I was hoping someone would bring up the new French ambassador thing. I couldn't be bothered to look for an English language link myself. So Allison has kindly obliged. Laurence too.

France's newly-appointed ambassador to Israel described Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) as a "lout" and said the Jewish state was "paranoid" during a recent cocktail party in Paris, the Yediot Aharonot reported.

[…]

A correspondent for Yediot Aharonot, Boaz Bissmuth, said he had overhead a conversation between Araud and two other veteran diplomats in the gardens of the French foreign ministry in Paris.

You'll remember Israeli journalist Boaz Bismuth from Yediot Aharonot. He's one of the two idiot Israelis who galloped into Iraq with the American troops at the height of the war without any authorization, and were enraged and indignant when the American soldiers, on discovering that they were stowaways, as it were, arrested them and treated them rather badly. Trust him to eavesdrop on other people's private conversations at cocktail parties and then publish their content in the paper. Not that it makes the things said by the person in question any better, but it's the new French ambassador, for goodness sake, you know, representing France. Did anyone really expect him to actually be pro-Israel?

I see the London Telegraph has an opinion piece on this affair.