John Hagelin / Nat Goldhaber 2000

Hagelin blasts Clinton for Middle East bloodshed
Offers peace plan to quell escalating violence

At a news conference during a campaign stop in Denver today, John Hagelin proposed a peace plan for the Middle East that targets what he called the underlying cause of violence and bloodshed in the region: escalating religious and ethnic tensions.

Hagelin also chastised President Clinton for ignoring a similar plan for Kosovo two years ago that “would have saved thousands of lives,” and urged him to take a bold new leadership role in the Middle East peace process during the waning days of his administration.

Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist, is the presidential candidate of the Natural Law Party/Independence Party Coalition.

“Despite Clinton’s concerted efforts, Barak and Arafat will never achieve a lasting peace as long as the region is inflamed by religious and ethnic tensions,” Hagelin said. “Negotiated settlements and paper treaties alone provide no firm foundation for peace. It’s first necessary to address the tension and bitterness that has built-up over generations. Only in an atmosphere of peace is it politically feasible for leaders to conclude a peaceful resolution to an otherwise unresolvable conflict.”

Hagelin said that Clinton has repeatedly ignored the latest research and scientific conclusions concerning the root cause of violence and social conflict.

“Rising tensions among warring factions are the driving force behind social conflict,” Hagelin said. “Extensive research, published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, shows that such tensions can be effectively diffused through conflict remediation.”

Hagelin said that management of societal stress through the collective application of a widely researched stress reduction program known as Transcendental Meditation by a small subportion of a population has been used successfully on at least seven occasions to reduce violence and open warfare in the Middle East, and in dozens of trouble spots throughout the world.

Addressing his remarks to Clinton, Hagelin said: “Mr. President, you are throwing away an opportunity to prevent loss of life, salvage the peace, and leave a legacy for your administration. I brought this solution to your attention many times in the past--most recently as an effective alternative to your bloody campaign of bombing in Kosovo. Now, having been informed again, if you fail to act you will be responsible for what could become a bloodbath in the Middle East.”

Hagelin’s plan includes bolstering current diplomatic efforts in the Middle East by training a “coherence-creating” group in Israel of several thousand experts practicing Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques.

“In a world torn by regional conflicts,” Hagelin said, “ideally every military should have a ‘prevention wing’--a cadre of troops trained in true peace-keeping skills to prevent the outbreak of armed conflict.”