The most controversial act during the Six Day War of 1967 was the attack on the USS Liberty by Israeli planes. Thirty US sailors were killed and the ship was severely damaged, but not sunk.

Officially, the attack was a mistake, though several conspiracy theories abound. The Liberty was an intelligence gathering ship and was likely sent to the area to get solid evidence that the Soviets were in fact directly involved in military combat against the Israelis. The US ship stopped in Gibraltar to pick up Intelligence personnel with Russian and Egyptian linguistic ability. It was noted that the ship staff did not have Israeli or Hebrew capability.

This indicates that their objective was to monitor Russian and Egyptian communications, not Israeli. This is important because one theory posed by John Loftus in the “Secret War Against the Jews” was that the Israelis attacked the Liberty intentionally because it was spying on the Israelis and communicating Israeli troop movements to the Egyptians. While seemingly farfetched Loftus contended that the US State and Intelligence Departments were often at odds with executive and congressional foreign policy when it came to Israel.

The Israelis claimed they thought the vessel was Egyptian, but they may have suspected it was Russian, and claimed they thought it was Egyptian to keep from inciting the Russians.

Given the strong soviet presence in the area, the speed and the ferocity of the battle, it is understandable that it could have been a suspect Soviet spy vessel relaying battlefield communications to Israel’s foes. Given the fear that the Israelis had of direct Soviet military intervention in the war, it seems unlikely they would have intentionally attacked their strongest ally, the U.S.

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