Another world

After the world ridiculed his most recent ploy to delay the peace process again -- a second Middle East peace conference like the one held in Madrid in 1991 -- Netanyahu apparently lost touch and turned on Egypt. "Egypt should exercise caution before commenting," he said in response to President Mubarak's announcement that Netanyahu's Madrid-2 proposal was merely an attempt to get rid of all agreements reached since 1991.

We need not respond here to Netanyahu's accusations,; Israeli President Ezer Weizman, the man who fought in all the wars against the Arabs since Israel's creation and who is now a firm supporter of the creation of an independent Palestinian state, has said enough. "Bibi lives in a state of euphoria, in his own world, cut off from reality," Weizman says. "The nation does not know where the prime minister is leading it," he added. Even Weizman confirms a complaint repeated by all the high-ranking officials of the world's nations who have met the Israeli premier: Netanyahu never fulfils the promises he makes behind closed doors. He says one thing one day, and does the opposite a few hours later, thinking he can fool everyone and come out on top. But even the most cynical diplomats have limits.

Weizman also admitted that "in foreign policy, Israel is growing more and more isolated." This is no coincidence.

US diplomats, speaking off the record of course, make no secret of the fact that they are totally fed up with Netanyahu. So is the Israeli public. In an opinion poll published in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Tuesday, 50 per cent of those surveyed said they wanted early elections; only 39 per cent opposed the idea.

Everyone is fed up with Mr Netanyahu. The only way out for him is to change his hard-line policies -- not very likely -- or to resign.