I have read about the incident in detail and i have no reason to believe it was a deliberate attack. True, there was a GROSS failure in the Israeli chain of command (the air force and navy have been bitching about it for years) but they didn't do it on purpose. To be quite frank, the Liberty was where it shouldn't have been because Isreali settlements were being shelled by unknown Egyptian elements. The IAF assumed the Egyptians had brought out their destroyers from dry dock to shell said villiages, so they sent some planes with consent to sink the raiders. And there was the Liberty, steaming in the same area where the supposed destroyers were. Although i guess one can argue the Liberty doesn't look a lick like a destroyer, and the crew was flying old glory. But do you honestly think Israel did it on purpose?
There was that documentary done on the Liberty on TV here a couple of weeks ago. The host of the program that featured the documentary stated facts that weren't mentioned. - Most of Isreal's citizens lived on the coast, making them open to Egyptian attack. - Egypt's navy outnumbered Isreal's by 4 to 1. - Isreal told the Americans to get their ships out of the region of the fighting before hand. Some of the ways the crew ries to prove it was deliberate are seemingly half hearted to begin with. Simply, they should've know that countries can and have attacked outside their costal boundaries (Isreal's was 12 Nautical Miles).
The Israelis *#*#*#*#ed up royally, but they didn't do it on purpose--they'd have everything to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by intentionally attacking a US ship.