Israel Deploys Tactical Irish Nobel Laureate

It has to be deliberate! The Freedom Flotilla had the north of Ireland Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, so Israel has struck back with the the north of Ireland Nobel peace laureate David Trimble.

Trimble will act as an 'observer' to Israel's internal investigation into the assault on the flotilla and the deaths of nine people at the hands of Israeli commandos.

The BBC 's Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson says, with no apparent irony, "I suppose there will be some people, given unionists' historical link or reputation as friends of Israel, who will say that he isn't totally neutral". I supposed some people might, perhaps because Trimble is a supporter of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and in 2007, when launching a CFI report called "Misunderstanding Ulster," he claimed that majority in Israel wanted "accommodation," whereas Hamas wanted "victories".

Accommodation? Really? As in more land for building 'extra accommodation' for Israeli settlers?

Or perhaps Trimble's participation on 31 May in the founding in Paris of the international “Friends of Israel Initiative”- the very day that Israel attacked the flotilla heading for Gaza - might have raised more than a few eyebrows. This meeting was addressed by Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the UN and ex-advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as John Bolton, Bush’s UN henchman and staunch opponent of the International Criminal Court.

Trimble is joined in observing this farce by the Canadian Brigadier-General Ken Watkin, who in November refused to answer questions from a parliamentary committee of inquiry into rendition and torture of prisoners in Afghanistan. No wonder the Netanyahu government picked them both.