- American Arguments
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Refuting the Israeli Arguments
"Ship was sighted and recognized as a naval ship 13 miles from coast."
The government of Israel justified their attack on USS Liberty, in part, on the assertion that the "Ship was sighted and recognized as a naval ship 13 miles from coast." This is a somewhat bizarre claim. Israel claimed a three mile territorial sea in 1967. Their implicit claim seems to be that a ship sailing off the coast more than four times as required to remain in international waters is somehow "fair game" for their attacking aircraft and ships.
Israel does not dispute that USS Liberty was well out into international waters. Instead, Israel relies on the notion that being in international waters does not provide the defenses mandated by the Geneva Convention if the unknown target ship comes within an unspecified distance of a belligerent's territorial sea - while still remaining in international waters.
The track of USS Liberty, interestingly, places it at the time of the attack just sixteen miles from the location where it had been identified earlier the same day.