WHY did Israel want to attack and eliminate the entire crew of the Liberty, if indeed that was the plan? What was the end game?
Two reasons. Firstly, Israel wanted to start war with Egypt via surprise attack. The US informed them that if they initiated the war, the US would stay out of it. Israel agreed that they would never start the war. So, in order to start the war without the US knowing it, they had to blind US intelligence operations in the region to their activities, which meant, in large part, destroy the USS Liberty. Now, as they saw it, there'd be no use in doing so if there were any survivors to report the attack, thus the destruction/murder had to be complete, starting with the jamming of all communications. Secondly, its utter destruction would serve the purpose of enraging the US against Egypt, whom Israel planned to blame for it, thus also serving as a false flag to bring the US enthusiastically in on the side of Israel against Egypt.
