June 8, 2025 was the 58th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy signals intelligence ship, which was deployed off the coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War to collect intelligence on both Israel and Egypt. The attack killed 34 members of the crew and wounded 171 others. Israel officially apologized to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson for the attack, but claimed that Israel mistook the USS Liberty for a smaller Egyptian cargo vessel that was underway closer to the coast, an explanation not even accepted by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk. “I was never satisfied with the Israeli explanation,” Rusk wrote in his memoir published in 1991. “Their sustained attack to disable and sink Liberty precluded an assault by accident or some trigger-happy local commander. Through diplomatic channels we refused to accept their explanations. I didn’t believe them then, and I don’t believe them to this day. The attack was outrageous.”
Surviving members of the crew always maintained that the Israelis identified the Liberty for what it was. The ship could be identified by its hull number—GTR5—and it flew a large American flag off the stern, two signs of its identity that could not be missed. According to an Israeli account, the maritime observer aboard Israeli surveillance aircraft identified the USS Liberty as a U.S. Navy vessel a few hours before the attack. USS Liberty crew members also testified that the attack persisted for more than an hour, with repeated passes by Israeli torpedo boats and aircraft, with the clear intent of sinking the ship.
