Yet there can be little doubt Carlton was targeted with extreme prejudice by Murdoch's lynch mob if only because there was no love lost between the Fairfax media group and News Ltd. in general, and Carlton himself was one of Fairfax's leading spear-chuckers in this frequently bitter, long-standing rivalry. But it was also difficult to escape the conclusion that the News Ltd crowd were dutifully channeling their boss's empathy towards Israel whilst at the same time leveraging the bitter, emotion-charged controversy in the service of some payback for past slights.
As Carlton himself revealed later, most of the media attention neglected to mention the vitriol he was subjected to. As he said at the time: "I got a fortnight of abuse, of threats of violence. [I was called] 'You filthy piece of Jew-hating Nazi slime', 'people like you started World War II', 'Catholic Jew-baiter' and so on."
And although most folks of a more objective disposition were prepped to view Carlton's Gaza comments with a more nuanced eye, the Aussie Jewish media played tag-team with News Ltd at Carlton's expense and declared his views as "offensive and inappropriate, bereft of certain facts [and] unbalanced." They -- like Murdoch's minions -- made no secret of their deeply felt schadenfreude at Carlton's disappearance from the media landscape.
So maybe it's not so different here in Australia after all. Such is the power of the Israeli lobby, their sympathisers and and pro-Israel campaigners.
A Time for Atonement and Restitution
If any of this is likely to eventuate, it seems that 2017 -- the 50th Anniversary of the attack -- will present an ideal, timely opportunity for the release of all relevant documents related to the tragedy and for both governments to finally come clean on the matter. We can only hope that those who are seeking such an outcome are presently working on leveraging the timing of the anniversary to this end. It may be a 'good luck with that' long shot, but "nothing ventured" as they say. At the very least it should help keep the story alive, thereby providing a measure of ongoing discomfort for those that seek for whatever reasons to keep it under wraps.
Otherwise, I expect there will be much more focus on celebrating Israel's victory in the Six-Day War itself than commemorating the Liberty debacle -- much less acknowledging the real story of what happened so as to bring about some closure for all concerned and atoning for their crimes -- one that thus far has all but been relegated to the status of collateral damage in that ugly, self-serving, and unnecessary War of aggression, one whose impact is still reverberating today.
As one of the characters in The Wire might have been wont to say: "That's America man!"
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