Before last week’s summit, Arab as well as radical-right publications in the United States launched a bruising blitz condemning Israel as an untrustworthy ally and an unfit partner for peace.

Numerous timeworn allegations of its duplicity were cited, including the assault on the USS Liberty, which occurred 36 years ago this week — on June 8, 1967. During the Six Day War, the spy ship was operating in international waters near the Sinai Peninsula. Without warning, Israeli jets and torpedo boats attacked the lightly armed vessel. Thirty-four Americans were killed, 171 wounded. The fighter planes’ recently declassified communications transcripts suggest that there was considerable uncertainty about the Liberty’s identity. Several U.S. and Israeli inquiries have declared the tragedy a case of friendly fire.

Had the episode happened any place else, it would have eventually faded as just another unfortunate tragedy in the fog of war. However, in true Middle Eastern fashion, the haze thickened, deeply embedded hatreds and ancient grudges intensified in the rancorous region as well as in the United States. For almost four decades, conspiracy theories have mushroomed, bolstered by conflicting testimony, contested accounts, ‘’new evidence'’ that pops up with surprising regularity and prejudicial attitudes that spin the imbroglio like a top. While some seek the truth, others exploit the Liberty affair in an attempt to destroy the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Two weeks ago The Palestine Chronicle claimed, ‘’Israel got away with the slaughter of heroes, but Americans are finally stirring from their deep sleep and don’t give a hoot for a phony relationship with Zionist Israel, which demeans America and its Christian foundation.'’ Racist David Duke calls it, “an act of terrorism by Israel led by the world’s leading war criminal, Ariel Sharon.'’

ATTACK WASN’T PLANNED

In a letter to President Bush demanding a congressional investigation (there has never been one), the USS Liberty Veterans Association charges, ‘’Our so-called ally’s despicable act was a sneak attack on America.'’ When retired U.S. Navy officer Keith Taylor wrote not long ago in a San Diego newspaper that the attack was not planned, he received hate mail branding him, ‘’Israel’s lackey, a traitor for believing Zionist Jews.'’ In an e-mail, Christopher Mitchell, producer of a BBC documentary last year about the dispute, told me, “The United States and Israel have colluded in a cover-up for 36 years, but this story won’t die because the attack was deliberate.'’

In contrast, Six Days of War author Michael B. Oren maintains, ‘’There’s no evidence whatsoever it was anything but accidental.'’ After 14 years of extensive research in several countries, Miami federal bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol also concludes that the attack wasn’t premeditated. His 2002 book, The Liberty Incident, promptly ignited a new vindictive firestorm, the ship’s official website labeling him as ‘’our severest critic.'’ The judge has filed a federal lawsuit to obtain classified data from the National Security Agency, which he believes will sustain his argument. ‘I have sympathy for the survivors and victims’ families, but they are used and abused by those who have their own agendas,'’ he said last week. “Those who are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic jump on the bandwagon because this is one of the few places to drive a wedge between us and Israel.'’

In 1905 when he opined, ‘’Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,'’ Spanish philosopher George Santayana couldn’t have been thinking about the truculent Middle East. There, ceaseless controversies from the past are not only remembered, they’re also kept alive with a vengeance.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2003 and is filed under opinion.