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Remember the Liberty

2008-06-08

Category: politics

It was on this date back in 1967 that the USS Liberty was bombed in the Mediterranean Sea. Thirty four United States sailors died in the attack. Yet the attack was kept secret for quite a while. Why was that?

The Liberty was stationed in the Mediterranean as part of a peace treaty. You may have heard that there is the occasional bit of violence in the Middle East. This particular treaty was put in place to prevent war between Israel and its neighbors. The idea was that any attacks would create radio chatter and the Liberty could pick up that information and warn those about to be attacked.

That is where the trouble came. Israel decided to go on the attack. They "accidentally" attacked the ship that would warn its enemies about the treaty violation. The "accidental" attack involved Israeli air craft and torpedo boats.

The US government played down the story for many years. Again I ask: why was that?

In the old days we would side with countries just to keep the commies out. Today we will still play along with countries that have resources we want. What does Israel have that we want?

The area occupied by Israel does not have that much strategic importance. By continuing to sell weapons to Israel we are just making much of the rest of the world angry. Any other country with such a history of hostility toward its neighbors and the indigenous people (the Palestinians) would be labeled a human rights violator. Any country that regularly sent armed assassination squads or other military operatives to commit crimes in, say, neutral countries, would be called a terrorist state. So, what gives?

I can only think of three likely explanations. The first is the most simple. There is a large body of Jewish voters in the United States, particularly in pockets on the east coast. Many Jewish people in this country are supporters of Israel. It is possible that US politicians are concerned that saying anything against Israel will lose the Jewish vote.

The second possible explanation is that there is something in Israel that the US intelligence community knows about but have not made known publicly. In such a case it would be in the best interest of the US to try to get at this resource even if we had to turn a blind eye to the problems associated with doing so.

The third explanation is the one I think is most likely to be true. The United States is predominantly populated be Christians. Most are just people going through their daily lives who have adopted Christianity as their religion just because it is the religion that is available to them in the area. In Christianity, the area occupied by Israel is considered holy. Most Christians see the current Israelis as being the same as the Israelites from the Bible. This is where we start getting into trouble.

The US government is also filled with these Christians who consider Israel to be holy. Since Israel is holy, the people there can do no wrong. They say it must be the will of God. From this, political decisions are based on what will prepare the way for the Apocalypse. After all, it will be important to sell weapons to an omnipotent God because He won?t be able to enforce His will without American fighter jet technology.

Ultimately, our support for Israel as it currently exists will only bring sorrow. At some point the United States government will have to start treating Israel with the same rules we apply to other countries. At some point we have to make it clear that bombing US Naval vessels is not an acceptable act by people who asked us to be there in the first place.


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