the United States must be: The United States does not want to become involved in a Middle East war. Yes, we want peace, but we don’t believe in this honest-broker kind of nonsense.

What we need—and everybody who’s intelligent in Israel will agree—the only way we’re going to avoid a war from breaking out very soon in the Middle East, spreading throughout much of the rest of the world, is to push through now—right now, while Clinton is still President—to push through a U.S. position, saying there is no peace in the Middle East, unless there’s a massive program of desalination, to ensure at least that there’s the water and the energy needed, so that the children of the present inhabitants of the region have a peaceful future for their grandchildren. That should be the policy of the United States.