What’s Next “Bibi”? A USS Liberty Type Attack On One of Our Aid Ships?

There’s been news today about President Biden and Israeli PM Netanyahu talking by phone today. It’s seemed clear for a while the public frustration the Biden administration has with Netanyahu/Israel is at a somewhat higher temperature behind the scenes. What can’t be denied is that raising concerns, trying to talk common sense and explaining the damage Israel is doing to it’s reputation in the world means jack to Bibi Netanyahu. I’m one of those convinced the attack earlier this week on that food worker’s convoy was deliberate. Israel knew damn well who and what those clearly marked vehicles (which had coordinated their intended movements with the IDF before setting out) contained. Attacking them produced EXACTLY the result Netanyahu wanted.  The internationally renowned World Central Kitchen, along with other humanitarian aid agencies has withdrawn their workers from Gaza.

Yes, I’ll say it. While I believe Israel has every right to defend itself it ignores the FACT that Hamas wasn’t chosen by the Palestinians living there to be in charge. Most civilians have never wanted them in Gaza so it’s fair to ask why Hamas was in fact in charge for so many years. It’s because Netanyahu installed them to “govern” the Gaza strip and also funded them! He did so knowing from the start they want nothing less than the destruction of Israel. The dynamics of the relationship (or lack of one) between Hamas and The Palestinian Authority over in the West Bank (which wants a two-state solution) and either with Israel itself would take multiple articles to explain. But I remain increasingly convinced Netanyahu’s end goal is to remove every Palestinian from Gaza. He doesn’t care if it takes tens of thousands of civilian deaths including children, cutting off food and water and letting even more die that way, or dying of treatable medical conditions for lack of hospitals. He just wants them gone and the more suffering he can generate, the more he hopes some other country will take whatever survivors are left in.

Netanyahu was furious over the prospect of the U.S. creating a temporary pier to start offloading container ships full of critically needed humanitarian aid. So he set about finding ways to prevent any aid from making it to the almost two million civilians trapped in Gaza. Yet there were brave humanitarian workers doing what they could, with World Central Kitchen leading the way. For Bibi, that simply wouldn’t do so even if he didn’t issue an explicit order it’s clear he had no problem with doing whatever it took to get the aid workers to leave. Hence the attack this week on those WCK vehicles which you can read about in this piece by The Guardian. 

WCK said the workers – three Britons, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, a Pole and an Australian – had been travelling in two armoured cars bearing the charity’s logo, and a “soft-skin vehicle”.

“Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” the charity said in a statement.

Israeli defence sources told Haaretz that the aid workers’ vehicles had been hit three times by missiles fired from a drone because of erroneous suspicions that a terrorist was travelling with the convoy.

Haaretz also reported that some of the passengers left their vehicle after it was hit by the first missile and climbed into another car, which was then hit by a second missile. The third car in the convoy, which approached to pick up the occupants of the second car, was hit by a third missile. The strike killed all of the WCK workers in the convoy.

As I’ve stated not only has WCK suspended their work, so have other humanitarian aid groups. Let me remind you the travel route was cleared with the IDF, the vehicles were clearly marked, AND that each vehicle was attacked separately. This wasn’t a case of raining down bombs on three vehicles in close formation, but three separate missile strikes. Clearly, Netanyahu let it be known it was ok to TARGET aid workers. “Accident” my ass!

I’ve said before as a Marine of the Beirut era I have a personal grudge against the IDF. Not Israel itself. Just the IDF and political leaders like Netanyahu. I also know we have a naval presence off the coast of Israel and Gaza. You can bet the farm we’ve got SIGINT (signals intelligence) that can prove the attack was deliberate. The question is whether it will ever see the light of day. Back in 1968 and since when the USS Liberty, a U.S. Naval SIGINT (spy) ship was deliberately attacked by Israel a coverup started right then and there after dozens of Americans were killed and hundreds injured.

You can read a detailed write up in Wikipedia but even that’s watered down by some who try to soften Israel’s culpability. An easier read can be found in an article from a couple of years ago in The Military Times about a reunion of survivors at Arlington National Cemetery. The article describes how Israel noted a ship 70 miles west of Gaza but didn’t know at first who’s it was. They sent recon flights to find out, which included a couple of “low and slow” passes that were close enough the prop wash literally rattled the Liberty’s deck plating. The ship was flying the U.S. flag and had clear markings identifying it as our. Some the sailors and pilots even exchanged waves. As a result the red flag on the Israeli “plot” was changed from red (enemy/potential enemy) to green as in ok, not a threat. One of the survivors recalls a “spy” (one of the actual SIGINT guys coming out on deck for a stretch and telling him not to worry about other aircraft. The Israeli’s knew the Liberty was “the good guys.”

Hours later, after multiple attacks the ship was in ruins and two-thirds of the crew were casualties. From the Military Times:

Eighteen minutes after the Liberty was first seen, the Israeli aircraft identified it as a U.S. Navy ship, yet the marker remained red on the board of Israel’s Central Coastal Command until 9 a.m. when it was switched to green, indicating the ship was indeed “neutral.” But as Syrians battered Israel’s front lines and Egyptian submarines prowled the sea, the green marker, according to the Israelis, became an afterthought.

By the evening of June 8, the Liberty — which was armed with only a handful of .50-caliber machine guns — was nearly sunk. A barrage of torpedoes slammed into the ship’s hull as Israeli aircraft dropped napalm and strafed her deck repeatedly. The attack lasted two hours, according to Bowen.

My point is that some Israeli leaders have done whatever they damned well pleased without regard for the country (the United States) there would be no State of Israel. Including deliberately attacking and killing Americans. I worry that Netanyahu is so far gone round the bend he thinks he can get away with that kind of thing again. If a U.S. warship(s) escort a container ship(s) into that makeshift port we want to build he might actually order his forces to attack. Supposedly just the container ships for “concerns” of some bullshit nature. But if “accidentally on purpose” a U.S. Navy ship were to get hit he wouldn’t mind.

Unless of course OUR forces have authority to conduct defensive operations to shoot Israeli aircraft out of the sky or send any of their ships to the bottom of the sea. Will this administration issue such orders? And more importantly make it clear to Bibi that it’s NOT 1968 anymore? Would Netanyahu put things to the test? Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I think he and his “vaunted” IDF, the air and naval forces would be in for a nasty surprise.

Right now Israel deserves worldwide condemnation for what it did – deliberately attack a small convoy of humanitarian aid vehicles to send an unmistakable message NO more safety for such people than any civilian in Gaza gets. As in zero. None. How can we or any country put up with an ally who acts as Netanyahu has acted. Like Trump, he’s devolving. Getting worse. Israelis have again started mounting mass protests against him but it won’t be enough. Perhaps it’s time for an indictment from the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu for Crimes Against Humanity.

Bibi doesn’t care what we think anymore. He’s going to cause untold suffering and death that will put what we’ve seen so far seem tame in comparison to what’s coming. Supposedly he wants to herd a million and a half civilians into a tent city outside Rafah. The problem is there’s no plan to provide food and more importantly WATER and medical supplies. What he does NOT want under any circumstances are independent witnesses, hence the deliberate attack to tell any aid workers: If you don’t get out we’ll KILL YOU so get out now.

Well, he’s gotten what he intended. As I’ve been writing this Israel has suddenly announced more routes for aid trucks will be opened up. After what’s just happened, who will drive those trucks? I for one would like a helluva lot more than the word of Benjamin Netanyahu that nothing will happen to those who drive aid into Gaza. He’s a f**king liar who will say anything to buy time. Time to kill Palestinian civilians. His vision is of an Israel with NO Palestinians able to visit, much less live there.

Call your federal elected officials and DEMAND that Speaker Johnson retract the invitation of War CRIMINAL Netanyahu to again take the podium in the House of Representatives and attack an American President, and in the process call for us to again put Trump in power.