GORDON DUFF: THE GRUDGE, AN INVERTED HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND AMERICA

WHAT ISRAEL IS TAUGHT ABOUT THEIR “BEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD”

President Lyndon Johnson and his National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, a Kennedy Administration hold-over.

by Gordon Duff

Two weeks ago, USS Liberty survivor, Philip Tourney, was told he would be killed within a month.  The threat made against Tourney, US Navy veteran and heroic survivor of the Israeli attack, torpedoes, napalm, strafing lifeboats, was made by an individual identified as an agent of the security services of the State of Israel.

Though Tourney is certainly outspoken about Israel, this kind of reaction, against a retired member of America’s armed forces seems ill-conceived at best, violating the unwritten code every intelligence operative lives by.  Tourney and his wife were threatened.  The threat was in public.  The Tourneys are “civilians,” non-combatants, hardly legitimate assassination targets.

This threat is timed with admissions by Israeli intelligence sources of, not only new and shocking reasons for the USS Liberty attack but of a previously unknown rift between Israel and the United States dating back to 1967.  The roots of this confrontation begin in 1963 with President Kennedy’s written demands to Israel that it dismantle its nuclear weapons program and extend into the present day, an unstated but bitter and poisonous feud.

Admissions are made, in the heat of anger,  indicating that Israel had full foreknowledge of the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon better known as “9/11.”

Israeli intelligence sources indicate that both operations had been infiltrated but no effort to prevent the attacks was made.  Israel had long ago admitted it knew about the killing of the 241 Americans in Lebanon, well in advance.  However, admissions that the terrorist organization said to have planned the 9/11 attacks had been similarly infiltrated is a disturbing revelation.

The rationale initially given American military sources for Israeli failure to warn the United States in 1983 was that such a warning would potentially endanger the value of Israeli intelligence sources.

That has all changed.  We are now told that the “stand down” of intelligence sharing was and is based on retaliation against the United States for an incident in 1967.  Israel claims that the United States, in combination with Egypt, planned a “nuclear castration” of Israel.

This runs totally opposite of accounts that place Johnson as Israel’s “president of choice,” accounts that support theories of Israel’s complicity in the Kennedy assassination.

One of the most dangerous and controversial policy initiatives of Kennedy’s presidency, even compared to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was Kennedy’s insistence that the Middle East be free of nuclear weapons and that Israel dismantle its nuclear program by the end of 1963.  The crisis reached a height during the summer of 1963 when Kennedy sent written demands to Israel demanding inspection of their nuclear facilities, demands that brought down one Israeli government.

As of November 22, 1963, Israel had not responded to the president’s letter.  No response has been issued to this day.  Only journalist Helen Thomas, a good friend of President Kennedy, continued to demand that this issue be addressed.  Her loyalty to President Kennedy’s memory eventually cost her everything.

The intelligence community almost universally accepts that Israel killed Kennedy, especially when extrapolated through the total lack of media conspiracy “chatter” regarding this, the most obvious possible scenario.  Compare this to police arriving on a murder scene; blood drenched suspect standing over a body with an axe in hand.

The first thing they ask, “Did you see who did it?”

The cottage industry of selling wild speculation over the Kennedy murder(s) that never touch on the Dimona demand are seen as conclusive.  A nearly five decade disinformation campaign blaming everyone from organized crime to Corsican drug cartels has managed to hide any constructive focus from the general public.

Oliver Stone’s film, JFK, was particularly notice worthy.  According to Stone, Kennedy was killed by “southern boys” with too much time on their hands.

THE INCIDENT

Israel claims the United States was planning an attack on its nuclear facilities during the 6 Day War, using the “fog of war” as cover.  They now privately claim the brutal attack on the USS Liberty was, not only defensive but a warning to the United States from, as Moshe Dyan calls it, “a junkyard dog.”

Thus, the varying positions on, not only the USS Liberty but America’s allegiances during the “6 Day War,” are irreconcilable.   Members of the USS Liberty crew were unaware of any such taskings as indicated in the Israeli accusations.  However, carrier personnel with the American battle groups in the Mediterranean at the time have told this author the “load outs” were clearly for ground targets including “runway denial” munitions, cluster weapons designed to crater large concrete surfaces.

A ground attack could have been staged, Israel, Syria or Egypt.

Threats, such as those made against Tourney,  were made against other American veterans openly angry at Israel for decades, demanding an explanation for the merciless attack on the US Navy ship in the Mediterranean in 1967, a carefully orchestrated attack of Israeli naval, air and airborne commandos, killing or wounding 201 of 296 crewmen.

We know for certain that the attack was a terrible embarrassment to the United States.

To cover up the incident, the captain was given a Medal of Honor, survivors were decorated, given duty stations of choice and silenced.  Israel was allowed to claim they believed they were attacking an unarmed Egyptian cattle boat, an attack of a nearly “Pearl Harbor’ scale.

We believed that Israel still held to this absurd cover.  We were wrong, very wrong.

Over 40 years later, we learn from Israeli sources, their side of the story.  When we heard it, we were flabbergasted.  We now know why Israel is so hostile to USS Liberty survivors and involved in a covert struggle against the United States spanning decades, or at least what they now tell us.

This is their side of the story:

Israel says they were deeply suspicious of President Lyndon Johnson and his National Security Advisor, McGeorge Bundy, a Kennedy Administration hold-over.  Israel feared that Johnson and Bundy planned to carry out Kennedy’s plans for nuclear disarmament of Israel, by force if necessary.

Israel is said to have based their suspicions on information received from Soviet sources, information that they were told originated from James “Jesus” Angleton, CIA Counter-Intelligence Director.  Angleton, who died in 1987, was the most controversial figure in America’s intelligence community, accused of both being a Soviet mole and a rabid anti-communist, seeing imaginary threats everywhere.

Editor’s note:  The intelligence sharing relationship between Israel and the Soviet Union was, in itself, a reason for Israel to be fearful of American retaliation.

According to Israel, the USS Liberty was providing targeting data, they used the term “triangulation,” as its role in a planned American attack which was to begin with the destruction of Israel’s air forces by carrier based aircraft followed by the destruction of the Dimona nuclear complex.

America was believed to be working directly with Egypt and Syria, coordinating a two pronged attack on Israel to eliminate them as a threat to the region.  Though overtly Egypt and Syria were allied to the Soviets, in fact Israel’s influence with the Kremlin was known to be a source of broad suspicions in the American intelligence community.

Israel claims they attacked the USS Liberty as a “preemptive” strike to disrupt the planned US attack, a justified act of self-defense and proof that America is and always will be an untrustworthy ally and inherently anti-Semitic.

Increasingly, in ways not noticed publicly, relations with Israel have been strained.   Americans are, on the whole, indifferent to the Palestinians living in Israel.  Decades of branding all Palestinians as terrorists have indelibly imprinted unquestioning support for Israel in the minds of almost all Americans.

Despite broad control of the media in the United States and Western Europe by Israel, an undercurrent of mistrust exists and is becoming worse every day, a mistrust better characterized as a “falling out” of criminal co-conspirators rather than a moral awakening.  Perhaps “junior partners” in America aren’t getting a big enough percentage of “the take.”

Even considering the stresses of two unsuccessful wars and a concurrent monumental economic crisis, the subtext of hostility, decades old but an active and festering animosity, particularly between two nations that are publicly “inseparable” is uniquely disingenuous.

If Israel hates an America and carries an agenda meant to bring America to its knees tied to, what it sees as American betrayal, how do we explain the political and military leaders who support them in their efforts?

Source: Veterans Today

Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran.  A 100% disabled vet.  He has been a featured commentator on TV and radio including Al Jazeera and his articles have been carried by news services around the world. He has been a UN Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues.  This article first appeared in Veterans and Foreign Affairs Journal.

Senior Editor: Veterans Today

If you liked this article, please consider making a donation to Intifada Palestine by clicking on the following PayPal link. Thank you!