Former Senator George Mitchell will certainly bring the good wishes of all Irish Americans with him as he embarks on his Middle East trip to try and fashion a peace framework in Palestine and Israel. Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are veterans of the Northern Irish peacemaking efforts that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement. Mitchell was a little unfortunate that he missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize on that occasion, as it was shared between John Hume of the SDLP and David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader. He was said to be quite disappointed that his incredible role of peacemaker was not acknowledged. No doubt on this occasion Mitchell will be hoping he can pull off the nearly impossible and get a workable solution in the Middle East. If he does, no doubt he would be in the front rank of contenders for the Nobel Prize.