Thomas Massie didn't 'confirm' Israel dropped napalm on USS Liberty. The truth was exposed decades ago

In spring 2026, a claim spread online that U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., "confirmed" that Israel used napalm in an attack against the USS Liberty, an American naval ship. 

The rumor circulated on X and Facebook (screenshot) without providing information about the date of the alleged attack. Meanwhile, Snopes readers searched the website for information on whether Israel used napalm in an attack on the Liberty.

These claims referenced a legitimate speech from Massie commemorating the 59th anniversary of Israel's attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 Six-Day War. The attack killed 34 and wounded 171 of the 293 U.S. personnel on board. While Israel and the United States officially deemed the incident an accident, survivors of the USS Liberty and many prominent U.S. officials at the time of the attack have said they believe it was deliberate. 

Massie accurately noted during his speech that Israeli soldiers used napalm to attack the Liberty. However, claims that Massie "confirmed" this fact imply that it was not already public knowledge, which is inaccurate. News articles from as early as the 1980s state, as fact, that Israel dropped napalm on the Liberty. Official, publicly available documents from both the United States and Israel also acknowledge Israel's use of napalm.

Given that the claim references true historic events but implies that Massie confirmed an allegation, rather than stated a fact, we have rated it as mostly true.  

Israel apologized for the attack and, in 1968, paid $3.3 million to the U.S. government for families of those killed, $3.6 million a year later to the wounded and then, in 1980, $6 million for material damage to the Liberty (see PDF Page 72 of an NSA report). However, Massie and survivors have called for a "true" investigation and additional accountability.

Massie's speech

During Massie's June 6 speech, he provided an account of the USS Liberty attack, which included a reference to Israel dropping napalm (emphasis ours): 

Mr. Speaker, it is my great honor, maybe one of the biggest honors of my lifetime, to stand here on the floor and do something that is 59 years overdue: to recognize the survivors and those who gave their lives on the USS Liberty 59 years ago today, when they were viciously attacked by IDF jets and also after that by torpedo boats.

I am going to tell you a little bit of their story. 

[…]

More planes came from Israel to surveil the ship. They thought they were in good shape, but what happened next surprised them all. French Mirage jets showed up, and for 25 minutes, strafed and attacked the USS Liberty. They shot rockets. They shot 30-millimeter cannons into the hull and into the ship. They even dropped napalm on the bridge of the ship. This was an effort to kill everybody on board. There was no intention of taking prisoners.

Massie, who met with a dozen Liberty survivors, called on Congress to pass a resolution honoring the survivors and to investigate whether the incident was truly an accident or deliberate. 

He concluded by entering into the congressional record a declaration from the late Capt. Ward Boston, former chief counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry that investigated the attack (see Page 5). Boston claimed President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the inquiry to rule the assault as an accident despite "overwhelming evidence" to the contrary. 

His full speech is available on C-SPAN, beginning at 31:14. 

Everyone agrees: Israel used napalm 

While much about the USS Liberty incident remains in dispute, it is widely accepted fact that Israel used napalm to attack the ship. 

A Snopes review of archival news reports from 1967 about the Liberty attack on Newspapers.com found no mention of napalm. However, by 1980, news articles referencing the USS attack begin regularly referring to Israel's use of napalm as fact, apparently based on interviews with survivors, particularly Navy officer James Ennes.

"It was an absolute inferno but the fact that the Israelis used napalm was one of the things that we were forbidden to tell the press," Ennes was quoted as saying in a 1980 article published by an Indiana paper.

The USS Liberty Veterans Association, which is run by survivors of the attack, corroborated Ennes' reported claim in an email. The organization also said it believes a book Ennes wrote called "The Assault on the Liberty," published in 1979, was the first instance the American public learned of Israel's use of napalm. 

Both the United States and Israel also acknowledge Israel's use of napalm on the Liberty. 

Here's how Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command and curator of the U.S. Navy, described part of the Liberty attack in a 2017 historical account, which the Navy calls "H-grams" (emphasis ours): 

Two Super Mystère B.2 fighters, diverted from a ground attack mission in the Sinai, commenced a stern-to-bow pass at 1407, dropping two napalm canisters each; three missed and one ignited a fire in the bridge area.

Similarly, a 1982 report by the Israeli military's history department on the USS Liberty attack said the Israeli formation "executed two attack runs with napalm, and one napalm bomb struck the ship" (see PDF Page 16). 

News and academic articles about the Liberty throughout history regularly reference the use of napalm, including a 1986 article in the Naval Law Review, a 2003 U.S. Naval Institute issue and a 2007 Chicago Tribune story. 

Massie isn't the first lawmaker to acknowledge the incident and the use of napalm on the House floor. For example, the late U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., in 2004 announced the findings of the "Independent Commission of Inquiry Into the Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty." 

One of the findings Conyers stated on the House floor included the fact that "unmarked Israeli aircraft dropped napalm canisters on the Liberty's bridge."