International Peace Coalition

The ‘Council of Reason’ Gains Momentum

by EIR staff

[Print version of this article]

Aug.2—The 61st consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today, noting that in the preceding sixty meetings, roughly 1,200 individuals from 30 to 40 different nations had participated. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, at the close of the IPC meeting, urged participants to:

1) Circulate the call to implement UN Resolution 377 (see accompanying article below) made by World Beyond War and an accompanying coalition of organizations. The UN Security Council has shown that it can’t function under the present circumstances, and only UN Resolution 377, “Uniting For Peace,” can supersede the Security Council and allow the General Assembly to intervene to stop Israel’s genocidal behavior.

2) Join the August 6 demonstrations, which will be held worldwide to commemorate the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3) Build next week’s Aug. 9 IPC meeting into a very large gathering, to also mark the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.

4) Help us find people from every nation on the planet who, through their life’s work, have contributed something essential to humanity, because these are the people who can be organized to join Zepp-LaRouche’s proposed Council of Reason to pilot the world safely out of the present existential crisis.

Zepp-LaRouche further explained the concept of the Council of Reason. The idea is not to pull together a large grouping of well-meaning people, but rather to find and recruit the handfuls of “elder statesmen” in each country, the key leaders who are committed to the development and security of all nations and all peoples, to lead the way in organizing for a new paradigm “worthy of the Dignity of Man.”

The IPC meeting began with her strategic overview, noting the targeted assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas chief negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran occurred because Israeli leaders believe that the U.S. will fully back them up, following Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress. The fact that they assassinated the key negotiator sends a clear signal that they don’t intend to negotiate. If the war stops, Netanyahu will face elections and jail.

What is looming is a potential war with Lebanon. Hezbollah is a more significant military force than Hamas. The death toll in Gaza is not just 39,000 deaths, but more likely the 186,000 estimated by British medical journal The Lancet, or the 250,000 by strategic analyst John Mearsheimer. Foreign Policy magazine just published the option of assassinating Vladimir Putin, which Zepp-LaRouche described as an “eerily hair-raising discussion … the breakdown of any civility in international relations and diplomacy.”

Dr. Mubarak Awad, founder of Nonviolence International, opened with a personal account of life in occupied Jerusalem during the 1940s; his father was murdered by Zionist forces, and he, his mother and siblings became homeless refugees. So that he might survive, he was taken to an orphanage by his mother. His mother begged him not to carry a gun, not to fall into the “culture of revenge.” He went on to study in the U.S., returned to Palestine, and founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, for which he “was named, in Israel, the most dangerous fellow” and deported. Awad endorsed the Council of Reason, insisting that “we need new thinking”; we need something new because revenge isn’t working.

Graham Fuller, former CIA official and Islamic scholar, focused on the emerging flashpoint of Iran. “Once again we find the United States completely incapable” of engaging in diplomacy in the Middle East, he said. The U.S. “must acknowledge the stupidity” of refusing to engage diplomatically with Iran. He characterized U.S. diplomats as “amateurs” for viewing the situation as a zero-sum game. The old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend “is really quite puerile and childish,” Fuller added. The U.S. refuses to engage with Iran because of “Israel and its violent objection to anything that would strengthen Iran…. Bibi Netanyahu would like nothing more than to have the United States involved in a war with Israel against Iran.”

Prof. Dr. László Ungvári, President (emeritus) of Wildau University of Technology in Germany, insisted that “peace that is created through weapons is not real peace.” He reminded participants that the peace agreements that ended WWI became the impetus for WWII. He praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “one of the few persons in Europe who can talk with every leading politician in the world.” He posed the question: If the West really wants peace, why are they angry at Orbán?

In an excerpt of an interview conducted by EIR’s Mike Billington with Richard A. Falk, professor emeritus of international law, Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Falk observed that “it’s extremely difficult to penetrate the mainstream media” and to “challenge the fundamental way that the world is organized.” He expressed guarded optimism about the proposed Council of Reason, saying that there is a similar council of former Nobel Prize winners, but it hasn’t had much resonance with the media. He advised that Council members must be chosen carefully, and adequate funds raised. “All such initiatives help,” he concluded; “it’s worth a try.” (The full interview is published elsewhere in this issue.)

Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that the IPC must unite the peace movement, including other groups mentioned by Falk: “As long as they are all fighting separately,” it is an uphill battle. If this gets into the UN General Assembly, we can obviate the mainstream media problem.

Answering Dr. Awad, Zepp-LaRouche developed her proposal for the Oasis Plan, which may not be considered practical by some, but we absolutely need an economic development plan that is in everyone’s interest. The situation is desperate, but we need to keep a vision of where we need to go.

During the discussion, congressional candidate Jose Vega asked Dr. Awad to collaborate with his campaign by bringing his experience with non-violent action to the Bronx.

Eisenhower Media Network director Dennis Fritz addressed Dr. Awad, noting the irony that in the U.S., “we try to portray ourselves as defenders of human rights.” Awad replied saying, “I feel so sorry for the leadership of the United States” because they seem to be dominated by the tiny nation of Israel. He applauded the “American spirit” of the campus demonstrators, many of whom are Jews.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed reminded participants that the U.S. is capable of dominating Israel when it suits its purposes, as in 2020 and 2021, when the U.S. used its influence in Israel to forbid economic engagement with China.

A British journalist suggested we observe the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by reminding Europeans that those bombs could have landed on Germany, had they not capitulated.

There is an awareness of the growing war danger among some German leaders. Some NATO maneuvers were reported by whistleblowers because the maneuvers matter-of-factly took the destruction of Germany for granted. Chancellor Scholz, in February, opposed even sending helmets to Ukraine in order to avoid escalation, and opposed sending the Taurus missiles. Now he acquiesces to long-range missiles being stationed on German soil with no public discussion, a decision Zepp-LaRouche described as the “elephant in the room.” The EU is “behaving like a total vassal” of the Anglo-Americans. She referenced the “incredible speech” made by Prime Minister Orbán in Romania. He said that the West has abandoned the idea of the nation-state and the values that go with it. The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the “effort to make Global NATO in the Pacific” are all extremely dangerous.