An Israeli Double-Feature:
52nd Anniversary of Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty
Israel Is a Dictatorship, Not a Democracy
Paul Craig Roberts
Two days ago the US celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-Day with accolades to the armed forces and thanks to surviving veterans. The country stood strongly with the military. But today two days later is the 52nd anniversary of a day of shame when Washington turned its back on the US Navy. It
was June 8, 1967 when the USS Liberty, a surveillance ship stationed off the coast of Egypt was attacked by Israeli fighter aircraft and torpedo boats. The Israelis were unable to sink the Liberty, but managed to kill 34 American sailors and wound 174. Seventy percent of the crew were casualties of the Israeli attack.
The White House, fearing the Israel Lobby, prevented the US Navy from going to the defense of the Liberty, thus sacrificing American lives, and further dishonored the US Navy by ordering Admiral McCain, father of the former US Senator John McCain, to orchestrate a cover-up. The surving crew were threatened with court-martial and imprisonment if they spoke about the event. It was 20 years before one of the surving officers wrote a book about the greatest act of shame the US government ever inflicted on the US military.
In 2003, 36 years after the Israeli attack on the Liberty, Admiral Tom Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, convened the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the Liberty was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States Government. The Commission consisted of Adm. Moorer, Gen. Raymond Davis, former Assistant Commandant of the US Marine Corps, Rear Adm. Merlin Staring, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy, and Amb. James Akins, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
You can read the report online, here for example: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Moorer_Report
The report is devastating. Among the report’s conclusions, these stand out:
“That due to the influence of Israel’s powerful supporters in the United States, the White House deliberately covered up the facts of this attack from the American people;
“That due to continuing pressure by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, this attack remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress; to this day, no surviving crewmember has been permitted to officially and publicly testify about the attack;
“That there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history; the existence of such a cover-up is now supported by statements of Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, USN (Ret.), former Judge Advocate General of the Navy; and Captain Ward Boston, USN, (Ret.), the chief counsel to the Navy’s 1967 Court of Inquiry of Liberty attack;
“That the truth about Israel’s attack and subsequent White House cover-up continues to be officially concealed from the American people to the present day and is a national disgrace;
“That a danger to our national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of any foreign nation, and specifically are unwilling to challenge Israel’s interests when they conflict with American interests; this policy, evidenced by the failure to defend USS Liberty and the subsequent official cover-up of the Israeli attack, endangers the safety of Americans and the security of the United States.”
After interviewing many of the survivors, Captain Ward Boston, who was assigned to cover up the attack and afterward repudiated the cover-up, and Bill Knutson, the executive officer of the USS America fighter squadron that was called back on orders from the White House, and lengthy discussions with Adm. Moorer, my former colleague at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, I have written about the Israeli attack on the Liberty a number of times. Some of them are available in the archive on this website, for example: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/07/26/the-israeli-attack-on-the-uss-liberty-paul-craig-roberts/
All who discount the influence of Israel on the US government are ignorant fools.
Netanyahu Elevates Himself to Dictator
We hear every day that “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” but is Israel a democracy or a dictatorship?
In a democracy even the highest members of the government are accountable to law, but this isn’t the case with Netanyahu. After a two-year investigation the Israeli attorney general announced his intention to indict prime minister Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-indicted.html
This is like Mueller indicting President Trump for colluding with Putin to steal the US presidential election. All would be over for Trump, but not for Netanyahu. Netanyahu simply removed the Israeli justice minister, Avichai Mandelblit, and appointed himself to the post, thus immunizing himself from prosecution. https://www.rt.com/news/461082-netanyahu-justice-minister-charges/
As prime minister Netanyahu had already assigned himself the ministries of Defense, Health, and Education. Now he is Justice minister as well. How much of a government can be in the hands of one person before that person becomes a dictator? Think about it this way: If President Trump were also Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary of Homeland Security, would he be a president or a dictator?
Trump has none of these posts, but some Democrats accuse him of being a dictator. What then does that make Netanyahu?
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