Politicians' diplomatic guard can slip during election campaigns, as Mr Ariel Sharon has reminded us in the last couple of days. He said in an interview that the road map prepared by the European Union with the United States, the United Nations and Russia - the so-called Quartet group - is "nothing!
Don't take it seriously! I don't think the United States takes it seriously." Despite official clarifications, this seems an all too accurate account of what Mr Sharon believes. And if the Israeli opinion polls are to be trusted he will win another mandate to rule in a week's time based upon this policy.
Mr Sharon dismissed the Quartet's plan, which calls for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to be reopened, based on parallel reforms, including the appointment of a prime minister on the Palestinian side and a freeze on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The perspective would be to reach an agreement for a Palestinian state by 2005.
By contrast Mr Sharon supports an alternative plan, providing for the complete sidelining of Mr Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority, the immediate appointment of a prime minister to take power from him, the crushing of militant opposition to Israel in a demilitarised Palestinian area, and a period of prolonged calm. Only then would final talks open.
Mr Sharon believes the US supports such a policy, which is accurately described by the Israeli Labour Party leader as "no to peace, no to territorial compromise and no to agreement with the Palestinians". In fact the US has not gone that far; but the Bush administration has refused to participate in any initiative ahead of the Israeli elections, allowing Mr Sharon to scupper Mr Tony Blair's efforts. More important, its most hawkish members have no intention of seeing pressure put on Israel ahead of the attack they are planning on Iraq. After this is successfully completed, they believe, it will be easier to recast the Middle East in such a way as to ensure Israeli predominance in any new regional order.
Mr Sharon plays happily into this policy arena, increasingly confident of getting his way. He feels he has nothing to lose by attacking the Europeans. In doing so he exposes their inability to put concerted pressure on the Quartet to reactivate its plans, much less to influence the US in a co-ordinated fashion on Iraq. This is a dangerous state of affairs, since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is much more likely to intensify if it is not tackled immediately.