Last June, I had written a post here commemorating the 45th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty. The post, in which I argued (in defiance of every conspiracy theory), that the Israeli attack on the American ship was a mistake, has been giving me considerable heartburn as of late. In the last several days, my e-mail and facebook page have been flooded with the harshest condemnations concerning the article, tarring me as being a “hack,” a “traitor,” and nothing less than a running dog for the “Jewish/Zionist/apartheid” lobby. My article, which scored a modest few dozen Facebook recommendations at the time, has now swelled to over 350 in just the last two days. I wish I could say I was pleased.
As a non-Jewish American who strongly supports Israel, I believe it is very important for Americans not to believe that Israel would knowingly attack an American ship and lie about it. All of the facts regarding the attack are now a matter of public record, and as I argue down below, there is little basis upon which to continue to assert that the attack was deliberate; all of the evidence indicates otherwise.
To those of you who have addressed your arguments and criticisms toward me, let me say this: I have little hope of swaying the anti semites and Israel haters among you who continue to use this issue in your odious and repugnant campaign of slander and delegitimization against the Jewish state. But for those among you who mistakenly believe in good faith that Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty and are puzzled and troubled by it, I do hope I can go some way toward persuading you of the unlikelihood and the implausibility of this scenario.
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