November 27, 2007 (LPAC)--Public statements by Bush, Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert at today's Annapolis peace conference, along with other indications discussed below, make clear that the conference was not a failure. On the contrary, it is a possible start to what Lyndon LaRouche had called for on Nov. 19, when he said, "allow the Annapolis meeting to develop some daylight. Frame it on the idea that negotiations between Israel and Syria will go ahead. This will change the whole environment in a way which the Palestine-Israel issue can be successfully addressed."

In a lengthy opening statement which featured a communique agreed between the Israelis and Palestinians, Bush said that a steering committee for negotiations would convene on Dec. 12, and that negotiators would meet thereafter every two weeks, in the Middle East, with U.S. leadership, until conclusion of a treaty of final settlement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began his address by naming the many issues to be settled, including among them the (Syrian) Golan Heights. (Note that the official agenda included, not only the Golan, but also Lebanon,-- two issues involved in potential negotiations with Syria.) Abbas had the highest praise for Condoleezza Rice and her recent efforts, without which he said the conference would have been impossible.

Abbas said that final status negotiations would begin "tomorrow." Indeed, on the schedule tomorrow, Nov. 28, are a Bush-Abbas meeting, then a Bush-Olmert meeting, and finally a trilateral meeting of all three.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking third, said that Israel and Palestine would be engaging in bilateral negotiations aimed to conclude during 2008. He said that all the issues that have been avoided would be taken up; that no subject would be avoided.

At the same time, one feature of Olmert's presentation highlighted the disputes over Annapolis within the U.S. government, where the Cheney faction would like to use it to cement a "Sunni Arab" alliance against Iran. At one point in his address, Olmert said that Israel wants diplomatic relations with all Arab countries and all Islamic countries. But at a later point, he contradicted himself to say that Israel wants diplomatic relations with all Islamic countries which renounce terrorism, etc., etc., which is precisely the Cheney formula against Iran.

Most revealing as to what it was that allowed this potential beginning of a breakthrough, was what Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a meeting of 15 Arab-country representatives he gathered Monday at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. In an interview he gave to the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper the same day (and excerpted in Ha'aretz), he said, "The important factor is the placement of a deadline for negotiations so they do not become endless, and this is what the American government hosting the conference has promised, that the time period does not exceed one year." He added that in inviting his country to the Annapolis conference, Washington promised to "use its full influence" to ultimately bring about a peace agreement. He said that meant if the two sides could not agree, "we assume the United States will come up with its own ideas."

Both of these American commitments cited by Prince Saud, constitute a total departure from the policies of the six years of the Bush-Cheney Administration.

A Washington intelligence-linked source had warned on Monday that the Cheney camp intended to use a failure of Tuesday's Annapolis Conference to gear-up their plans for a near-term war against Iran. Contacted after Tuesday's proceedings, the source was clear that the conference had not failed. He attributed its relative success to the extent to which President Bush had been inspired to become committed to the plans of Condoleezza Rice and her allies. He asked how long that commitment can be made to continue.

Concluding his Nov. 19 discussion of Annapolis, LaRouche said, "the key is to get people there, and to get discussion going in the context of understanding that forward movement is possible on Syria-Israel peace discussion. If you look at the Annapolis meeting in that context, then you can see the possibility for clearing the deck for negotiations and actual progress."