[mrick]

Felix,

You have admitted that Israel will stop at nothing to get what it wants, given the right motive. E.g. The Lavon Affair. But, Felix, if Israel did attack the American ship because it had motives which we cannot know (for whatever reason), does this necessarily mean that the ship was attacked by mistake?

No, it means that an accidental attack has a greater probability than if we had an established motive. However, we subsequently had both suggestions for motives which are quite valid, e.g. Israeli paranoia about the Amertican ship's true intentions, and serious "technical" holes in the Israeli version of events as well as in the excuses offered by their defenders in the States.

As an American, and a military veteran to boot, you should be asking one question and one question only, even if you are a staunch supporter of Israel (hopefully, your support for Israel comes second after your loyalty to the United States of America) : "Fair enough, the USS Liberty shoot-up must have been a total accident IMO. It appears though that there are conflicting versions as to what happened. Why have there not be official enquiries, with the fullest possible participation of both sides, Israel's and America's, and full disclosure?"

That's all those poor former comrades-in-arms of yours, the USS Liberty survivors have been asking for forty years...

The hush up didn't make you wonder?..

BTW, Eisenhower was, of course, absolutely correct in how he handled the 1950s SUEZ CRISIS from the American point of view, a point of view which has been largely lost on you, on account of your many obsessions, eg disdain for most Arabs and Muslims, a general and extreme anti-Palestinian bias, blind belief in raw & uninhibited use of power, etc. Through his stance, i.e. ordering Britain and France to back off, Ike asserted America's status as the superpower in charge of the Middle East, as far as western interests were concerned. This, dear Felix, should be more important to you, an American, than whether or not Sinai and the Suez would find themselves in "Israeli hands"...

Semper whatever.