When Israel attacked a US ship

www.americanthinker.com

The debate surrounding the USS Liberty assault has resurfaced nearly 60 years later, by anti-Israel activists and even those on the conspiratorial right and left in American politics. The theory goes that the Israeli air force intentionally attacked the USS Liberty amid the Six-Day War because the vessel was spying on Israeli intelligence to strike the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights.

Those in broadcasting, from Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson on the right to liberal pundits such as Mehdi Hasan and Cenk Uygur, are known for engaging in conspiracy theories against Israel and insist that the USS Liberty was deliberately struck without consequence.

This subject was brought up at the most recent Turning Point USA conference. An audience member challenged conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish, about the official account of the 1967 attack.

Even though Shapiro conducted himself well, the confrontation highlights the division some MAGA conservatives have with Israel. A Christian nationalist speaker even suggested that President LBJ and the CIA were involved in a cover-up of the USS Liberty affair because the official report “doesn’t feel like it’s good enough.”

Of course, the Israeli attack on the Liberty was indeed catastrophic and deadly. The incident led to the deaths of 34 American crewmen, and 171 were wounded. The rationale for Israel to fire on the Liberty is that it was mistaken for an enemy cruiser through a combination of bad judgment and miscommunication that is hard to fathom when looking at the evidence at face value.

However, deadly friendly fire is not uncommon. Declassified documents from both the Israeli and U.S. governments prove that the Israeli attack was nothing more than a grave misfire.

The date of the tragedy was June 8, 1967, and Israel was amid the Six-Day War, fighting off the surrounding Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The USS Liberty was a spy ship and part of the 6th Fleet, stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to gather intelligence off the coast of Sinai, Egypt.

Once combat was subdued, the Liberty requested a destroyer escort to accompany it but was refused and commanded to increase its distance by 100 nautical miles. Unfortunately, due to faulty communication applications, the message was not received until after the offensive.

As it turns out, that morning, there was an artillery drop-off that erupted in the offshore Sinai city of al-Arish, and the Israelis incorrectly believed that Egyptian warships had bombarded this area. Israel’s navy located the Liberty steaming toward Egypt and mistakenly determined that that ship was the aggressor.

The Israelis sent two Mirage fighters to identify the ship but saw no markings or flag to indicate that the vessel was American, so the two jets were given authorization to open fire with 30mm cannons and rockets. Two other Israeli aircraft in the area engaged by napalming the ship. The lack of return fire troubled the Israeli officials, as they feared they may have hit their own, but they continued their onslaught.

A squadron of torpedo boats proceeded toward the Liberty, as they had not received a request for identification. A flag was still not seen, but the letters on the ship were Latin instead of Arabic, likely indicating that they were not striking an Egyptian cruiser.

Unfortunately, the torpedo boat squadron spotted a configuration that resembled an Egyptian cargo ship. Despite the Liberty’s captain not giving the order to fire, one gunner fired momentarily, triggering discharges of exploding ammunition.

Presuming they were under fire from an Egyptian vessel, the torpedo boats were given the go-ahead to launch. Of the five torpedoes launched, four missed, but one blasted the starboard side and made a 39-foot-wide hole, killing 25 sailors. It wasn’t until a life raft with U.S. naval markings was discovered by an Israeli torpedo boat that the Israelis recognized the deadly miscalculation on their part.

As expected, the Israeli forces offered an apology to Commander Ernest Carl Castle, U.S. naval attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, and the torpedo boats offered to aid the crew members in distress, but that was denied. The government of Israel owned up to its mistake by paying millions in damages to the families of the victims and for the damage inflicted on the ship.

It doesn’t add up that Israel would attack a superpower ally, the U.S., considering that Israel needed our support against the threat of the Soviets backing Arab states. It’s also preposterous that Israel would conceal its intelligence-gathering in the Sinai from the U.S. or designs for bombing Syria. There was no reason to cover up a lethal event when Egyptian political prisoners weren’t even slain.

Former Israeli ambassador and Liberty affair expert Michael Oren said it best: “Every once in a while, someone comes up with ‘new evidence,’ but it always falls short. Astonishingly, the Liberty attack is brought up more now, even though the U.S.-Israel relationship is stronger than ever.”

One friendly misfire from the Jewish state in 60 years, and there have been 140 Islamic attacks against the U.S. from 1994 to 2025. The United States has plenty of adversaries across the globe. Israel has never been one of them.

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Image via Picryl.