Peck: Flotilla raid was 'highly suspect'

Thank you blaze1024 for this seed

Yes, it is getting ridicules! Israel expects from the whole world to stop and guarantee its security only.

General Petraeus was right in his concerns, although not so late, of the ever critical situation in the Arab region and openly questioning Israel’s value as a strategic ally. As long the legal rights of the dispossessed Palestinian generations remain unfulfilled this will remain an open wound for extremists and non extremists to fight for.

President Clinton once said: “It is the economy stupid”.

Now, “It is Palestine stupid”.

Israel was acting legally, under the San Remo memorandum, when it boarded the ship. Israelis were using rubber bullets/paintball guns but no live firearms, at least not at first. Maybe the flotillists (for want of a better word) mistook that for live fire. Shouldn't have done - paintball guns do not make the same noise/flash as firearms. And there was no confusion, or at least no response, on the other ships where there were fewer flotillists with known terrorist links.

Did the flotillists have the "right" to "defend" themselves, even under the misapprehension they were being threatened by live firearms? In all the circumstances, I would have to say it was extremely unwise or disingenuous of them to physically resist the boarding. They knew the score. Had been warned repeatedly. Knew the risks. The sensible thing in those circumstances (if safety took precedence over headlines, as it should) would be to duck or keep very still - be seen to offer no resistance.

Clubbing boarders in a legal boarding action, after due warning, is a recipe for casualties and tragedy. It really is no good blaming Israel who had no better choices in the circumstances presented to them.

If any more ships try the same thing Israel will do the same thing in response. They have to. Allowing the blockade to be defeated is the same as allowing Israel to be defeated by Iran/Syria. Israel can in no way contemplate it unless it goes mad and decides to commit military suicide.

If people really think that there is a need to improve the welfare situation in Gaza then there are land-based options which will achieve it.

Dennis M Wright:

Israel was acting legally, under the San Remo memorandum, etcetera, etcetera and etcetera

Looks like you depend in your argument only on the non-legally binding San Remo Memorandum to justify the Israeli high seas hijack. That was the official response of the Israeli propaganda line these days. The rogue state of Israel is cherry picking when it comes to memorandums and resolutions of the United Nations and Geneva Conventions and Human Rights Organisation.

As for the claims that the Israeli commandos being attacked by civilians, what is expected from a ship being attacked by armed high seas hijackers? If the Israelis had good intensions they could have not used their commandos in their bloody attack against peaceful ships carrying humanitarian aid to the 1.5 millions inhabitants of the prison of Gaza.

The former American ambassador Edward Peck was on the Gaza aid flotilla that came under attack by Israeli forces. At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded. Peck says Israel’s explanation for the attack is "twisting the truth" and is "as full of holes as a window screen."

Please read the full interview at:

http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/2882-ambassador-edward-peck.html

Thank you

Thanks blaze1024,

It was seeded:

And here is another one from Phoenix Woman on June 1, 2010:

As Peck notes, in response to an Israeli spokesman’s saying that the poor put-upon trained IDF commandos attacking the flotilla had “paint guns” against people with pipes and whatnot, the commandos also had automatic weapons, pepper spray, tear gas and other things the people they attacked at four o’clock in the morning in international waters didn’t have. (Note, also, the interspersing of the same snippet of grainy and slickly-edited black-and-white IDF video with that of the last video taken and transmitted by the flotilla before the IDF shut down all transmissions and confiscated all recording and communications devices from the flotilla.

http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/former-us-ambassador-edward-pecks-eyewitness-account-of-the-idf-attack-on-the-freedom-flotilla/