riley, Hezbollah is a terrorist group to Israel only. They are freedomfighters, who defend Lebanon from Israeli aggression and seldom venture out of Lebanon.  Syria and Iran help arm Hezbollah and the US has provided Israel with 100 times the fire power. It is Israel that attacks other countries, not Iran, a country that has not started a war with another country in almost 200 years. The Israeli attacked America in 1967, when they killed 34 American sailors and wounded 172. Here, read the timeline of the event and note that Lyndon Johnson was Jewish on both his maternal grandparents side. He practiced Christianity, but was really a closet Jew and an ardent Zionist. Note Johnsons actions and his comments.  There is a timelineat the website which was set up to honor the American victims of the Israeliand U.S. Military. Most of it follows.  June 8,1967, Israeli forces attack the USS Liberty. They kill 34 American servicemen,wounding 171 others. It will be the highest casualty rate ever inflicted on aU.S. naval vessel, with 7 out of every 10 crew members killed or injured. Itwill also be the only peacetime attack on a U.S. naval vessel that, to thisday, the Congress of the United States of America formally refuses toinvestigate.  2 June 1967. Libertydeparts Rota at top speed of 18 knots en route to a point 13 miles off the GazaStrip, well within international waters.  5 June 1967, 7:45(all times cited are local Liberty time). Israel attacks Egypt, simultaneouslyputting out false reports that Egypt had attacked first. Captain McGonagle asksVice Admiral William Martin at Sixth Fleet headquarters to send a destroyer asan armed escort and auxiliary communication center, noting that Liberty's"self defense capability limited to four .50 caliber machine guns andsmall arms."  6 June1967. Admiral Martin replies "Liberty is clearly marked United States shipin international waters, not a participant in the conflict and not a reasonablesubject for attack by any nation . . . Request for escort denied."  7 June1967, shortly before midnight. Office of the U.S. Defense Attaché in Tel Avivsends coded message to U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that Israel intendsto attack the Liberty if her course is not changed.  1000: Two unmarked,rocket-armed, delta-winged jets circle Liberty three times. Liberty officerscan count rockets and see the pilots, but see no identifying marks on theplane. The jets radio Israeli headquarters that the ship is flying an Americanflag.  1030: Israeli "flying boxcar" with Israeli markings circlesLiberty at about 200 feet. Crew member Larry Weaver says, "I was actuallyable to wave to the co-pilot, a fellow on the right-hand side of the plane. Hewaved back, and actually smiled at me."  1055: Pinchas Pinchasy, naval liaison officer at Israeli air forceheadquarters, reports to Naval Headquarters that the ship cruising slowly offEl Arish is "an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy,named Liberty, whose marking was GTR-5."  1100 & 1130: Israeli reconnaissance aircraft again circle Liberty.  1205: Three Israeli motor torpedo boats leave Ashdod at high speed headedtoward Liberty. They are followed by Israeli air force fighters, loaded with30mm cannon ammunition, rockets, and napalm.  1215 & 1245: Israeli reconnaissance aircraft again circle Liberty.  1341: Israeli torpedo boats spot Liberty and call for an immediate air strike.  1358: Two unmarked delta-winged Mirage jets attack Liberty. After taking outgun mounts, they target ship's antennae and bridge with heat-seeking missiles.  1405: Three unmarked Dassault Mystère IIIC jets attack with napalm androckets. Ship tries to contact Sixth Fleet headquarters, but five of Liberty'ssix shore circuits are jammed. Radio operator manages to send distress signalfrom Captain McGonagle: "Under attack by unidentified jet aircraft,require immediate assistance." Attack lasts approximately 22 minutes,involving 30 to 35 sorties, killing nine men and wounding around 60. Israelipilot reports to base: "Great, wonderful, she's burning, she'sburning."  1409: Captain Joe Tully of the USS Saratoga acknowledges call for help,dispatches four F-4 Phantom jets, and informs Liberty that help is on the way.Within minutes U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara orders rescue jets toreturn: : "Tell Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft backimmediately." Rear Admiral Geis relays message and tells them to re-launchjets in 90 minutes.  1424: Three French-built 62-ton Israeli motor torpedo boats approach Liberty inattack formation. Because the Israeli fighters had destroyed the American flag,Captain McGonagle orders the signalman to hoist the "holiday ensign,"the largest flag the ship has.  1435: Torpedo boats launch five German-made 19-inch torpedoes at Liberty.One torpedo strikes starboard directly into NSA area, accounting for 25 of the34 men who would be killed. Torpedo boats then circle, machine-gunning the shipwith armor-piercing projectiles for another 40 minutes.  1450: Commander of Sixth Fleet orders carriers USS America and USS Saratoga tosend aircraft to defend Liberty.  1500: NSA Sigint Command Center receives first notice of the attack from eitherthe America or Saratoga: "USS Liberty has been reportedly torpedoed byunknown source in Med near 32N 33E. Request examine all communications forpossible reaction/reflections and report accordingly."  1505: Message sent to Liberty from Sixth Fleet: "Sending aircraft to coveryou. Surface units on the way." Liberty is off the air and does notreceive the message.  1511: First "official" notice that Liberty is under attack reachesNational Military Command Center in Washington.  1515: After the order to "prepare to abandon ship" comes over theloudspeaker system, the lifeboats are lowered into the water. Israeli torpedoboats move in closer and fire on them, as well as those still on deck, makingthem all unusable. "I watched with horror as the floating life rafts wereriddled with holes," recalled Lieutenant Lloyd Painter, in charge of theevacuation. Said Petty Officer Rowley, who also witnessed the event: "Theydidn't want anyone to live." After destroying the life rafts, the Israeliboats departed. Next, two Israeli SA-321 Super Frelon Hornet assaulthelicopters carrying soldiers in battle dress circle ship several times, thendepart.  1520: Commander of Sixth Fleet announces that 12 aircraft will be launched at1545 to arrive near Liberty at 1715.  1532: Walt Rostow, President Johnson's Special Assistant for National SecurityAffairs, notifies the president of the attack.  1536: Israeli torpedo boats return, then leave.  1545: USS Saragota and America launch second rescue flights.  1555: Liberty regains its transmitter; still has no receiver.  1600: Liberty transmits: "Flash, flash, flash. I pass in the blind. Weare under attack by aircraft and high-speed surface craft." DeputyDirector Louis Tordella is informed by Deputy Director of Joint ReconnaissanceCenter, Captain Vineyard, that "consideration was then being given by someunnamed Washington authorities to sink the Liberty in order that newspaper menwould be unable to photograph her and thus inflame public opinion against theIsraelis." Tordella makes an "impolite" comment about the idea,writes a memo of the conversation for the record, and stores it away.  1605: Liberty transmits: "Request immediate assistance. Torpedo hitstarboard side."  1614: American embassy relays Israeli apology to White House, Department ofState, and Sixth Fleet that an unidentified "maybe Navy" ship hasbeen erroneously attacked.  1615: Two unidentified jets approach Liberty, then veer off.  1630: Israeli jets and three torpedo boats return, offer assistance. CaptainMcGonagle refuses their help. Boats leave after 12 minutes.  1639: Secretary of Defense McNamara again orders rescue planes recalled;order is confirmed by President Johnson because "we are not going toembarrass an ally." Naval Air Attaché at U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv,Commander Ernest Castle, is summoned to Israeli Defense Forces headquarters.  1717: Deputy Secretary of Defense orders that all news releases on attack areto be made in Washington. Soon after, Israeli helicopter approaches Liberty andrequests permission to land. McGonagle refuses. Helicopter departs.  1729: Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis, commander of the Sixth Fleet in theMediterranean, protests decision to recall rescue planes to Secretary ofDefense McNamara. At that point President Johnson comes on the phone and sayshe didn't care if the ship sunk, he would not embarrass his allies. Admiral Geistells Lt. Commander David Lewis, head of the Liberty's NSA group, of theremark, but asks him not to repeat it until after he dies. It is a promiseLewis will honor.  1915: Captain McGonagle, wounded and exhausted, dictates first report onestimated casualties: 10 dead; 15 severely wounded; 75 total wounded;undetermined missing. His estimates would prove low.  After midnight: Soviet guided missiledestroyer sends flashing-light message in English: "Do you needhelp?" Liberty responds: "No thank you." Soviets answer: "Iwill stand by in case you need me."  0600: USS Navy destroyers Davis and Masseyarrive.  Mid-morning: Dead and wounded are evacuated by helicopter.  1450: Israeli Lt. Col. Michael Bloch telephones Commander Castle that Liberty,because it was not flying a flag, had been mistaken for the Egyptian supplyship El Queseir. State Department assures Congress that attack was accidental.  10 June 1967: Vice Admiral McCain orders Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd to conveneNavy Court of Inquiry.  11 June 1967: Admiral Kidd boards Libertywith small staff to head Navy Court of Inquiry.  14 June 1967: Liberty arrives in Malta. Totalnews blackout imposed. Rear Admiral Kidd warns crew: "You are never,repeat never, to discuss this with anyone, not even your wives. If you do, youwill be court-martialed and will end your lives in prison or worse."Secretary of Defense McNamara informs media that, "Department of Defensewill have no further comment."  15 June 1967: Secretary of State Dean Rusktells NATO ambassadors in Luxembourg that Israel's attack was deliberate. Hisremark is reported in European, but not U.S. papers.  18 June 1967: Israeli Court of Inquiryexonerates Israeli government and all those involved, saying that its torpedoboats erroneously reported the Liberty's speed at 30 knots instead of 5, andthat the Liberty flew no flag and had no identifying markings. Later, Israelwill honor Motor Torpedo Boat 203, the one that fired the deadly torpedo at theLiberty, by putting its wheel and bell on display in its naval museum, amongthose maritime items of which it is most proud.  July 1967: Shortly after the burial of sixLiberty crewmen in Arlington National Cemetery, a monument is erecteddescribing the six as having "Died in the Eastern Mediterranean."Liberty survivors complain that the marking is evasive and improper.  September 1967: State Department legaladviser Carl Salans finds many discrepancies with the Israeli report. Hisreport is classified Top Secret.  11 June 1968: Captain McGonagle is awardedthe Congressional Medal of Honor. The Medal, usually presented by the Presidentof the United States at the White House, is presented by the Secretary of theNavy during a hastily arranged ceremony at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard.Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, the Chief of Naval Operations, calls the way theMedal is presented a back-handed slap. "Everyone else received their medalat the White House," Moorer will later observe. "President Johnsonmust have been concerned about the reaction of the Israeli lobby."  1980: National Security Agency DirectorMarshall Carter tells investigative author James Bamford that, regarding theattack on the Liberty, "There was no other answer than that it wasdeliberate."  1981: National Security Agency review,"Attack on a Sigint Collector, the USS Liberty Incident," rejects theIsraeli Court of Inquiry's "mistake" theory and accuses Israelifighter pilots and torpedo boat crewmen and commanders of perjury.  1982: Israeli senior lead pilot approachesformer Congressman Pete McCloskey and admits that he recognized the Liberty asAmerican immediately, so informed his headquarters, and was told to ignore theAmerican flag and continue his attack. He said he refused to do so and returnedto base, where he was arrested.  6 October 1982: A new headstone for the sixLiberty crew members at Arlington National Cemetery is unveiled. This onereads: "Killed USS Liberty June 8, 1967."  1986: Lt. Commander Walter H. Jacobsen writesin Naval Law Review: "To speculate on the motives of an attack group thatuses unmarked planes and deprives helpless survivors of life rafts raisesdisturbing possibilities, including the one that the Liberty crew was not meantto survive the attack..."  6 November 1991: Columnists Evans and Novakpublish interview with Dwight Porter, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon in 1967, inwhich Porter says that during or immediately after the attack on the Libertythe CIA station chief showed him transcripts of intercepted Israeli messages.One has Israel ordering the attack on the Liberty, another has an Israeli pilotreplying it's an American ship. When the order to attack is repeated, the pilotinsists he can see the American flag. The pilot is told again: "Attackit."  8 June 1997: Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, appointedChief of Naval Operations shortly after the attack on the Liberty, tells areunion of survivors: "I have to conclude that it was Israel's intent tosink the Liberty and leave as few survivors as possible. Israel knew perfectlywell that the ship was American."  November 1998: Captain McGonagle breaks hislong silence: "After many years I finally believe that the attack wasdeliberate. I don't think there has been an adequate investigation of theincident . . . The flag was flying prior to the attack..." McGonagle willdie four months later, on March 3, 1999.
The leaders of the United States and Israel are about to have some serious face time -- five-and-a-half hours culminating in a late-night dinner on Wednesday. Three key issues will dominate the agenda: Iran, Syria and the Palestinians. In the first part of our