Asna
Tabassum, the USC valedictorian who had her commencement speech
canceled due to her support for Palestinian equality, received a heavy
round of applause during her graduation today from the engineering school.
On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty
was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international
waters by the air and naval forces of Israel. The Israeli forces
attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship and lied
about it.
Survivors have been forbidden for 40 years to tell their
story under oath to the American public.The USS Liberty Memorial web site tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34 brave men who died.
The Attack
After surveilling USS Liberty for more than nine
hours with almost hourly aircraft overflights and radar tracking, the
air and naval forces of Israel attacked our ship in international waters
without warning. USS Liberty was identified as a US naval
ship by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft nine hours before the attack and
continuously tracked by Israeli radar and aircraft thereafter. Sailing
in international waters at less than five knots, with no offensive
armament, our ship was not a military threat to anyone.
The Israeli forces attacked without warning and without attempting to
contact us. Thirty four Americans were killed in the attack and another
174 were wounded.
The ship, a $40-million dollar state-of-the-art signals intelligence
platform, was later declared unsalvageable and sold for scrap.
The Cover Up
Despite a near-universal consensus that the Israeli attack was made with full knowledge that USS Liberty
was a US Navy ship, the Johnson administration began an immediate
cover-up of this fact. Though administration officers continued
individually to characterize the attack as deliberate, the Johnson
administration never sought the prosecution of the guilty parties or
otherwise attempted to seek justice for the victims. They concealed and
altered evidence in their effort to downplay the attack. Though they
never formally accepted the Israeli explanation that it was an accident,
they never pressed for a full investigation either. They simply allowed
those responsible literally to get away with murder.
In an ongoing effort to reveal the truth about the attack, the USS Liberty Veterans Association
has filed with the Secretary of the Army in the manner prescribed by
law a detailed, fully documented Report of War Crimes describing the
circumstances of the attack on our ship and evidence that it was a crime
under international law. In accordance with international law and
treaties, the United States is obligated to investigate the allegations.
So far, the United States has declined even to acknowledge that the
report has been filed. The full text of the report can be found at http://www.gtr5.com/evidence/warcrimes.pdf
Anti-Semitism and the Anti-American Apologists
The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist
and extreme positions taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial,
conspiracy theorist and other such groups which often seek to identify
with us and to usurp our story as their own. We have no connection
with and do not support or encourage support from any of these groups
including National Alliance, National Vanguard, The New Order, National
Socialists, The French Connection, Liberty Lobby, American Free Press, Republic Broadcasting, USS Liberty Radio Hour, Storm Front
or other such groups. We wish harm to no one and encourage social
justice and equality for everyone; we seek only accountability for the
criminal acts perpetrated against us and can do that without help from
hate-mongers.
On the Israeli side, the group of pro-Israel, anti-American
critics of our story, while small, persists in launching loud, vicious
ad hominem attacks on anyone who attempts to discuss the deliberateness
of the attack. These anti-American apologists refuse to discuss the
facts of the case. Instead, they rely on propaganda and charge anyone who questions the Israeli position with being antiSemitic.
The Betrayal of American Veterans .
Americans who volunteer for military service effectively
write a blank check, payable to the United States of America for an
amount "up to and including my life." The United States, in turn,
promises to spend these checks responsibly. That bargain implicitly
includes a promise by the United States to protect them and to seek
retribution against anyone who harms them. In the case of USS Liberty, the United States has failed to keep its end of the bargain.
A supporter dons a USS Liberty memorial shirt as surviving crew members
place roses on the ship’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery,
Section 34 on June 8, 2022. (Military.com photo by Drew F.Lawrence)
" "Heroism was the order of the day, and every man who could help, stepped up to help," said Bowen.
The attack, which left 34 Americans dead and 174 others injured --
two-thirds of the crew in total, according to a press release organized
by the Liberty Veterans Association -- has been veiled in controversy
since it happened, with survivors, and even some former senior intelligence officials, pointing to a deliberate bombardment by Israel and a subsequent U.S. dismissal of the event to pardon its ally. "
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Former Congressman Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey, a longtime supporter of
Palestinian rights and USS Liberty veterans, died of congestive heart
failure peacefully at his home in Winters, California, on May 8th in the
care of his wife of forty-two years, Helen, and their five dogs. He was
96.
McCloskey was a rarity in American politics. His actions were guided
by his sense of justice, not by political ideology. He hated inequity
and did not hesitate to take on members of his own political party.
“He stood for everyone without a voice, and was especially passionate
about our environment — he was afraid of nothing or anyone who sought
to take advantage of another,” said Joe Cotchett, his law partner since
2004. “He was the epitome of a leader, as demonstrated throughout his
entire life.”
Palestine and USS Liberty
Following trips to the Middle East in the late 1970s, Pete McCloskey,
like two other Republicans, Senators Charles Percy, Congressman Paul
Findley, and independent of one another, returned with the strong
conviction that American foreign policy in the region was unbalanced and
would prove over the long run to be disastrous for US interests and for
the Palestinian people.
McCloskey and a handful of other members of Congress proposed cuts in
aid to Israel for its continuing expansion of settlements in the
Occupied Territories of the West Bank, in violation of international
law. McCloskey’s farewell speech in Congress was in support of a change
in the US’s Middle East policies to one recognizing both Israel’s
security issues and the necessity of a recognized State for the
Palestinian people.
McCloskey, who stated
publicly that Congress is “terrorized” by the Israel lobby, was one of
several people targeted by the Israel Lobby to be removed from Congress.
In the 1982 Republican primary, his opponent Pete Wilson (R-CA) made repeated, heavy-handed fund-raising appeals to pro-Israel donors.
In a 1986 article entitled “Harsh Truths, Harsher Realities,” McCloskey wrote: “The battle for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people will be won or lost in public opinion of the United States.”
He pointed out: “Public opinion in America is determined by a network
of newspapers, radio and television commentators, and organizations
which communicate with the radio, the press and television. There is no
organization today in this world that represents the Palestinians and
the PLO as a news agency. Now this is a matter which has been caused and
certainly assisted by the strength of the Jewish community in America.
The Jewish community does not want books circulated in America that are
critical of Israel. The Jewish community does not want movies made that
are critical of Israel. Every American has seen the movie, The
Holocaust, at least once every six months over the last five years. When
the Palestinians have tried to present, even on public television,
movies that reflect the treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank, they
are generally blocked by prominent Israeli sympathizers in the news
distribution media.”
In 1989, McCloskey and former Congressman Paul Findley founded the Council for the National Interest to counter the Israel Lobby and to support “Middle East policies that serve the American national interest.” An announcement stated
that current US policies caused great damage to the region and to the
United States. “Because of its generally unqualified support for Israel.
the US is viewed worldwide as the co-sponsor of Israeli policies that
hold by force of arms territories belonging to Arabs, and abuse the
basic human rights of 1.7 million Palestinians living in those
territories.”
McCloskey also at times assisted the nonprofit organization If Americans Knew.
Founder Alison Weir (also president of CNI) said: “I was honored to
call him a friend. I will always be immensely grateful for his help.”
McCloskey had also long advocated for a full investigation of Israel’s 1967 attack on a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty,
that had killed 34 American Servicemen and injured over 170. He became
pro bono attorney for the USS Liberty Veterans Association. (See video
below.)
Fifteen years after the attack, an Israeli pilot approached Liberty survivors and then held extensive interviews with McCloskey.
The senior Israeli lead pilot told McCloskey that he recognized the
Liberty as American immediately, informed his headquarters, and was told
to ignore the American flag and continue his attack. He refused to do
so and returned to base, where he was arrested.
Before his death, McCloskey and his wife co-authored a book on the Israeli attack, Betrayal of the USS Liberty, which will be released later this year.
Biography
McCloskey was born in the Southern California city of Loma Linda, to a
family with deep roots in California. His great-grandfather, orphaned
during the Irish potato famine, came to San Francisco in 1853. One
grandfather was a U.S. attorney and captain of the National Guard unit
that helped control rioting in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.
His maternal grandfather was mayor of San Bernardino in the early 1900s.
McCloskey attended South Pasadena High School. As Valedictorian for
his graduating class, he spoke in support of the formation of the United
Nations. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1950 from Stanford
University, as well as his law degree in 1953, the latter interrupted by
his service in the US Marine Corps.
McCloskey joined the Marine Corps as an officer and famously led his
rifle platoon during some of the most intense fighting of the Korean
war, including six bayonet assaults. During his 10 months in North
Korea, 58 of the 61 members of his platoon were either killed or
wounded. He was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism, the
Nation’s second highest honor and the highest award given by the Marine
Corps. He was also awarded the Silver Star for bravery in combat, and
two Purple Hearts.
From 1953 to 1960, he commanded a Marine Reserve Rifle Company, and
participated in counter-insurgency training. He volunteered for the
Vietnam War, however, after a fact-finding trip to the war-torn country
in 1971, he reversed course and became an outspoken opponent of the war.
He called the bombing in Cambodia a “greater evil than we have done to
any country in the world.”
“I don’t think you can impose democracy or any system of government
through the barrel of a gun without the people resenting what you are
trying to impress on them,” he told Rob Caughlan, who produced a video
biography of McCloskey which aired on PBS entitled Leading from the
Front, which was narrated by actor, friend and fellow war veteran turned
anti-war activist Paul Newman.
“I’ve known some great men in my long life, but none that ever
matched McCloskey,” said Chuck Daly, a highly-decorated rifle platoon
commander who served with McCloskey in Korea and later became a special
assistant to President John F. Kennedy and director of the Kennedy
Museum. “Pete was one of the finest Marines in the Korean War.”
McCloskey retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1974 with the rank of Colonel.
McCloskey has lectured on constitutional and military ethics at the
Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Marine Corps Staff
College at Quantico, Virginia.
Following the Korean War, McCloskey served as Deputy District
attorney in Alameda County, then opened a law practice in 1956, which
evolved into the Silicon Valley firm of Wilson, Sonsini. He also formed a
law partnership with his old friend Lewis Butler of San Francisco.
Butler & McCloskey handled only environmental cases. Butler said the
two men made very little money, but “we saved Bay Area tidelands from a
housing tract, the town of Volcano from becoming a cement plant, Round
Valley from the proposed Corps of Engineers Dos Rios dam and the Napa
Valley from subdividing prime vineyards.”
McCloskey also served as President of the Palo Alto Bar Association
(1960), and President of the Conference of Barristers of the State Bar
(1961). In that role, he and Judge Quentin L. Kopp, (Ret) wrote Guide to
Professional Conduct for the New Practitioner, (State Bar, 1961).
McCloskey also served as Trustee of the Santa Clara Bar Association.
He has taught Legal Ethics and Political Science as a guest professor at
both Stanford University and Santa Clara Law School, as well as to
younger students at Thacher School in Ojai.
In 1967, Pete McCloskey ran for Congress in a special election held
following the death of the incumbent Congressman, defeating front-runner
child-actress Shirley Temple Black. From the beginning of his political
career, McCloskey was a Republican maverick, remaining independent of
party ideology and pressure.
Earth Day, Anti-War
A life-long back-packer and fly-fisherman, McCloskey, often referred
to as “a Teddy Roosevelt-style conservationist,” was fiercely protective
of wilderness. In 1970, along with US Senator Gaylord Nelson, he
co-founded the first Earth Day, and in 1973, co-authored the Endangered
Species Act. He served six years as Congressional Delegate to the
International Whaling Conference, and as Congressional Advisor to the
Law of the Sea Treaty Delegation under Chairmen John Stevenson and
Elliot Richardson.
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Netanyahu's stated goal with Israel's war on Gaza is to destroy
HAMAS. That is a line and a lie, just like the old Zionist line and lie
"A land for a people for a people without a land". Life pre-1948 in The
Holy Land was Palestinian: Arab Christian, Muslim and Jewish
Palestinians living very civilized lives in an exceptionally beautiful
place.
HAMAS did not even exist until 1987- forty years after the West imposed
the partition plans to create Israel on the Arab world, and twenty years
after Israel usurped every inch of historic Palestine with its
(Israel's ongoing) illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
All along invading Zionists have wanted the land, but not the indigenous people of that land.
Israel has consistently ignored borders, basic human rights, and international law.
The land grabbing shenanigans and torture tactics of Zionist bigots
are only possible because "Israel-proper" finances illegal settlements,
military installations and multiple IDF checkpoints aimed at tormenting
and destroying Palestinians.
Israel wants excuses to further terrorize, displace, and destroy
Palestinians in every possible way, and Zionists want American money,
weaponry and support for this cruel
enterprise. Meanwhile corrupt politicians in America want AIPAC money
and approval.
The Zionist con-job worked for decades on U.S. but in today's online world
Israeli violence and Zionist cruelty are being live-streamed 24/7 on our
children's cell phones, skipping over the gate keepers of our major
newspapers and politicians.
Will our own democracy and established Fourth Estate survive the
decades old insidious invasion of a very foreign country that pretends
to be our friend, but really is no one's friend, including its own
Apartheid building citizens?
Awareness of The Nazi Holocaust should be a motivation to say NEVER AGAIN to Israel.
Maps illustrating Israel (& Palestine)
1947 Partition plan, the 1949 Armistice Lines, the 1967
borders, the border jumping convoluted Israeli-made Apartheid wall, maps
of Jewish-only Settlements and IDF Checkpoints in the West Bank,
Jerusalem, and Gaza.
"Fast
Times in Palestine" by Pamela Olson is free to download "Funny,
gorgeous, shocking, and galvanizing, Fast Times in Palestine challenges
the way we think not only about the Middle East but about human nature
and our place in the world" https://pamolson.org
Gaza is part of the territories under military occupation by Israel
since the Six Day War of 1967. Although Israeli settlers and troops were
withdrawn from Gaza in 2005, it is still considered occupied territory
under international law because Israel still controls the lives of the
inhabitants of Gaza. Israel maintains a blockade by land and sea https://www.palestineportal.org/learn-teach/israelpalestine-the-basics/maps/maps-1967-to-present/
This map give a detailed picture of the land around Jerusalem that
Israel is annexing with the Separation Wall. The solid black line shows
the portion of the Wall that has been completed and the solid red line
that extends from that black line shows the route of the Wall that
remains to be built. All of the light blue area is Palestinian territory
trapped between the Wall to the east and the border of Israel to the
west, the seam zone. All of the green area is occupied Palestinian
territory beyond the Wall.
A @CNN investigation reports that Palestinians captured by the Israeli military were abused and tortured: amputations due to injuries sustained from handcuffing; placed in stress positions, blindfolded, made to wear diapers and fed through straws.
Sde Teiman, IsraelCNN
—
At a military base that now doubles as a detention center
in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped
two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.
Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on
paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear
blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights.
A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the
men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden
from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves.
“We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit
upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their
blindfold.”
Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” –shut up in Arabic –and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added.
CNN spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the
Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.
They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes
amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant
handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified
medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and
where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.... READ MORE https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd/index.html
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Philippe Lazzarini said the fire caused ‘extensive damage’ but there were no casualties. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has temporarily closed its East Jerusalem headquarters after weeks of attacks.
“This
evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the Unrwa
headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem,” the head of the agency,
Philippe Lazzarini, tweeted, lamenting that it was the second attack on
the compound within days.
“A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting ‘Burn down the United Nations’.”
Staff from the Unrwa and other UN agencies were on the compound, which has petrol and diesel stations for a fleet of UN cars.
“While
there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive
damage to the outdoor areas,” Lazzarini said, adding that Unrwa staff
had put out the fire.
The
attack came after two months of “Israeli extremists staging protests
outside the Unrwa compound”, he said. One protest this week “became
violent when demonstrators threw stones at UN staff and at the buildings
of the compound”.
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Demonstrators
and Texas state troopers stand off during a pro-Palestinian protest at
the University of Texas in Austin, on April 24th.Photograph by Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg / Getty
"...The crackdown on Palestinian-solidarity activists has
exposed the limits of the right’s hypocritical crusade for the
expansion of speech rights on campus. In the past several years,
Republicans in Texas have described a war against free speech on college
campuses and declared themselves the catalyst for changing it. The
University of Texas at Austin went so far as to even protect the rights
of students to engage in “hate speech.” As one official said, “Imagine
if the government at the whim of a political party could just decide at
any time what constitutes hate speech, and then just start arresting
people for engaging in it.” Although hate speech may be allowed,
Palestinian solidarity is apparently viewed as a threat. This past
March, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed an executive order
that directed colleges to update their free-speech policies to “address
the sharp rise in antisemitic speech.” It also pledged to “stand with
Israel” and to insure that “groups such as the Palestine Solidarity
Committee and Students for Justice in Palestine are disciplined for
violating” those policies. When, in April, antiwar students gathered to
march on campus, they were met by state troopers in riot gear and police
officers who deployed pepper spray and flash-bang explosives. Dozens
were arrested. U.T. Austin’s president, Jay Hartzell, claimed
that the police action was preƫmptive, intended to stop students from
“using the apparatus of free speech and expression to severely disrupt a
campus for a long period.”
In
mid-March, House Republicans began advancing the Respecting the First
Amendment on Campus Act to staunch what they saw as “the longstanding
and pervasive degradation of First Amendment rights.” The bill
encourages colleges and universities to enshrine the so-called Chicago
Principles for free speech, which say, in part, that universities should not
“attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find
unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.” Then, reacting to
the encampment at Columbia University, House Speaker Mike Johnson and
Republican senators Tom Cotton,
of Arkansas, and Josh Hawley, of Missouri, called for Biden to send in
the National Guard. The double standard can hardly be lost on students.
Liberals and conservatives appear to converge on believing that the
strongest protections for speech are afforded only to those causes with
which they agree...."
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Thousands of Palestinians, including women and children,
migrated from the neighborhoods in the east of Rafah and reaches the
coastal side of the city of Deir al-Balah.
Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images
Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing. The consequences could be devastating for civilians.
Since
the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza, Palestinians have been pushed
farther and farther south. At least 1.3 million people have now been
squeezed into Rafah, a small area bordering Egypt. More than half of
those people fled fighting in other parts of Gaza.
On Monday,
Israeli forces dropped leaflets from the sky in Rafah instructing people
to seek refuge in an "expanded humanitarian area" north and northwest
of the city. The U.N. says now more than 75% of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders.
Less than 24 hours later, Israeli tanks rolled into the eastern part
of Rafah, seizing control of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Israeli
airstrikes had already been pounding Rafah for weeks, killing hundreds
since late March — most of them women and children, according to
hospital records.
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Seven months into the war in Gaza, on the cusp of a
possible cease-fire, the United States is taking a more cautionary
stance toward the military aid it provides Israel.
Last week,
President Joe Biden paused a shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel out of
concern that they would be used in a planned invasion of Rafah in
southern Gaza, according
to administration officials. This is the first time since the Oct. 7
attack on Israel by Hamas that the U.S. has put military aid on hold in
order to send a message about Israel’s military response.
And
President Biden said today in a CNN interview that, while the U.S. is
committed to Israel's defense, if Israel goes into Rafah “we’re not
going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used,” due to concerns
for civilian lives at risk.
The U.S. has long been Israel’s strongest diplomatic and military
ally, and overall political support remains strong. At the end of April,
President Biden signed an unprecedented $26 billion aid bill destined
for Israel.
Yet Israel’s conduct in Gaza, where health authorities
are reporting a death toll of over 34,000, has prompted growing concern
about the way U.S. funding and arms are being used. Public opposition
to Israel’s actions has intensified, especially on university campuses
in the U.S. and abroad as students call for divestment from Israel.
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SOURCE: ForeignAssistance.gov, Congressional Research Service, Nasdaq Global Select Market Composite | Jacob Turcotte/Staff
The role of the United States as a major backer of the Israeli
military is coming under rare and rising scrutiny due to the war in
Gaza. Our charts put the debate in context.
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