I remember hearing about this around the time it was all going on. It seems to me there was a relatively small blurb in the news, which grew larger over the next few years as word got out and folks started questioning what really happened. Personally, I think either Israel thought we were spying on them (which we were, along with spying on Egypt and other countries in the region), or they were trying to start an incident which we'd blame on Soviet-backed actors in the area to force us to enter the war they were waging against Egypt. There was no mistaking that ship, particularly by the people shooting at it, so I'm sure it wasn't an "accident" as the Israelis claimed. But there was as much covering up going on in the U.S. as there was overseas.