The USS Liberty Five Decades Later

Many years ago, I was discussing the six-day war with a young Jewish college student, and he remarked:

I wish the war had lasted longer so we could have killed more Arabs.

How do you like that 'we'? Clearly, he identified with Israelis considerably more than with Americans, and that seems to be the case with far too many American Jews. Somehow, I don't think he ever got around to joining the US Armed Forces to help out in Vietnam. He would probably have been self-righteously opposed to that war.

Chances are good that even if you've been reading this blog for awhile that you've never heard of the Liberty, an American ship that was attacked by Israeli forces fifty years ago this week. The Israelis, evidently, intended to sink the ship and kill everybody aboard. [link]. So much for our gallant little ally.

Here's one account:

Infamy at Sea

Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty 50 Years Later

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel’s attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship.

Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over a period of three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel.

Soon more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.

A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship’s top officers.

The Liberty’s radio team tried to issue a distress call, but discovered the frequencies had been jammed by the Israeli planes with what one communications specialist called “a buzzsaw sound.” Finally, an open channel was found and the Liberty got out a message it was under attack to the USS America, the Sixth Fleet’s large aircraft carrier.

Two F-4s left the carrier to come to the Liberty’s aid. Apparently, the jets were armed only with nuclear weapons. When word reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara became irate and ordered the jets to return. “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately,” he barked. McNamara’s injunction was reiterated in saltier terms by Admiral David L. McDonald, the chief of Naval Operations: “You get those fucking airplanes back on deck, and you get them back down.” The planes turned around. And the attack on the Liberty continued.

[read the rest here: http://www.unz.com/article/infamy-at-sea/

Of particular interest is one comment on that article:

This column is 100% Muslim-Supremacist lies, like so much of the rest of the Unz.com’s Muslimist brigade.

Smells like Hasbara, doesn't it? It seems that one has to put Israel's interests first, well ahead of American interests, or one is somehow a Muslim-Supremacist.

Not so. As the quibcag suggests, it's quite possible to regards both Israel and many of its Muslim enemies as enemies of the West in general and the US in particular. The Muslims attack us mainly with terrorist operations, while the Israelis are more sophisticated, and attack us with espionage and corruption.

And another account:

Remembering the U.S.S. Liberty

The 50 year cover-up of a mass murder of U.S. servicemen orchestrated by Israel and its friends

PHILIP GIRALDI

There has been a lot of media coverage mostly written by Israelis or American Jews regarding Israel’s “victory” fifty years ago during the so-called Six Days War directed against its Arab neighbors but I have yet to see an account that mentions the fate of the U.S.S. Liberty. Nevertheless, the Liberty is not forgotten. This Thursday at noon at Arlington National Cemetery there will be a small gathering for the annual coming together with the survivors and friends of the most decorated ship in the history of the U.S. Navy, a victim of a particularly brutal and unprovoked attack by Israel that has been covered up for half a century by the powers that be in Washington. The moving service will include reminiscences by surviving crew members plus the ringing of a ship’s bell for each one of the thirty-four American sailors, Marines and civilians that were killed in the deliberate Israeli air and sea onslaught that sought to sink the intelligence gathering ship and kill all its crew. Present will be a number of veterans like myself and other Americans who are committed to ensuring that the story of the Liberty will not die in hopes that someday the United States government will have the courage to acknowledge what actually happened on that fateful day.

The Liberty survivors who will be present in Arlington on Thursday will be fewer than usual because the crew is having its own 50th anniversary commemoration in Norfolk, Virginia, home of the U.S. Atlantic fleet. In truth the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967, has almost faded from memory, with a younger generation completely unaware that a United States naval vessel was once deliberately targeted and nearly sunk by America’s “greatest friend and ally” Israel. The attack was followed by a cover-up that demonstrated clearly that at least one president of the United States even back nearly fifty years ago valued his relationship with the state of Israel above his loyalty to his own country.

It was in truth the worst attack ever carried out on a U.S. Naval vessel in peace time. In addition to the death toll, 171 more of the crew were wounded in the two-hour assault, which was clearly intended to destroy the intelligence gathering vessel operating in international waters collecting information on the ongoing fighting between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Israelis, whose planes had their Star of David markings covered up so Egypt could be blamed, attacked the ship repeatedly from the air and with gunboats from the sea. When one Israeli pilot hesitated, refusing to attack what was clearly an American ship, he was instructed to proceed anyway.

The most disgusting part of the tale relates to how U.S. warplanes sent to the Liberty’s aid from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean were called back by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara acting under orders from President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who declared that he would rather see the ship go to the bottom of the sea than embarrass his good friend Israel. Ironically, the first ship to reach the Liberty and offer assistance was from the Soviet Union, an offer that was declined.

Johnson was reportedly feared Jewish influence over Congress and in the media, which might work together to block his “Great Society” legislative initiatives, not to mention his expected reelection bid in 1968. It was an early manifestation of the power of the Jewish lobby in American politics and foreign relations. One has to hope that both LBJ and McNamara are currently burning in hell.

I certainly do. You can read the whole thing here:

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/remembering-the-u-s-s-liberty-2/

My conclusion? Israel is no friend of the United States. Countries don't have 'friends,' just (temporary) allies, as Lord What's-his-name said. And if they did, Israel wouldn't qualify.

But I'm all for Israel taking care of itself, though I'd advise them not to be so damn ham-handed about it. In fact, I think we need to emulate Israel in many ways. I mean, Israel would never put the interests of some tiny pissant county ahead of its own. It would never open its borders to the Third World and allow its citizens to be massacred without consequence. Nor should we. Unfortunately, many American pro-Zionists, while supporting Israel's right to do whatever it damn pleases, are opposed to the US defending its borders, people, sovereignty or whatever else in any way whatsoever. Why waste our money doing stuff like that when we could just send it to Israel instead?