Most Notable Diplomatic Posture Since Churchill Nagged Stalin At Yalta In 1945

Ariel Sharon joined the ranks of history's finest negotiators yesterday after promising to hound Hamas into supporting a Mideast peace agreement. In doing so, Sharon joined the ranks of the elite few who have successfully nudged the opposition party into signing a treaty -- or even into what some might call "extreme compromises." The tactic has only been used by some of history's greatest leaders.

A few famous examples:

1066 - The Badgering of Hastings: William the Conqueror harangues the Saxons until Harold II agrees to yield the English crown.

1190 B.C. - Odysseus hectors Aeneas into withdrawing from Troy and possibly Helen.

215 B.C. - Hannibal needles Philip of Macedonia, taunting him with elephants until he allies with Carthage.

1865 - Grant bullyrags Lee at Appomattox.

1876 - Custer pesters Sitting Bull at Little Big Horn. (considered to have been a mistake)

1914 - Extreme razzing of Archduke Ferdinand by Slav Gavrilo Princip (could I make this name up?) leads to World War I.

1941 - Roosevelt mercilessly heckles Hirohito until he resigns from World War II. (Some consider dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki a factor.)