Subject: Re: WHY does Israel have to wait for
I wasn't there. So I believe the survivors more than the politicians. Do I know for certain? Nope.

If you read the wiki, it is not as cut-and-dried as the two governments would have you believe. FOIA requests and declassified documents (decades later) seem to indicate they pilots knew it wasn't an Egyptian ship, but continued the attack anyway.

Considering events at that time, both governments had reason to sweep it away. The Israelis needed our support, and we had an interest to maintain one of the only allies we had in that region. So I put more weight on survivors who were there. But we'll probably never know for certain.