If Israel attacked an American ship, should they continue to get aid from us?

Answer 1

They did.

Answer 2

Yes, and it happened in the past; the USS Liberty was the ship attacked by Israeli planes.

The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a U.S. Navy signals intelligence ship, USS Liberty, in international waters about 12.5 nautical miles (23 km) from the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, north of the Egyptian town of El Arish, by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967.

It occurred during the Six-Day War, a conflict between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. The Israeli attack killed 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded at least 173. The attack was the second-deadliest against a U.S. warship since the end of World War II, surpassed only by the Iraqi Exocet missile attack on the USS Stark on May 17, 1987, and marked the single greatest loss of life by the U.S. intelligence community.

The Israeli and American governments conducted multiple inquiries into the incident, and issued reports concluding that the attack was the result of a mistake, caused by confusion among the Israeli attackers about the precise identity of the USS Liberty. These conclusions have been challenged, most notably by an organization of Liberty survivors as well as by some key former high-ranking U.S. officials who were in office at the time. These skeptics have included Secretary of State Dean Rusk, 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 Inquiry into the incident. While the matter is officially closed for purposes of Israeli-American relations, it remains controversial in public discussion.

Answer 3

This event did happen and it happened even after the US Navy made contact with the Israel commander aboard the ship. Several,saliors were killed and wounded. The US and Isreal navy's tried to cover this event up but it came out. Nothing was ever done and Washinton had NO COMMENT about the so called accident. The American Navy Ship did not return fire. I can't remember the date nor the ships involved. I just remember reading in the American Legion Magazine about it. Seems like it was in the 90's.

Answer 4

They did attack an American ship in the late 60s. There was no fog. lol
They knew it was our ship. It was irrelevant.
No, they shouldn't receive aid. They're one of the wealthiest nations on earth.
They spend much of that aid on U.S. weapons. This pressures Arab countries to also buy U.S. weapons to keep pace with Israel. The U.S. Military Industrial Complex promotes these arms races to stay wealthy. Even the Israelis are now discussing the questionable wisdom of accepting U.S. welfare if it means an escalating arms race with Arab countries.

Answer 5

Hmmm... Maybe ask this question... If a country was a non-democracy and its media and general population was largly anti American should America continue to give them over $1 billion worth of aid annually?
Of course, I'm not referring to Israel but to Egypt which is the second largest receipient of foreign aid. Yet such things do not seem to bother you.
For the record, the attack on the USS Liberty was a friendly fire incident as concluded by over six official investigations over the course of the past 40 years. Anything else is just conspiracy theory junk.

Answer 6

Having been in combat I can tell you that sadly accidents happen during the fog of war.

Examples: In Afghanistan an American pilot bombed Canadian troops but we still have good relations with Canada.

An American Patriot Missile battery shot down a British Tornado. The Brits did not pull support from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sometimes we even do it to ourselves: American A-10 Thunderbolts got the go ahead to attack troops north of an Iraqi city (Name alludes me) by a Terminal Attack controller. The unit had lost contact with HQ and was farther north then expected, many died when the A-10 attacked what they thought was Iraqi Republican guard.

Its always sad but accidents do happen.

Answer 7

They did it once and they continued to get aid...So,even if they shouldn't in case they would attack another America ship,probably they would still get aid...Accidents happen,right?

Answer 8

The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a grievous error, largely attributable to the fact that it occurred in the midst of the confusion of a full-scale war. Ten official United States investigations and three official Israeli inquiries have all conclusively established the attack was a tragic mistake. Israel compensated the injured sailors and the families of those killed.

Answer 9

All foreign aid needs to be cut back drastically, we can no longer give BILLIONS to all these nations around the world

Answer 10

evidently because they have attacked and we do continue support.... as we all know, every attack from Israel is always a mistake

Answer 11

I don't think so, of course, I never understood why we supported them from the beginning. Of course, I'm not an expert on Israel either!!