Too often, readers of "Assault on the Liberty" and of these pages see
the Liberty story as an attack on Jews and the Jewish People.  They are
not that at all.  The following excerpt from the Author's Notes on page
217 of "Assault on the Liberty" addresses this point:


A few days after the Liberty attack, Jim O'Connor's wife, Sandy, called
upon a Jewish neighobr and found the woman almost in tears.  "Oh,
Sandy," the neighbor said, "I'm so sorry.  I wanted to come see you, but
I've been too ashamed."

Sandy was surprised and saddened to learn that her friend identified so
closely with Israel that she felt guilty for Israel's crime.  "Jews
didn't attack Liberty," Sandy explained.  "An Israeli officer gave the
order, and he is the one who should be ashamed"

I expressed a similar view in a letter written from the hospital.
"Although someone who happens to be Jewish is criminally responsible for
what happened to our ship," I wrote, "we must not blame Jews generally
or even Israelis generally.  Probably some field commander made the
decision.  We should blame him.  Maybe even the Israeli top leadership
made the decision.  If so, we should blame them.  But no one should
blame every Jew or every Israeli.  Jews die on that ship too."