Sharon, and the bullets
Here's a story that wasn't exactly making headlines: ARIEL FACES GAUL-ING ARMS TWIST

How mixed up is the Mideast these days? So mixed up that the United States wants the Israelis to give bullets to their good friends — the Palestinians.

And to persuade the Israelis to do this, the Bush administration enlisted the help of its good friends — the French.

The American position is that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas needs all the help he can get in his power struggle with Palestinian terrorists.
. . .
But the big surprise came this week in Paris, when Sharon heard Jacques Chirac ask, "Why don't you strengthen President Abbas by giving ammunition — as the U.S. has been asking you?"

Sharon was also squeezed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

What Sharon told them was: "Why does Abbas need our bullets? He can get all he wants — by taking them away from Hamas."
. . .
Sharon replied that if Abbas finally reforms his notoriously corrupt and inept security, then Israel will talk about bullets.

And just to make the point clear, he told Chirac about the latest Israeli victims: Dov and Rachel Kol, a Jerusalem couple slain last week by two gunmen — one of them a Palestinian policeman.

International diplomacy -- need I say more