Let us, once again, put to rest the main erroneous arguments that the anti-Semitic Israel haters in this thread keep using. I will do so by quoting
an excellent article on the USS Liberty incident published on the U.S. Navy's Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) website (
LINK). The article was written by the director of the NHHC, Samuel J. Cox, in 2017.
Due to a series of communication snafus, the USS Liberty was not where it was supposed to be but was well inside the 100-mile standoff zone ordered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
The referenced message directed the 100–nautical mile stand-off, but had not been received by Liberty. The massive and multiple communications foul-ups were a major embarrassment to the U.S. Navy, which at the time had no interest in this fact becoming widely known. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations had also made public assurances on 6 June that no U.S. ships or aircraft were operating within 100 miles of the combat zone, so the fact that Liberty was well inside this radius was a major embarrassment to the U.S. State Department. No one in a position of significant authority was held accountable for the communications errors. . . .
Thus, the U.S. did not notify the Israelis that a U.S. ship would be where the USS Liberty was, i.e., close to the Israeli coast.
The Israelis believed that the USS Liberty was the Egyptian ship that had shelled the coastal town of El Arish. The Liberty was visible to Israeli ground forces in the area, and they assumed the ship was the source of the shelling:
In the early afternoon of 8 June, Israeli army forces in the vicinity of El Arish reported that they were being shelled from the sea. An unidentified grey ship (Liberty) could be observed on the horizon and was presumed to be the source. At that time, Liberty was operating about 14 nautical miles off the coast, and at least one massive explosion and other smoke near El Arish were observed from the ship at 1300 as the crew commenced a general quarters drill (which concluded at 1345).
The two Israeli jet-fighters that ID'd the Liberty as an Egyptian warship did so from "a safe distance" and thus did not see the 5' x 8' American flag:
At a safe distance and altitude, the fighters did not discern the five by eight–foot American flag nor the “GTR-5” on the bow and stern, and requested clearance to engage. After double-checking with the navy that the contact was a warship, which navy headquarters verified (based on the erroneous calculated speed), the air force controller cleared the fighters to engage.
We know from other sources that the Israeli jets did not get closer than 2 miles to the Liberty when they mistakenly identified it as an Egyptian destroyer.
In the gun camera footage from the Israeli fighters, the Liberty's American flag is not visible on any of the passes. Plus, it would have been very difficult for the pilots to spot the flag while making strafing runs. In addition, the gun camera footage shows smoke rising straight up, which means there was no breeze or air flow to cause the flag to fly unfurled:
In the Israeli gun camera footage, the flag is not visible on any pass, and on the second and third pass, the heavy smoke from the gasoline fire is rising straight up, indicating that at least at the point of the first pass the flag would not have been flying straight out.
Even the Liberty's American flag had been flying unfurled, it would have been very difficult for the Israeli pilots to see it during strafing passes because they were approaching from a bow-on angle:
Even if it [the American flag] was [flying straight out/unfurled], making out a flag from a high-speed jet from a bow-on aspect would have been exceedingly difficult. The pilot would have been concentrating on hitting the target and then not crashing into the ship or the water in the three or so seconds after firing.
When the two Israeli Mysteres fighters made their strafing passes and the lead pilot reported seeing the marking CTR-5 on the ship's bow on the third pass,
the Israeli air controller immediately ordered a halt to the attack. The air traffic control officer had already become concerned by the lack of any reported return fire:
However, on the second pass, the lead pilot noticed unusual markings, and the Israeli air control officer in Tel Aviv was already becoming seriously concerned by the lack of any reported return fire. On the third pass, the lead pilot reported that the target had “CTR-5” on the bow. The Israeli air control officer immediately ordered a halt to the attack, and ordered a third flight tasked against the ship, two Mystère IV fighters armed with 500-pound iron bombs, to resume their original ground attack mission in the Sinai.
The Israeli pilot mistook Liberty's GTR-5 marking for CTR-5, an understandable mistake. When the Israeli pilot reported seeing CTR-5 on the bow, the Israeli air controller feared they had attacked a Soviet ship, because some Soviet naval ships' markings began with a C:
The Israeli air controller’s concern that Israeli aircraft might have hit a U.S. ship was quickly replaced by concern they had hit a Soviet intelligence collection ship (AGI.) The Israeli fighter had misidentified GTR-5 as “CTR-5, an easy mistake. Soviet AGI’s would normally be identified with CCB-## (Cyrillic for SSV-##.) This resulted in a flurry of reports up the Israeli chain of command.
Before the Israeli torpedo boats asked the USS Liberty to identify itself, they had been authorized to use torpedoes based on the mistaken belief at Israeli Navy HQ that the ship was an Egyptian destroyer:
At 1424, Liberty sighted the three MTBs approaching at high speed. At 1417, LCDR Oren had requested authorization to employ torpedoes, which was granted by the deputy commander of the Israeli navy under the mistaken presumption that the contact was an Egyptian destroyer (since that was the only thing that could have shelled El Arish and be making 30 knots).
When the Israeli torpedo boats approached the USS Liberty,
they signaled the ship to identify itself. Due to a misunderstanding on the Liberty and a gun malfunction on the Liberty, the Liberty responded to the request for ID with gunfire:
The Israeli command MTB attempted to signal Liberty with a hand-held Aldis lamp, flashing “AA,” the international maritime signal to “identify yourself". . . .
In the Israelis’ minds, the identification issue was rendered moot when the Liberty opened fire as they began to close. CDR McGonagle had given the order to fire, but immediately countermanded it after he saw what he interpreted as a possible Israeli flag on an MTB. However, with all communications destroyed (except for shouting down from the bridge), a forward gunner got off one .50-caliber round before hearing the cease-fire order. An amidships machine gun (to which there was no easy access from the bridge due to the fire) may also have opened fire, or, much more likely, ammunition cooked off due to the fire at a most unfortunate time.
Believing they were being fired upon . . . the MTBs opened up with a sustained barrage of 40 mm, 20 mm, and .50-caliber fire. . . .
The Israeli torpedo boats (MTBs) had not seen the American flag, which was why they signaled the Liberty to ID itself. The flag would have been very hard to see from where the boats were positioned:
The Israeli MTBs did not see the much larger eight by thirteen–foot “holiday” American flag that had been hoisted after the air attacks. Due to the fire, the flag was on a halyard on the opposite side from the torpedo boats and mostly likely obscured by the heavy smoke. The Israelis were also looking into the sun, and the “GTR-5” on Liberty’s bow and stern would have been harder to see in shadow.
Israeli military communications transcripts show that the Israelis were still confused about the ship's identity
after the torpedo boats attacked it. Israeli HQ did not become convinced the ship was American until 3:12 (1512 military time),
after the torpedo attack:
After the torpedo attack, the MTBs came close enough to read the name on the stern (which even then was initially reported as Cyrillic—i.e., Russian.) Released U.S. and Israeli transcripts of Israeli communications show a high degree of confusion within the Israeli air force and navy about whether the ship was Egyptian, Soviet, or American. The MTBs realized their mistake at about 1500 when the recovered a “U.S. Navy”–marked life raft, and Israeli headquarters became convinced at 1512 following a close pass by an Israeli helicopter, which was the first to report that Liberty was flying a flag and that it was definitely American. (The MTBs had previously reported seeing a red flag, which added to the “possible Soviet” confusion.)
Even the least implausible theory for why Israeli would have knowingly attacked the Liberty is invalid and illogical:
I will not go into the myriad of conjectural theories as to why Israel would have chosen to deliberately and knowingly attack a ship of the only nation in the world that was standing by them at that point. The most prevalent theory is that the Israelis attacked Liberty to prevent the U.S. from finding out they were about to attack the Syrian Golan Heights. However, the Israeli chief of defense had already notified the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. special representative of their intent to do so some eight hours before the attack. None of the other theories stand up to rigorous scrutiny either.
The only other ludicrous theory offered in this thread (by one of our resident anti-Semitic Israel haters) is that the Israelis knowingly attacked the Liberty in order to draw America into the Six-Day War, a war that they had already won for all intents and purposes.
Folks, plainly and clearly, this was a tragic friendly fire incident, and nothing more. Every mistake the Israelis made can be plausibly, logically explained and understood. One has to be irrationally anti-Israeli to believe that the Israelis would have "deliberately and knowingly" attacked a ship "of the only nation in the world that was standing by them at that point."