# Why Did Israel Attack USS Liberty in 1967? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134 "2012-01-11T05:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![firstfalseNero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@firstfalseNero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstfalseNero)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/1 "2012-01-11T05:36:02Z")
34 American sailors were killed, something like 175 wounded. Nobody believes it was “a mistake.” The Mossad is the finest intelligence agency on earth. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/2 "2012-01-11T05:41:17Z")
Some trigger happy, stressed out, overtired Israeli pilots high on amphetamines and caffeine mistook it for an Egyptian ship and attacked it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/3 "2012-01-11T05:50:16Z")
It was either a mistake or intentional. 40+ years of arguing haven’t resolved that. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/4 "2012-01-11T06:05:55Z")
A theory I have heard is that it was a backdoor agreement between Israeli and US leaders. The Israelis would attack the USS liberty and kill all the survivors, but the attack would be blamed on Egypt (which Israel was at war with at the time). The US would then (for whatever reason) get involved on Israels side in the six day war. Basically a false flag operation to get the US involved in the six day war. However if that was the case, was Israel working alone or did they have go ahead from the US government on some level? Another theory is outlined here. [http://www.ussliberty.org/pravdura.htm](http://www.ussliberty.org/pravdura.htm) > [@](#): > > last year, a russian translation of joseph daichman’s “history of the mossad” was published in moscow. the author describes the tragedy in 1967 in detail. he admits that it was perfectly clear that the liberty was an american ship and that the attack was committed to deprive the usa “of its eyes and ears,” of the opportunity to control the situation. daichman says the attackers had the right to act so. the israelis feared that the liberty would report information about the course of the war: they wanted to keep it a secret that troops had been shifted to syria and the egyptian border wasn’t protected at all. the border was quite open for egyptian soldiers to cross. israel knew that american radio signals were intercepted by the soviet union, and the latter would certainly inform egypt of the fact. that is why the liberty was to be sunk to avoid leakage of important information. this is a very cynical version. i even couldn’t have thought that i would ever read it. Other theories here. > **[Flase Flag Attack by Israel on USS Liberty, to Blaim Egypt](https://totallyfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/flase-flag-attack-by-israel-on-uss-liberty-to-blaim-egypt/)** > > The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, durin… Either way I don’t know if this is a GQ, probably more of a debate. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/5 "2012-01-11T06:56:40Z")
> [@firstfalseNero](#): > > Why Did Israel Attack USS Liberty in 1967? Because it was mistakenly identified as an Egyptian vessel. > [@](#): > > 34 American sailors were killed, something like 175 wounded. > Nobody believes it was “a mistake.” The Mossad is the finest intelligence agency on earth. Oh, okay then. Because they were dirty Jews? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/6 "2012-01-11T08:31:31Z")
I predict this thread will end well. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/7 "2012-01-11T08:56:36Z")
> [@firstfalseNero](#): > > 34 American sailors were killed, something like 175 wounded. > Nobody believes it was “a mistake.” The Mossad is the finest intelligence agency on earth. 1. Probably a mistake in the heat of war. 2. I am pretty sure the Israeli soldiers of 1973 and 2006 might disagree with you on that score. 3. Anyway, would’nt the Liberty have been Naval Intelligences jurisdiction? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/8 "2012-01-11T09:05:21Z")
The Mossad is, in general, more competent than the CIA. However, so are certain species of lemur. Anyway, if Israel sunk the ship on purpose, why did it do such a bad job of it? 1. Why did the planes use anti-tank missiles instead of anti-ship missiles? 2. Why did they allow any survivors? 3. In fact, why didn’t they just use a submarine? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/9 "2012-01-11T11:20:50Z")
Well, the same questions could be asked if it was their intent to sink an Egyptian ship, couldn’t they? Why were they firing antitank missiles/allow survivors/use a submarine on what they thought to be an attack on the enemy? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/10 "2012-01-11T11:30:42Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Well, the same questions could be asked if it was their intent to sink an Egyptian ship, couldn’t they? Why were they firing antitank missiles/allow survivors/use a submarine on what they thought to be an attack on the enemy? Because it was an attack of opportunity. They were on their way home from a sortie, spotted what they thought was an enemy ship, and unloaded their remaining ordnance. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/11 "2012-01-11T11:36:52Z")
Was any action taken against the pilots or their command? ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/12 "2012-01-11T13:19:59Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Was any action taken against the pilots or their command? Yes, if you are asking whether there was an investigation by the Israeli military. No, if you are asking whether they were found responsible. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Israeli government investigations > > Two subsequent Israeli inquiry reports and an historical report concluded the attack was conducted because Liberty was confused with an Egyptian vessel and because of failures in communications between Israel and the U.S. The three Israeli reports were: > > ``` > Fact Finding Inquiry by Colonel Ram Ron ("Ram Ron Report"—June 1967)[47] > Preliminary Inquiry (Hearing) by Examining Judge Yeshayahu Yerushalmi ("Yerushalmi Report"—July 1967)[48] (Adjudication of IDF negligence complaints.) > Historical Report "The Liberty Incident"—IDF History Department Report (1982)[49] > > ``` > > In the historical report, it was acknowledged that IDF naval headquarters knew at least three hours before the attack that the ship was “an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy” but concluded that this information had simply “gotten lost, never passed along to the ground controllers who directed the air attack nor to the crews of the three Israeli torpedo boats.” > > The Israeli government said that three crucial errors were made: the refreshing of the status board (removing the ship’s classification as American, so that the later shift did not see it identified), the erroneous identification of the ship as an Egyptian vessel, and the lack of notification from the returning aircraft informing Israeli headquarters of markings on the front of the hull (markings that would not be found on an Egyptian ship). As a common root of these problems, Israel blamed the combination of alarm and fatigue experienced by the Israeli forces at that point of the war when pilots were severely overworked. > > After conducting his own fact-finding inquiry and reviewing evidence, Judge Yerushalmi’s decision was: “I have not discovered any deviation from the standard of reasonable conduct which would justify committal of anyone for trial.” In other words, he found no negligence by any IDF member associated with the attack. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/13 "2012-01-11T14:44:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Because it was an attack of opportunity. They were on their way home from a sortie, spotted what they thought was an enemy ship, and unloaded their remaining ordnance. I agree, it was a horrible but understandable mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-israel-attack-uss-liberty-in-1967/609134/14 "2012-01-11T14:55:33Z")
Moderator Note firstfalseNero, you have started five threads in General Questions since you joined today, none of them appropriate for this forum. Four were better placed in Great Debates; the first was moved and I have closed the other three including this one. One was moved to Cafe Society. Before you start more threads, I would strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the forum rules and conventions of this site. You may open a new thread on this topic in Great Debates, but ensure you frame the debate properly. Also, five debates on different subjects are too many to effectively engage in at once; I suggest you limit yourself to no more than one at a time. Colibri General Questions Moderator