The French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, lucky to escape from a hostile Palestinian university campus with only a minor head injury on Friday, has returned home to a verbal lashing from his President and political rival, Mr Jacques Chirac.
Mr Jospin's crime, at a time of acute tension in Israeli-Lebanese relations, was to brand attacks by the guerrillas of the Hizbullah movement on Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon as acts of "terrorism".
For the Israeli government, which yesterday spent no less than six hours in feverish debate about how to extricate the army from the "security zone" it occupies in Lebanon, Mr Jospin's comments were a welcome signal of new French sympathy, and a measure of consolation for the deaths of seven Israeli soldiers so far this year.
But for the Lebanese government and much of the Arab world, Mr Jospin was guilty of betrayal, of siding with an occupier rather than with the occupied.
And when, on Friday, the day after his condemnation of "Hizbullah attacks and any terrorist attacks" the Prime Minister visited the Birzeit University in the West Bank, he was pelted with rocks, had windows smashed on his car, and only escaped more serious injury because the security guards around him had the presence of mind to utilise briefcases as improvised riot shields.
Mr Jospin's host, the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, apologised to him, and ordered Birzeit shut for three days. But Lebanese and Syrian leaders shared the furious students' outrage at Mr Jospin's remarks, with Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Siba Nasser, accusing him of bias and of encouraging "Israeli aggression".
Mr Jospin had assured Mr Arafat that he remained "a friend to the Palestinians". But as one of the banners at the university campus reminded him, "From Birzeit to Beirut, We Are One People".
There were also demonstrations against him yesterday in Lebanon and the West Bank, and denunciation from the Hizbullah leadership.
Back home, the Prime Minister was telephoned by Mr Chirac, reprimanded and reminded that the President sets the tone for French foreign policy. The incident underlined the strain between the socialist Prime Minister and the conservative President, and has been seen by some French commentators as an early sign of a planned Jospin challenge for the Presidency.
Mr Jospin's comments were welcomed, however, by the French Jewish community. "France should have a moderate policy, reaching out to Palestinians, Arab countries and Israel alike. Lionel Jospin said this with a lot of courage, conviction and strength," Mr Henri Hajdenberg, a spokesman for the community, said.