Double Standard?

And now the most telling two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

Freezing Events in Israel?
The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reports that Prime Minister Sharon told President Bush during his visit here that if the world tried to force a Palestinian state on Israel at this time, the result would inevitably be a call for new elections in Israel, which would freeze things as they are indefinitely. According to the paper, Sharon told the president, "As long as terrorism continues, I can't come and say I support the establishment of a Palestinian state. That will lead to my government being dissolved." Sharon presides over a fragile coalition government, whose collapse would give him little choice but to call an election.

Over to Ottawa
American anarchists who were headed up to Canada to protest against the upcoming G-8 summit were going to meet their fellow Canadian anarchists in Calgary, 60 miles from the summit site, have changed their plans. The U.S. anarchists have decided to do their protesting in Ottawa instead. The reason: The Canadian anarchists were just too disorganized. American anarchist Grant Hayes of Salinas, Kan., told the Calgary Herald, "Calgary has been badly planned, so everyone is pulling out and going to Ottawa. You need strong organization for a protest."

U.N. Battles Hunger Over Lunch?
The U.N. world food summit, whose purpose is to fight global hunger, is meeting in Rome where the 3,000 delegates marked the opening day with a lunch served by 170 Italian waiters. The menu for the summit leaders included Foie Gras on toast, lobster in a vinaigrette sauce and fillet of goose. And among those leaders was Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, whose policies are widely blamed for worsening the starvation that afflicts an estimated $3 million people in his country.

Missing Statue Finds Way Back Home
That General Accounting Office report out yesterday that said outgoing Clinton administration staffers had done about $20,000 worth of vandalism at the White House also noted that a previously unreported missing statue had been returned. The statue, a bust of Abraham Lincoln, had vanished, said the report, and was later found at Al Gore's home. The New York Post quoted an ex-Gore staff member as saying aides had inadvertently packed it the bust, but that Gore returned it last July.