BBC; Abbas; Sharon. He who lives by BBC news "truth" has his head up the same famous ass. The only way to assure getting it is looking at diverse news sources, not only a cluster of specific coloration. I am no Sharon lover, but the guy has seen the light, and is fighting furiously against right-wing idiots to reach an equitable agreement with the Palestinians for a two-state solution. Do you read about sprayed grafitti all over Israel saying: "We killed Rabin, we can kill Sharon"? Have you read about the internal struggle going on? This may still end up as two civil wars, one among Israelis, one among Palestinians. How would Phookie-Sharon handle a barrage of over 50 mortar rounds raining on a settlement in Gaza in one night during a "ceasefire"? How would Phookie explain this to those Israelis who claim the Palestinians are lying, and the withdrawal from Gaza should be cancelled? Abbas did not call Sharon's bluff. He was trying to save face after having committed his forces with a writen agreement to stop mortars attacks en-route to unilateral Isareli withdrawal (Sharon's unpopular idea). I went onto the BBC Website, and found the following, which may change your mind, maybe. As to Sharon, he still followed through with his promises, even opening border crossings (after 2 years) for Palestinian workers the morning after the attack. His only real response was to delay a preestablished negotiation by 24 hours. I call it mild. BTW, NPR called it "a mortar attack" in a 10-word piece of news that made it sound like an exceptional, one-round mistake; not a word about a coordinated, 50-rounds attack with no Israeli military response.