Behold: an Uproar (But Not in the U.S.)

Behold: an Uproar (But Not in the U.S.)

by James M. Ennes, Jr.

The USS Liberty , the day after the attacks. The Sixth fleet took 17 hours to rendevous after recalling the rescue planes, all for Israel's benefit of course,The USS Liberty , the day after the attacks. The Sixth fleet took 17 hours to rendezvous with the crippled USS Liberty after earlier recalling the rescue planes, all for Israel's benefit of course, better that Americans died than "embarrass our ally" for murdering them.

June 8 marks 40 years since Israeli air and naval forces attacked the USS Liberty, killed 34 men, wounded 174 more, disabled the ship and lied about it. Israel is still lying and survivors still work tirelessly to tell the story, but remain powerless, frustrated and ineffective.

One can liken the Israeli government to the spoiled child of an unscrupulous dictator. Uday or Qusay Hussain, sons of Saddam, come to mind—cruel, unscrupulous, ruthless, and free to commit every conceivable outrage with impunity because they were protected by their all-powerful father.

Similarly, the government of Israel can with impunity abuse Palestinians or other neighbors, and even attack Americans, confident that the U.S. government will protect them. After all, most Israeli crimes, no matter how outrageous, go unreported in the American press, including the attack on the Liberty; repeated bombings of refugee camps, U.N. forces, ambulances, and news reporters; the killing of Rachel Corrie; the violation of U.N. accords; the shooting of children; the murders of innocent civilians, and other heinous crimes. Never are they discussed in the sacred halls of Congress, and never are the criminals sanctioned in any way, or even called to explain. Nothing has changed in more than 40 years.

USS Liberty survivors will gather in Washington, DC this year for a 40th anniversary reunion to honor our lost shipmates and discuss tactics and progress. Two years ago we filed with the Department of Defense a detailed Report of War Crimes committed against us by the armed forces of Israel (see <www.ussliberty.org/report/report.htm>). Despite the fact that the United States is required by international law and treaty to investigate any such charge, when the government of Israel is involved these rules are routinely ignored, as they have been in this case. To no surprise, our fully documented and detailed report has never been investigated as required—or even acknowledged.

This year Liberty survivors asked the Navy Judge Advocate General to send a representative to the reunion to explain the Navy’s position. He declined. Again, no surprise.

Even though unanswered and ignored, however, our report remains active.

More than a decade ago we wrote in these pages that Israeli forces shot and killed 150 or more Egyptian prisoners of war at the town of El Arish while the USS Liberty passed just 12 miles off shore (see “Did Israel’s Armed Forces Commit One War Crime to Hide Another?” in the May/June 1996 Washington Report, p. 28).

The story of the massacre originally came from Israeli eyewitnesses, was reported in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot and again, recently, by Israeli journalist Ran Adelist on Israeli television. Yet, then and now, it has largely been ignored in the American press and by the American government, despite the fact that this massacre was a serious war crime and could well have been the reason for the attack on the Liberty.

Indeed, according to Israeli historian Michael Oren, “Ennes’s report cannot be true”—for if it were there would be an international uproar and it would disrupt relations between Israel and Egypt.

Behold: There is now an uproar, and it is in full steam. A recent Reuters report indicates that an account of the massacre has reached Egypt, and that the Egyptian public is outraged. Cairo has recalled its ambassador to Israel, and there are calls to sever relations and terminate the Camp David accords.

Like the Liberty story, however, this report of Israeli criminal activity, so closely connected to the Liberty attack, gets almost no press attention in this country.

—J.E.

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2007/0705026.html