No flak jacket in Sharon's size

AFP, October, 2004

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he is not wearing a flak jacket, despite potential threats on his life, because he could not find one large enough, public radio said.

"There is none that fits my size," the overweight premier was quoted as saying after someone in his entourage asked him why he was not wearing a bullet-proof vest.

Sharon also minimized the risk of extremist Jews attempting to harm or kill him in protest at his plan to dismantle Jewish settlements next year, the radio said.

"I'm not afraid because I've seen a lot during my long military carrier," he said as Israel was preparing to commemorate the 1995 assassination of premier Yitzhak Rabin by an extremist Jew for having signed the 1993 Oslo peace accord with the...