NATIONAL REVIEW
No, the USS Liberty Attack Wasn’t Israeli Treachery
Rich Lowry
December 23, 2025

For elements of the anti-Israel right, it’s a time when everything old is becoming new again. So, a half-century-old theory that the Jewish state deliberately attacked the USS Liberty during the Six-Day War has renewed currency. Conspiratorial-minded influencers hostile to Israel, like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, have promoted the notion, and it was a topic of discussion at the recent TPUSA conference. One speaker said that the official explanation “doesn’t feel like it’s good enough,” and floated his own wild speculation (involving the complicity of LBJ). The fact is that the devastating Israeli attack on the Liberty, killing 34 and wounding 171, was a woeful case of mistaken identification. The series of faulty judgments that led to the incident is so grievous that, taken altogether, it is, indeed, nearly incomprehensible. READ MORE