Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon has done it again -- he's humiliated the EU's top security chief, Javier Solana (Read about it here).

If you've been following the news, you are aware that the US has sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East in a renewed effort to implement the Quartet's so-called "Road Map" peace plan. The Quartet is made up of the US, the EU, the UN and Russia. 

However, Sharon has made it known that Israel doesn't trust the EU, the UN and Russia -- Israel only trusts the US. After all, if it wasn't for George W. Bush refusing to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority would have never made the recent attempt to clean up its act by appointing a new set of leaders the US could deal with. The fact is, neither Israel or the US think Arafat really wants to make peace.

The EU, on the other hand, still insists on dealing with Arafat. Although the EU also is smart enough to know that Arafat doesn't really want peace, the EU also understands that the real power in the Palestinian Authority remains with Arafat. In other words, what Arafat is doing -- stepping back and allowing the appointment of Abu Mazen as the new Palestinian Prime Minister -- is just for show. The reason I believe they know this is because this is the same type of ploy the EU builders themselves have been using for years.

So, when Washington announced that the US was sending Powell to the Middle East, Solana dropped everything and hurried to the region. Knowing that the US and Israel would like nothing more than to squeeze him and the other members of the Quartet out of the picture, Solana wanted to met with all the same officials ahead of Powell.

One of these officials Solana planed to met with was Arafat. When Sharon heard about Solana' plans to meet with Arafat, Sharon once again humiliated Solana by refusing to allow the meeting.

The reason I said once again is because this isn't the first time Sharon humiliated Solana in this fashion. The first time occurred back in April of 2002. Arafat was surrounded in his compound by Israeli forces and, as today, his survival as the Palestinian leader was in question.

The Spanish EU presidency decided that the Bush administration wasn't doing enough. At an emergency meeting, the EU head's decided to send Solana and a high-level delegation to settle the crises. When Solana arrived in Israel, not only did Sharon refuse to meet with him, Sharon didn't even allow him to meet with Arafat. Solana and his so-called "high-level" delegation was completely humiliated (Read story here)  (Read my commentary about it here).

And, now it's happened again.

Score two for Sharon!