Hi Doc Sarvis:
Great vignette about "petro-chemicals" from the era of Western Union telegrams and urban messengers.
During the 1967 Six Day War, the USS Liberty spy ship intercepted communications about IDF troops committing war crimes (shooting captured Egyptians), so Tel Aviv ordered the IDF to disable its antennae, killing and wounding scores of Sailors, as you are aware.
Source: USSLiberty.org
LBJ was furious, but Tel Aviv cajoled and convinced the anti-communist Mandarins in Washington to "let it go" as this shameful incident would give the USSR political points in the middle of the escalating Vietnam War. The highly competent and smooth-talking Israel FM Abba Eban succeeded, an apologia was rendered, and the cover-up began.
This political victory over the US informed Tel Aviv that framing issues in a Cold War context would succeed. Emboldened, this Mossad scheme to depopulate the occupied territories of Palestinians coalesced. The plan was well-received as the reputable Mossad had abducted Adolph Eichmann from Argentina for unspeakable war crimes against Jews in the Holocaust.
Cultural Implications for the US
America's fabled "Summer of Love" was taking place amid the Six-Day War, the USS Liberty incident, and escalating casualties in Vietnam.
And something subtle and sinister began happening in Hollywood.
Cinematically, Arabs and Muslims were no longer portrayed as comical, neutral, goofy, or competent, but strictly as the "bad guy."
Previously, Elvis Presley portrayed a handsome singing Arab prince, Abbott and Costello had adventures in Algeria and Egypt (fighting the Mummy), and a Turkish police inspector was quite competent in Topkapi (which later gave birth to the TV series Mission Impossible.
After 1967, this all changed in Hollywood.
You can read about this insidious shift in subtly vilifying Muslims and Arabs on the big screen in this book:
This subliminal messaging made Islamophobia, the post-9/11 vengeance campaign (AKA the "Global War on Islam" (GWOT), and ethnic cleansing in Israel easier to sell to the American masses and Soldiers, as we've seen this century.
