Why did the Israelis attack USS Liberty in 1967 and killed the Americans aboard?

Answer 1

thought that pigs were aboard.

Answer 2

Both the Israeli and American governments have conducted multiple inquiries into the incident, and have issued reports concluding that the attack was a tragic mistake, caused by confusion about the identity of the USS Liberty. These conclusions have been challenged from several fronts, most notably by an organization of several Liberty survivors, as well as by some key former high-ranking officials who were in office at the time in the United States government, including the Secretary of State, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of the NSA, and the senior legal counsel to the U.S. Navy Court of of Inquiry into the incident. The matter is officially closed for purposes of Israeli-American relations, but remains controversial in the public debate.

Israel's official position remains to this day that the attack was an accident, claiming that it was assured by the United States that no U.S. ships were in the area. Israel has also claimed that its air and naval forces mistakenly identified Liberty as the Egyptian vessel El Quseir. Proponents of the accident explanation add that mistakes were inevitable in the tense atmosphere of the Six-Day War, and that no concrete motive existed for Israel to initiate a surprise attack against a country that was quickly becoming its most powerful and important ally.

Others claim that the attack was premeditated and deliberate; they note, among other things, that the Liberty was more than twice as large as the El Quseir, and was clearly designated with Latin rather than Arabic letters and numbers. Proponents of deliberate attack theory include the surviving Liberty crewmen, [1] and some former U.S. government officials, including then-CIA director Richard Helms and then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk as well as Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The United States and Israel exchanged diplomatic notes after several inquiries. Though the United States never officially accepted the Israeli explanation, it agreed to accept indemnities of $13 million, for damage and casualties.

Ofcourse, seeing your other posts, I am sure you are going to turn this into some vast zionist conspiracy, but so what, it's one incident against the hundreds of bloodthirsty actions of the "people" you usually defend.

Answer 3

The same reason 23 years later that the majority of U.S. deaths came from friendly fire during the first Gulf War - mistaken identity.

Answer 4

You'll never get the truth from our government.

Answer 5

I do agree with mymadsky. Conspiracy theories abound on this one.