Israel Sending Edward Peck, Former U.S. Ambassador, Home From Seized Ship, Wife Says

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former U.S. ambassador aboard a Gaza aid ship seized by Israel commandos is on his way home, his wife said Monday evening.

Edward Peck, 81, of Chevy Chase, Md., was among activists in the flotilla trying to get humanitarian aid to Gaza, said his wife, Ann Peck.

She said she received a brief e-mail from Israel's foreign ministry on Monday informing her that her husband was fine and headed home. The e-mail said he would likely arrive Tuesday and would call from a New York airport when he landed, Ann Peck said.

She said that as of Monday evening she hadn't spoken with U.S. officials, nor was she able to talk to her husband, a former U.S. ambassador to Mauritania.

Comments

[tissa]

12:17 PM on 06/04/2010

Wow, this 80 year old looks too fit for the Israeli Army....

[GCHRV]

02:24 AM on 06/04/2010

PEACEFUL people??

Did you see this video??? clearly documenting the emotions of the participants of the Flotilla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3L7OV414Kk

[jgarbuz]

06:02 PM on 06/01/2010

The following is from Arutz Sheva, a "right wing" radio station in Israel:

"A report Tuesday night said that security officials had found on one of the Gaza flotilla ship more than 1 million euros, apparently to be delivered to Hamas. The report, on Channel 2, said that weapons had been discovered as well."

Stay tuned.

[B Kleitz]

02:12 AM on 06/05/2010

Not enough money nor weapons(yeah, right) as far as I'm concerned.
FREE PALESTINE!!!!
By whatever means necessary!!!

[nukemind]

02:52 PM on 06/01/2010

So is a former US ambassador also a terrorist? Let's see the spinmeisters work this one.

Maybe, just maybe, there is a turning tide in all of this and it's Israel's doing. Not content with getting their way most of the time, they have grown extremely arrogant and confident that the US will shield them from everything. After all they criminally attacked Lebanon, a sovereign state so why not keep it going by choking Gaza and killing peace activists with humanitarian aid as well? Time for a change in this country. Big time.

[jgarbuz]

03:49 PM on 06/01/2010

"Change" away.

[alexa07]

05:39 PM on 06/02/2010

nukemind,
Yes to everything you said.

[Edmund Black]

02:15 PM on 06/01/2010

The boat activists had on board equipment for water well drilling and typical hardware store tools, They did not plan nor intend to be treated as enemies of the state of Israel.
Oppressive Military Aggression; The U.S. has recently progressively changed Israel's economic aid to direct military aid. This is used to dispossess people from their legal land and homes deliberately and incessantly. Military attacks with American military hardware used to destroy neighborhoods are disengaged only to build illegal segregated settlements at a more hurried pace. They have surrounded areas with 4m high walls that create a concentration camp reality where water is extremely rationed to 2 hours. The present reality is far worse that Apartheid of S. Africa. It is this, that the activists were and are working.
Media coverage is filtered, for example; a drive by child shooting captured by news agencies was later deleted due to pro-Israel filtering as the victim was Arab. This kind of filtering is done by the U.S. newspapers, radio and TV News to show the story of the Israeli victims, but in a disproportionate distribution gives coverage to the Israel children or adults vs Arabs who are under represented in the news.
The ending of the U.S. Israel alliance would show the world we are just. We are their last friend and last ally. Become active citizens, get up and vote, become active politically, protect your loved ones and be secure in your effects.
End US Israel Alliance

[jgarbuz]

02:47 PM on 06/01/2010

There is no alliance between Israel and the US, so there is nothing to end. There never was an alliance, so this myth of an alliance for is mutual convenience. The US began to call Israel "an ally" during the Cold War when the Soviet Union was arming the Arab states and in effect, threatening oil and other interests in that part of the world. When Israel successfully defeated the Soviet backed Arab armies, and even shot down Russian piloted planes, then the US began to see Israel as a possible asset.
Today the Soviet threat is gone. However, a new threat is emerging, under the noses of a lot people who are not paying attention. Sec'y of State Gates stated the other day that Iranian missile may be able to reach US soil by 2015, or another 5 years. A nuclear armed Iran hovering over half the world's oil supplies maybe the next great challenge the US has to face. Israel does not need Arab oil. It has just discovered lots of natural gas off its shores. Even Russia recently has been waking up to the reality of what a nuclear armed Iran might mean next to its borders. Israel has been at the forefront of solar energy, antiballistic missile, and UAV technology for a long time, and the US has invested in Israeli technology by financing the Arrow ABM system, for example, which it gets the rights to as a result of this financing.

[11907281]

05:10 PM on 06/01/2010

I remember reading an article on Haaretz about how tone deaf the IDF PR commando's were. They said one of the main things that would tip a person off was odd and random insertion of inventions and tech advancements that Israel is responsible for on posts that were completely off topic. You will change no opinions with the same old tired talking points. Actions speak louder than talking points and on Monday your actions spoke volumes. I am still sending you my love in hopes that one day we can be brothers again. Hugs and kisses

[jgarbuz]

01:01 PM on 06/01/2010

Ladies and Gentleman, this propaganda war against Israel in the end will FAILl as miserably as all the wars and terror have failed to dislodge and destroy the Jewish State. Israel is strong, and its economy is robust, and it is staying right where it is, and all this propaganda will not yield one tiny teensy little thing. The only thing that will ever result in any kind of progress toward peace, is full recogntion by all 56 Muslim states in the right of the Jewish State to exist in peace.
All the rest is lips flapping in the wind. Only full recognition of Jewish rights to Jewish land will end in compromise and peace. Nothing else is going to work, so forget it.

[JessCostello]

01:23 PM on 06/01/2010

I would say it's become pretty darn effective. They are painting the Israeli military and intelligence as a bunch of screwups with deadly weapons who don't understand the world has changed. It's kind of an interesting tag seeing that the Israeli's own propaganda was that they are the world's best commandos and intelligence agents.

[jgarbuz]

01:33 PM on 06/01/2010

Israel has no such propaganda. That is all Rambo style nonsense, where only in Hollywood is war so beautiful and perfect. And we Jews know the world "changes" all the time. As my dear departed mother, a Holocaust survivor, taught me long ago: TIMES MAY CHANGE BUT PEOPLE DON'T!!! We've seen every empire come and go, from Assyria to the British. The world is always changing, but people remain the same. Evolution is not as rapid as tectonic socioeconomic shifts. SO the wind blows, hot and cold, back and forth, but the main thing is, we are here and we ain't going anywhere anymore.

[Perry Winkler]

01:47 PM on 06/01/2010

Propaganda? You mean they didnt really kill 10 people? Great!!!

No one is out to get you, but we are going to make you abide by the rules, and Im pretty sure that after this support for Israel will wane and you wont be getting as many neat cool toys to torture your neighbors with.

[Deparis]

12:57 PM on 06/01/2010

Oh so a former US Ambassador has joined the ranks of terrorists? I thought that all those aid activists were terrorists with links to al qaeda and hamas? Oh, wait... I got that from Radio Tel Aviv and the hasbara crowd on huffpost.

[AMIRISH]

11:55 PM on 06/10/2010

Well, he certainly is a terrorist sympathizer. They are speaking of Ed Peck who says that
Hezbollah and Hamas are not terrorist even though the State Dept. list them as such. He finally admits as much after he has been asked the questions several times and hedged on answering.
Listen to this guy and read what he has written and form your own opinion.

[Firbolg]

12:17 PM on 06/01/2010

For anyone who remembers a TV program called “Burke’s Connections” back in the 70s there is a new episode brewing here.
The Republic of Ireland and Israel were created at around the same time. Eamon de Valera was one of the leaders of the Easter rebellion in 1916 in Ireland, but was spared when all the others were executed by the British because he was a US citizen – receiving preferential treatment as did Ed Peck. De Valera went on to become Prime Minister and, later President of Ireland. He became a friend of the first chief rabbi of Ireland, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Hertzog’s son, Chiam was born in Northern Ireland. Chiam had a distinguished career in the British Army – the army that Israeli insurgents fought against before gaining independence (same as the IRA in Ireland) before he becoming President of Israel in 1983 – serving for 10 years.
Maraid Corrigan Maguire is now on the 'Rachel Corrie” headed for Gaza. She received a Nobel Peace prize for her efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland, Chiam Herzog’s birthplace.

[jgarbuz]

12:29 PM on 06/01/2010

Yes, the Irish Free State came about after a great insurgency against the British occupation, that had been going on for centuries, and the famous Michael Collins carried out many Irgun-style attacks on the British. But while Collins was prepared for compromise, DeVelara was less so. The Jews reluctantly accepted partition of their promised Jewish state with the Arabs, but the IRA never accepted the partition of Ireland that left the northern counties in the hands of the UK and its Protestant majority. The continued terror operations after the creation of the independent Irish Republic by the IRA thus loses a great deal of its justification. Even the Likud has reluctantly accepted the partition of the homeland with the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, but the problem is that the Arabs continue to refuse to accept the right of the Jewish state to exist. And that is the essence of the conflict.

[jgarbuz]

12:39 PM on 06/01/2010

One major difference between Israel and Ireland. The Jews reluctantly accepted partition of the promised Jewish state, which according to the League of Nations was supposed to include all the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan river, the IRA never accepted the partition of Ireland with the UK and the Protestant majority, remaining in control up there. But even the Likud, now headed by Netanyahu, has accepted partition, but Hamas certainly has not. HAMAS, like the "real IRA" continues in its terrorist path of refusing to accept the Jewish state and keeps working for its "inevitable" dissolution.

[Firbolg]

01:12 PM on 06/01/2010

Actually, I believe it’s a similarity, not a difference.
In both cases the imposed settlers, Jews in Israel and Unionists in Northern Ireland, accepted partition that they felt gave them numerical superiority, whereas the locals rejected it and continued to work for unification – with violence a major element. Thankfully in Ireland the violence is now confined to extreme fringe groups due to the efforts of people like Maraid Corrigan Maguire, politicians like UK’s Major and Blair, Irelands Reynolds and Ahern, pragmatic Sinn Fein and Unionist supporters and a succession of recent US presidents and many others who committed themselves wholeheartedly and sincerely to meaningful negotiations.
We all hope the same will eventually be true for Israel also.

[taratata2009]

11:03 AM on 06/01/2010

he is lucky to be alive: the israeli barbaric gov likes to kill americans, like they did with the heroic Rachel Corey.

[JustinKase]

10:54 AM on 06/01/2010

I'm afraid I missed the part about why Israel takes a US citizen off the boat and ships him home. And also the part about the US outcry. I seem to have missed a lot here.

[max hp]

11:29 AM on 06/01/2010

Why aren't ALL of them released ?

When is the US going to step up ?

[jgarbuz]

12:41 PM on 06/01/2010

Maybe they'll be released when Hamas releases Corporal Shalit who they been holding for about 3 years now.

[ItsAD]

11:41 AM on 06/01/2010

Maybe he's not brown enough to be held in an Israeli prison.

[JessCostello]

01:29 PM on 06/01/2010

Oh don't start that b.s. universal "brown" struggle against evil whitey.

[suzc]

10:01 AM on 06/01/2010

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, youngest Nobel Peace prize winner, was on board an Irish ship in the flotilla. She's a truly lovely woman. The Swedish author of the Inspector Wallander mysteries was on a Swedish ship in the flotilla. And the Israelis attacked a Turkish ship. One would think Israel has become so rabid and irrational it can no longer recognize its friends! (One of the symptoms, to me, of irrationality brought on by a stupid self-centeredness, is the inability to discern friend from foe; I've noticed it in politics for years.) What would happen if the US fired on an Irish or Swedish or Turkish vessel, do you think? Or on an Israeli or Palestinian vessel for that matter? Israel used to have the best trained and most competent army and commandos on the planet. But it also used to have a semblance of decent politicians. Whether the blockade is legal, this action is clearly way over the top. What were they thinking?? Why didn't they just ask Turkey if the ships had been checked for weapons? (Not steak knives, or any other knife for that matter; can you imagine going to sea without a knife?)

[floodmfx]

10:49 AM on 06/01/2010

Mairead Corrigan is one the ship that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow

[suzc]

11:47 AM on 06/01/2010

Sorry, yes, you're right; I just saw that her ship had been separated from the flotilla. Now I'm really praying hard for that ship's safety.

[SunnyEU]

09:43 AM on 06/01/2010

Well, next time when some of your friends or USA citizens would be blown to peaces in NY or other city, remember how coolly and ignorant USA government is treating Israelis killing of innocent Turks and Greeks.

Fair game if you protect murderess goons and thugs like Israelis.

God I had much more respect for Americans and there policies before.

I am very very disappointed!!!

[suzc]

10:02 AM on 06/01/2010

I doubt Israel asked the US if this was okay.

[floodmfx]

10:58 AM on 06/01/2010

Israel doesnt have to ask - and they know it.

The USA pays for the helicopters used in the raid. They prevent the UN from issuing a strongly worded statement.

Israel can make a fool out the the US Vice President in the middle of a press conference, and nothing will change. Israel can break international law and commit terrible oppression, because they know the US will cover for them.

[Sogno]

11:09 AM on 06/01/2010

sunnyeu,
HOW NAIVE AND ARROGANT CAN YOU BE ?
DID SEPTEMBER 11 HAPPENED BECAUSE OF ISRAEL? WAKE UP!!!!!!!
ALSO, ISRAEL DID THE RIGHT THING. YOU DO NOT LIKE IT? GET OVER IT!!!!!

[suzc]

11:48 AM on 06/01/2010

No. Israel did not do the right thing. Unless you mean "right" in the sense of Dick Cheney's war machine. Be honest.

[floodmfx]

12:38 PM on 06/01/2010

LOL - your response is a classic.

Capitol letters and ten exclamation points.
A child throwing a temper tantrum -

that fits perfectly with your defense of Israel -

[AtheistMaximus]

09:09 AM on 06/01/2010

Chevy Chase has a town named after him? That's awesome.

[alexiskapadia]

08:43 AM on 06/01/2010

my oh my how can the US win and look good in the global community. Mr Rahm-Emanuel dual citizen . What side is his bread buttered on. Check out his geaneology. Deep rooted Terry Wrist ism.

[JessCostello]

01:34 PM on 06/01/2010

Terry Wrist, yes that's the way to get Americans on your side. Terry Wrists, we're just a bunch of bumpkins overreacting to some misunderstood Muslim "activists."

[alexiskapadia]

08:39 AM on 06/01/2010

oh me oh my!!! we will let US peoples go. Cause we are the good guys. Who is rahm-emanuel