Fateful Triangle

The Origins of the “Special Relationship”85century” * (see notes 36, 39). In both cases, the general reaction of thepress and scholarship has been silence or misrepresentation. Neitherhas entered history as a deplorable act of terrorism and violence, eitherat the time or in retrospect. In the case of the bombings in Egypt, theIsraeli novelist Amos Oz, writing in the New York Times, refers to theterrorist acts obliquely as “certain adventurist Israeli intelligenceoperations”—the standard formulation—in a highly regarded article onthe “beautiful Israel” of pre-Begin days. 64 The nature of the attack on theLiberty was also evaded not only by the press fairly generally but by thegovernment and by a U.S. Naval Board of Inquiry, though high-rankingfigures had no doubt that the official report was a whitewash; formerchairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, forexample, states that the attack “could not possibly have been a case ofmistaken identity,” as officially claimed. 65Can one imagine that any other country could carry out terroristbombings of U.S. installations or attack a U.S. ship killing or wounding100 men with complete impunity, without even critical comment formany years? That is about as likely as that across the spectrum ofmainstream opinion, some country (other than our own) should bedepicted as guided by a “high moral purpose” through the years (seechapter 1, citing Time, a journal regarded as critical of Israel), while its*Richard Smith (see note 39). He notes that the only comparable incident inrecent years was the Japanese attack upon the U.S. gunboat Panay in 1937 inwhich 3 were killed, and contrasts the “strangely callous” Israeli attitude withthe far more forthcoming Japanese reaction, both at the personal andgovernmental levels. His conclusion is that nations have no friends, onlyinterests; but he overlooks the fact that Japan could not count upon theAmerican intelligentsia to cover up the incident, a privilege that Israel correctlytook for granted.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky