Most people would not have even realised that the 23rd congress of the Socialist International was being held near Athens were it not for the moment when Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak shook the hand of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

An Associated Press report, published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, dubbed the handshake "historic". History was supposedly made in Athens on 1 July 2008. Centred in a photo, featuring a widely grinning Barak and Talabani, is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was credited for introducing the two.

The three individuals involved are members of political establishments that are largely funded and sustained by the US government. Both Abbas and Talabani are at the helm of puppet political structures that lack sovereignty or political will of their own, and are entirely reliant on scripts drafted in full or in part by the Bush administration.

As for Israel, which enjoys a more equitable relationship with the United States, normalisation with the Arabs is something it covets and tirelessly promotes, granted that such normalisation doesn't involve ending its occupation of the Palestinian territories, or any other concessions.

One might suggest the happenstance handshake and very brief meeting was not accidental at all. This is what Haaretz wrote, rewording Barak's comments on the handshake. He "said that Israel wished to extend its indirect peace talks with Syria to cover Iraq as well." That was a major political declaration by Israel -- one surely aimed at further isolating Iran, as Israel's newest moves regarding Syria, Lebanon and Gaza clearly suggest. But the fact is Israel's ever-careful leaders could make no such major political announcement without intense deliberation and consensus in the Israeli government prior to the "accidental" handshake.

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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/905/op6.htm