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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   18388 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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Well the linked write-up explains that Israel killed 34 American soldiers, the president and his advisors and most of the surviving crewmen all believed it was on purpose, and Israel then conspired with American Jews in government to threaten the president not to talk about it, while conspiring with Jewish journalists to quash the story, all this done through their consulate. Decades later they balked at ever paying restitution to the families, even with American pressure. To top it off, the event has a symbolically resonant name: the Attack on USS Liberty. And this happened in 1967, which was not the height of the lobby’s power.

Well the linked write-up explains that Israel killed 34 American soldiers, the president and his advisors and most of the surviving crewmen all believed it was on purpose

I'm not familiar with this incident in any great detail, but what would the Israelis possibly hope to gain from a deliberate attack on a US warship, in the middle of a major war?

If Israeli influence was so strong over the US that they could effectively puppet the government and its armed forces, why even strike the ship at all?

Why not just use all that shadowy influence to covertly achieve whatever goal they were trying to achieve instead?

I'm struggling to come up with an explanation for Israel being malicious rather than simply mistaken that doesn't sound like;

"No, Muttley, we can't win fairly! We are villains! Ergo, we have to cheat!"

According to our then-president, it was to prevent the ship from spying. It’s possible the Liberty had obtained comms about the slaughter of surrendering Egyptian soldiers.

About noon, as the Liberty was again in sight of El Arish, and while the massacres were taking place, an army commander there reported that a ship was shelling them from the sea. But that was impossible. The only ship in the vicinity was the Liberty, and she was eavesdropping, not shooting. As any observer would have recognised, the ship was a tired old second world war vessel crawling with antennae, and unthreatening to anyone - unless it was their secrets, not their lives, they wanted to protect.

But it could have obtained other valuable information:

This and other war crimes were just some of the secrets Israel had sought to conceal since the start of the conflict. An essential element in the Israeli battle plan seemed to have been to hide much of the war behind a carefully constructed curtain of lies: lies about the Egyptian threat, lies about who started the war, lies to the US president, lies to the UN Security Council, lies to the press, lies to the public. Thus, as the American naval historian Dr Richard K Smith noted, "any instrument which sought to penetrate this smoke screen so carefully thrown around the normal 'fog of war' would have to be frustrated". Into this sea of deception and slaughter sailed the USS Liberty, an enormous spy factory loaded with the latest eavesdropping gear.

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If Israeli influence was so strong over the US

They do not have much influence within the meritocratic military that they largely do not serve in. They have power in politics and media, where money buys influence.

rather than simply mistaken

According to the crew, this was impossible. The flag was clearly visible, and they even had a passing Israeli pilot wave to them overhead.

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