Xtra has brought this up before. This is what I wrote in another thread at the time.
Serbia wrote:Ok, some more background B. K., I didn't realize there wasn't any real information from tabasco there (though I'm not surprised).
The incident happened during the 6 Day War in 1967. The USS Liberty was an intelligence gathering vessel (spy ship for the kids). Israel of course knew this. And they didn't want to be spied upon during the war. I don't pretend to know all the details, but it's obvious that for whatever reason, Israel didn't want information about their activities falling into American hands. Why, who knows. But warnings were made, probably not officially. (This is from my understanding of the incident, things I've read from the Israeli side). Keep in mind this was 1967, with the technology available at the time, they could act as though they didn't know what they had attacked more easily than they could now. Also, Israel was facing potential annihilation at the hands of the Arabs surrounding them, which is why they launched their surprise attack against them. (The surprise attack happened after the Arabs had already mobilized for their own planned invasion of Israel. Israel attacked preempitvely.) What that has to do with the attack on the USS Liberty exactly, I don't know. Perhaps we were supplying info to the Arabs, or at least, maybe that was the fear.
To add to this... yes, American sailors were killed, and I feel badly about that. Israel did warn the US before the attack. We didn't pull our ship back, for whatever reason, and Israel took matters into their own hands. But Xtra, lets give the entire story, shall we? The attack on the USS Liberty was not Israeli warmongering, or a thirst for blood. It was in their mind, an issue of national security. They were in the middle of a war for their very survival, and obviously felt threatened for whatever reason by the American spy boat off their coast.
I'd also like to point out that the chances of this being repeated nowadays are very slim, seeing as we have better relations with Israel, and frequently work together with them, the Israeli attack on the Syrian nuclear site a very recent example.