David Trimble to be Israel observer on Gaza flotilla inquiry
By: Patrick Roberts | Published Thursday, June 17, 2010, 6:57 PM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:42 PM
David Trimble will be one of the two foreign observers on the Israeli government investigative committee which will examine
Israeli Defence Forces actions against the
Gaza flotilla ships.
That is a little like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
Trimble has a Nobel Prize for helping bring about the
Good Friday Agreement in
Northern Ireland but his bona fides on Israeli issues are suspect to say the least.
He is known to be close to Dore Gold, a close associate of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indeed, Trimble recently joined the "Friends of
Israel" initiative which was launched in
Paris some weeks ago.
He is about as unbiased on Israel as he is on Ulster unionism.
With his Nobel Prize he offers some clever camouflage for the Israeli inquiry into what went on when the troops landed on board a Turkish boat and nine Turks were killed
But he is utterly biased.
Unionists in Northern Ireland overwhelmingly associate with Israel while nationalists associate with the Palestinians.
You will see Israeli flags in many Loyalist neighborhoods, as the sense of a siege mentality, and surrounded by enemies runs deep in both the Israeli and Unionist mindsets.
The fact that there is an Irish dimension to the flotilla, involving another Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire and activists who have ties to Northern nationalism, further weakens Trimble's stance as an unbiased observer.
His instinctive sense will be to side with Israeli authorities.
In that respect his detractors will see him playing the role of a useful idiot to an inquiry that seems highly unlikely to find the Israeli forces at fault.
Maybe Trimble will surprise but I doubt it.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Paradigm | Aug 09, 2010, 04:50 AM EDT
So - if philosophical, academic and courageous political realist David Trimble is "utterly biased" Mr Patrick Roberts, what, I have to ponder, does that make you? Surely it's time to get the monkey off your shoulder. Southtyrone.
shuvonn | Jun 24, 2010, 05:02 PM EDT
Trimble didn't win a nobel prize, he shared one with John Hume :-)
Fatherpat | Jun 24, 2010, 09:01 AM EDT
All ready now lads for the whitewash. Where's the bucketz and the sack o lime? Jolson O Bama, the White house janitor swabbed the decks of the Mavi Marmara free of all those terrorists' blood, now comes the apartheid Nobel winner from the Six Counties to get on with the paint job. Maybe Tony Blair the "peace" envoy to ghetto Palestine can earn another million bucks for services to xion by putting his stained thumbprint on whatever worthless document this pack of clowns comes up with. Either way the world knows murder and pillage when IOF pirates strike in international waters. Trimble will rue the day he was suckered into this Goebells project. And as for peace prizes and the upside down values of a world gone totally wrong..why not give Blair one too and Pegleg Net N Yahoo while we're on the farcical topic.
Monsoonman | Jun 18, 2010, 09:38 PM EDT
I see you tremble at the mention of trimble. Is this a bit over the top? The guy just said he is going for a boatride(not Sicilian style) and you have spun yourselves into a fever....Let the drama play out first.
moygannon | Jun 18, 2010, 12:47 AM EDT
It's amazing what politicans will do to get recognized, even going into harms way. He will achieve nothing except what israel wants.
citizen69 | Jun 16, 2010, 12:04 PM EDT
Will he be impartial? I doubt it. It would be like if Hamas asked Gerry Adams to hold an impartial inquiry on the incident, of course they're going to be biased as they don't have a neutral stance on the subject.
shuvonn | Jun 16, 2010, 07:21 AM EDT
David Trimble was a member of the Ulster Vanguard which had close ties with loyalist paramilitary groups.
WoundedKnee | Jun 16, 2010, 06:24 AM EDT
Realist: How many times do you need to be told? Trimble is not impartial. He is even a member of a group called "Freinds of Israel". The community he used to represent--the Loyalists of Northern Ireland-- is perhaps the only group of people outside the US which gives kneejerk support to everything Israel does. You'll even see the Israeli flag flying in Loyalist areas. Incidentally, acording to today's Irish Times, two weeks now after the Israelis stole the goods on the aid flotilla and promised to pass them on to Gaza, not one thing has been given to Gaza. Thieves!
shuvonn | Jun 16, 2010, 05:40 AM EDT
Sure ya might as well be talking to a 4X2
Realist | Jun 16, 2010, 04:59 AM EDT
shuvonn: Lol....what has any of that got to do with Trimble? Therefore, I will ask again....would someone please explain what Trimble has done that merits this vitriol?
CullenAbroad | Jun 15, 2010, 09:13 PM EDT
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing…" Albert Einstein
shuvonn | Jun 15, 2010, 11:28 AM EDT
DO you have any basic understanding of the word *IMPARTIAL* MEANS? And what this supposed *INQUIRY* represents? It's bad enough that Israel denied the worlds, the U.N. etc calls for that inquiry at first, and now to add insult to injury they have appointed someone with an OBVIOUS bias and someone who will NEVER be impartial, his unionist roots make him biased to begin with, he was BORN and BRED that way... N.I. Breeds their kids that way and that's on BOTH sides. I will never forget arrest of the PROTESTANT LUNATIC who was arrested for the Trick or Treat murders in Greysteel, as he was being brought in I witnessed RABIDLY hateful remarks from protestant MOTHERS with children in their arms screaming that it was a pity that HE did not KILL more Catholics, they were too stupid to know he had also shot protestants in his rampage, and I will never forget, how shocked I was and how that really showed me that it is INBRED on BOTH sides up the North...
Realist | Jun 15, 2010, 11:09 AM EDT
Would someone please explain what Trimble has done that merits this vitriol? I, for one, am at a loss.
maryosullivan | Jun 15, 2010, 09:40 AM EDT
Just when you think Israel has reached the bottom of the swamp they go one step lower and choose Trimble Israel will bring the wrath of the world down on itself and they time Israel will have earned it.
shuvonn | Jun 15, 2010, 07:38 AM EDT
So hard for some to actually see and accept truth. They did not want this inquiry. It will not achieve anything, the *observers* have no power. Being critical of the article because it does point to obvious bias, is only a bait and switch. Like I said, its like appointing Judas to oversee an inquiry into the last supper...
Realist | Jun 15, 2010, 07:18 AM EDT
Israeli flags fy in many Loyalist neighborhoods therefore Trimble is not unbiased....lol. It is the author who makes little effort to hide his anti-Unionist bias. This is like an article in a school magazine for pity's sake.
shuvonn | Jun 15, 2010, 06:27 AM EDT
LOL it's a pointless appointment alright, they are merely observers to the investigation the Israelis did not want to have happen but it is transparent that it is a sham when a person with such a hateful past and history against Irish nationalism is appointed. His hands are tied (NOT like the hands of the people kidnapped in international waters) but he has NO power but even his observations will be biased.
IrishAndProud | Jun 14, 2010, 10:18 PM EDT
And btw...if appointing Trimble is 'irrelevant,' as you repeatedly say in your posts below, then why all of a sudden is it like 'appointing Judas' to do so? Apparently another case where you cannot make up your mind, shuvonn. Does Trimble matter, or doesn't he?
IrishAndProud | Jun 14, 2010, 10:14 PM EDT
Perhaps the same with a person like yourself, shuvonn.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 07:26 PM EDT
Appointing David Trimble to oversee this inquiry is like appointing Judas to oversee an inquiry into the last supper...
SydWalker | Jun 14, 2010, 06:28 PM EDT
Like Tony Vliar's sinecure, this 'job' for Trimble is essentially just another case of welfare for the very well-off. The US or EU taxpayer will doubtless pay the bill. Just another way of transferring wealth from the poor to the rich, so the will of the outraged majority can be flouted in the style to which these Apartheid apologists have become accustomed.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 06:20 PM EDT
Joining *friends of Isreal* makes him unbiased in YOUR opinion IRISHANDPROUD???? The *OBSERVERS* have NO power anyway, another waste and cover up...
IrishAndProud | Jun 14, 2010, 03:25 PM EDT
Patrick, you write that Trimble is 'utterly biased.' Are you therefore (by inferred contrast) NOT 'utterly biased,' yourself? Trimble may be biased in favor of Israel (I don't really know), but you are CERTAINLY biased in favor of the Arabs. That's the inherent weakness of pointing out someone else's 'bias'; you're trying to make it look as if THEY are the only biased ones, but your OWN views are of course NOT 'bias'; they're just the 'way things are.' That doesn't work, Patrick. We all have our biases and opinions, but let's not even by inference pretend that we're somehow above it ourselves, and that it's only the 'other side' who's biased (which is not necessarily a bad thing, by the way). It's impossible NOT to be biased toward or against things. It's part of being human. We have our opinions based on our beliefs, and we go with it.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 11:38 AM EDT
It actually makes no difference as it has been made clear that the two international observers will have no bearing on the findings anyway, looks like another waste of tax payers money. Does not matter WHOM he sides with....
CanadianPat | Jun 14, 2010, 10:11 AM EDT
Trimble is pro-Isreal (as and when it suits him),like most loyalist he sees that excusing Isreal's aggression excuses past British aggression.That makes him a very poor choise indeed!
Strongbow | Jun 14, 2010, 10:03 AM EDT
In this instance it is obvious that Patrick Roberts is the "utterly biased" one. Who is he to speak for the whole nationalist community by declaring that they support the palestinian cause. Only the most hardened Irish terrorist would support the campaign of suicide attacks perpetrated by Hamas, PLO, Al-Aqsa, etc., yet Patrick Roberts has no qualms about aligning Irish Nationalists with these groups.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 09:26 AM EDT
You think the Irish need to get over the obsession of backing terrorists? Israel has indeed the right to protect their homeland, BUT that RIGHT does NOT extend into International Waters or UAE with stolen passports. That is not protecting your country or your citizens that is acting like a rogue state. You anti Muslim BIAS is blatant, just like Trimble's anti nationalist bias was obvious during his time in office.
bonbon1 | Jun 14, 2010, 08:43 AM EDT
I think it would be a wonderful thing if the Irish could get over are obsession with backing terrorists and terrorism.Israel has been the homeland of the jewish people for over five thousand years(check the old testament) and they deserve their home land just as much as we Irish.Everywhere the muslims go they're trouble.The muslims control half the world and no muslim country will take in the paleistinans. Do you know why? Ask Scotland Yard and they can give you thousands of reasons.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 08:39 AM EDT
His joining the friends of Israel initiative does not make it look as if he is capable of being unbiased in this case. His rabid hatred of nationalists has been pretty well documented in his time in office. Why should we take his nobel peace prize seriously if Mairead Corrigan's was belittled by some of the pro-Israelis on this board? Lets be fair now :-)
Realist | Jun 14, 2010, 08:18 AM EDT
WoundedKnee: Why is having Nobel Peace Laureate Lord Trimble as a Human Rights Observer a "joke"? Please explain.
SydWalker | Jun 14, 2010, 08:03 AM EDT
Suppose Turkey invaded an Israeli ship in international waters and killed Israelis on board. On the precedent now set by Israel, Turkey would be entitled to investigate the killing. Clearly that wouldn't happen. Israel is behaving like a law unto itself. It's time for an international boycott of this vile, worse-than-Apartheid rogue State.
WoundedKnee | Jun 14, 2010, 07:52 AM EDT
Trimble as a Human Rights Observer? What a joke! More proof that the Israeli "enquiry" is a farce.
shuvonn | Jun 14, 2010, 06:04 AM EDT
It was never going to be an unbiased inquiry anyway, but it is less likely now.
Realist | Jun 14, 2010, 04:36 AM EDT
Lol....this piece is yet another example of the all too predictable anti-British, anti-Unionist, anti-Protestant line trotted out for what passes for journalism on this website. Honestly, I'm surprised someone hasn't drawn horns on Trimble's head....lol.