So the Nobel Peace Laureate, Lord Trimble, has been nominated by the Israelis to be an observer into the killings on the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the humanitarian effort to help break the blockade on Gaza.
An excellent choice if you ask me.
It’s probably coincidental that the findings of the Saville Enquiry into the killings on Bloody Sunday in January 1972 are to be published tomorrow. The Guardian newspaper had reminded us of what the former leader of UUP told Tony Blair, when the then-Prime Minister announced the setting up of Saville. Trimble warned Blair that any conclusion that departed “one millimetre” from the earlier 1972 Widgery report into the killings would lead to “soldiers in the dock”.
Surely if anyone is guilty of murder or “unlawful killing” the dock is exactly where they should end up and every effort should be made to get them there. It doesn’t matter what the time-frame is, The abhorrence of Trimble at seeing soldiers in the dock for killing unarmed civilians, rather than sympathy for the innocent victims, makes him the perfect candidate for the proposed Israeli PR exercise.