THE PRIORITY OF ECONOMIC ACTION

LaRouche on the Required Economic Protocols for the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords

Jan. 16—The breakthrough Oslo Accords were announced in September 1993, between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which called for resolution of conflict over time, and specified economic development protocols. On September 13, when he signed the Accords, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian representative, spoke of how the lack of infrastructure in the region has “drained the population” and caused misery for too long. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that it is time to “make the gardens of Jericho bloom again.”

Lyndon LaRouche stressed the necessity to “put the shovels in the ground” right away. But geopolitical opponents of the Accords were saying that political agreement must come before economic cooperation. LaRouche said, no, “turn the dirt” on the development projects immediately. During a September 8 EIR Talks radio interview, LaRouche spelled it out:

The urgent thing here is that we must move with all speed to immediately get these economic development projects, such as the canal from Gaza to the Dead Sea, going, because if we wait until we discuss this thing out, enemies of progress and enemies of the human race, such as Kissinger and his friends, will be successful, through people like [Ariel] Sharon’s buddies, in intervening to drown this agreement in blood and chaos; but now we have an opportunity. If we move fast enough to get the economic development started, we can have an agreement in the Middle East which succeeds where, because of the Bush and Thatcher Administrations, we failed to seize the opportunity when the Wall came down in eastern Europe. [back to text]