Are there any terrorists so loathsome and foul, whose hands are so bloody, that even the French will shun them?

Don’t bother answering. It’s a rhetorical question.

French FM risks ire of Israel by meeting Arafat.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier will risk the ire of Israel this week by going ahead with a controversial visit to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his besieged West Bank headquarters.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, having declared Arafat an absolute obstacle to peace, has been trying to persuade European Union governments to follow the United States’ lead and cut off all contacts with his long-time enemy.

While his Italian and German counterparts Franco Frattini and Joschka Fischer both chose not to meet Arafat on recent trips to the region, Barnier has decided to pay a visit to the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday.

“It is extremely regrettable that the French government persists in seeing Arafat as a partner when there is a universal consensus that he is an obstacle to peace,” Sharon’s foreign policy advisor Zalman Shoval told AFP. …

Another source close to Sharon added that Barnier’s visit was a “serious mistake”. “This kind of meeting will not bring Arafat back to life as he is totally discredited,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It also does not help France advance the interests of the Palestinians as it’s clear to everyone that Arafat is an obstacle to peace.”

Shoval sought to play down the prospects of long-term damage to Franco-Israeli relations by saying the two countries’ differences “were already well known.” However, by choosing to go ahead with the visit to the Muqataa, Barnier has effectively blown any chance of meeting with Israeli leaders. Any foreign diplomat who visits Arafat is automatically denied any opportunity to meet Israeli officials on the same trip.