LaRouche's Oct. 22 event was attended by 300 people in Washington and hundreds more at satellite videoconferences in the United States, as well as broadcast on the Internet. In Washington, Abdulla el-Amin of Detroit's (Muslim Observer), asked the candidate, "Mr. LaRouche ... how do you propose to deal with what obviously is an extremely powerful lobby in the United States, in order to be fair in the treatment of the Palestinian people?"

LaRouche's forceful and comprehensive answer follows: "First of all, there is a meeting in Geneva, which is an attempt--with [Yossi] Beilin and others involved whom I've had some cooperation with indirectly in the past on this question--which is an attempt to revive the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. This is important. I think that governments and others around the world should support it. Not that it by itself is going to succeed, but an effort in that direction opens up the question of what is required to succeed. If you can establish that the intent exists, then I think it can succeed.

"Now, the other side is that Israel has no future under the present policies of Sharon. You have really a Masada complex in action. Sharon is more of a clever thief than a fanatic. He knows how to act like a fanatic, in order to get people to give him things... But the danger is among the fanatics, especially the religious fanatics, who are always dangerous because they're not in the real world. The point is, if Israel were to pursue this course, which has been assigned to it by the friends of Dick Cheney, the neo-conservatives in the United States principally--it's a part of Cheney's policy, it's a part of the preventive war policy. Sharon is a patsy for Cheney, or for whoever takes Cheney's place in playing that role.

"In reality, as every sane Israeli knows--and every concerned Jew around the world who's well-informed knows--if Israel goes this road, Israel will cease to exist. Maybe other people, too, will cease to exist, but Israel cannot live with the present policy. I know this. I don't think that George Bush the president knows this. I think there are many things he doesn't know.

"But as President, I'll have no problem in dealing with this. I will deal with it. I will sit on it, and I will get the support of enough people in the world that we'll stop it..."

- 'Not a Nickel' To Sharon -

"It is in the interest of the United States that the Middle East war end! It is in the interest of the United States that there be peace among the peoples of the Middle East. It is in the interest of the United States that there be justice for the Palestinians. Therefore, the United States President must express that interest; and he must express that interest with a certain deference to realities; he must look for others to join him in this, and not be dictatorial about it any more than is necessary; but he's got to be firm.

"He would have to say, as I would say, 'Hey, Sharon, I've got news for you. Your water is shut off. You don't get a nickel from the United States from this moment on, until you stop this nonsense. You're not getting anything from us.'

"We are on the side of the Palestinians, because they're the victims in this process. Oh sure, they kill back; but everyone who understands this process, understands that. When you push a people to the brink, you will get irregular warfare. You set the fire: Don't complain about the flames. When you abuse people, you deny them justice for two generations, you treat them as inhuman for two generations, they give up hope and they're willing to commit suicide to fight you, then you are wrong, wrong. You don't do that to the human race. And the United States has to take a clear position on that."

"We have the case of the ship, (U.S.S. Liberty), which is coming up for discussion now. When the Israelis defied the United States by sinking a naval ship, the {Liberty}--that issue should be discussed again. On the other hand, we have people like Beilin and others who may not be so nice among the Israelis, but at least are rational, who know that peace is essential.... And the policy of the United States, for its own part, should be, 'We will tolerate nothing but peace, we do not buy your cheap excuses, Sharon. We know what kind of a thug you are. Now cut it out, because the full power of the United States will be applied in appropriate ways, to make you wish you had!' And that's the only way to deal with it.

"We could get support from other nations for such a policy. But what we're not doing, on the Israeli side, is we are not putting our support to those people whose interests and whose actions do correspond to our interest. Beilin typifies those who correspond to U.S. interests. Therefore, we should be supporting the Geneva process, not because it's a guaranteed success, but because it's keeping alive the only thing that will get the Middle East out of this mess. At the same time, we have to defend the rights of the Palestinians, in the way the United States should defend the rights of the Palestinians, not like a bull in a china shop, but consistently. And if we were serious about it, it would help.

- Fire Ashcroft -

"The first thing we should do is, we probably should ask Mr. Ashcroft to resign too. He set up this myth about Arab terrorists being the cause of 9/11, and so forth. A bunch of lies. There's no truth to it whatsoever! There are many people who are in al-Qaeda and other organizations called the Muslim Brotherhood. They were recruited by the United States, as a part of Iran-Contra--together with the British--for the occasion of the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They were turned loose at the end of these events, and they're around as people who have worked for the U.S., worked for the British, worked for other intelligence services, sometimes because they think they're working for those services, sometimes because they think those services are working for them. Sometimes agents get confused in this way.

"The United States always has access to creating a number of dead bodies, to display on the sidewalks, to say, 'Look, the Arabs did it!' How do you know the Arabs did it? Because we've got Arab dead bodies all over the place here. Well, that probably tells you it wasn't the Arabs. If the dead bodies are Arabs, it wasn't the Arabs who did it, because the intelligence service that did it would have left somebody else there. Japanese or Africans, or people from Mexico. They might do that next, you know? So, the point is, what we've done is we're made this issue worse, by tolerating this absolutely unconscionable, immoral, disgusting attack on Arab-Americans and Arabs generally. This kind of racism. We have created a lynch mob spirit against anyone who's supposed to be Arab or pro-Arab.