Israel, Mideast Foes in Historic Handshake at Vatican

[emad]

Fri Apr 8, 2005 10:16 AM EST
By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's president said he shook hands with the leaders of Syria and Iran at a Vatican funeral Friday when in his death Pope John Paul brought together Middle East foes as no man alive ever had.

Gathered with hundreds of international dignitaries, Israel's Moshe Katsav had historic chance encounters with President Bashar Assad of Syria, a country formally at war with the Jewish state, and President Mohammad Khatami of Iran.

A senior Israeli government official said it was too early to say whether the contacts, believed to be the first time an Israeli president had shaken hands with Syrian and Iranian leaders, would translate into future diplomacy.

There was no immediate comment from Iran or Syria on the encounters, first reported by Israel Radio. Nor was it clear whether they were captured on film or videotape.

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-04-08T151552Z_01_L08658617_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-POPE-ISRAEL-SYRIA-DC.XML

[booksenkatz]

1. Will * take credit for this?

Only if it works out well........ right?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. yup just like Reagan taking credit for bringing down the Berlin Wall...

when it was started several years before Reagan even desided to run for president by Pope JPII in 1977 in Poland(really years before that)!

[leftofcool]

2. Now, gentlemen, can we take that handhake...........

and apply it to to our respective foreign policies? Please!

Left of Cool

[Colorado Blue]

4. I'm not Catholic, not even Christian, but I cried when this

Pope died.

Maybe, if he is indeed in Heaven, he can help us heal our wounds.

We need some HELP already:)

[Voltaire99]

5. No tears here.

None to spare, I'm afraid, for homophobes, celibates cruelly meddling in the world's reproductive matters, or leaders of institutions that harbor sexual predators.

[Colorado Blue]

6. I hear that too. You'd think, after 1500 years, give or take,

Rome would figure out that discrimination is unChristian. But what do I know.

Like I said, I can't figure out my response - perhaps, his story, his youth in Poland, the challenges facing us all that faith and love CAN help - something touched me.

[Voltaire99]

7. Perfectly fair.

I understand. I am a softy for many things, and don't always know why. And you are right: love can help. Perhaps faith can, too; I wouldn't know.

[Colorado Blue]

8. I think, in a very real sense, the world runs on faith. Not so

much on "god", but on a sense that things will work, that the subway will run, the trucks will bring food, the rooster will crow in the morning and the hen will lay eggs.

If we thought about things rationally all the time, we'd never have emerged from the caves - we'd have gone, EEEEEEEKKKKKK, and remained in darkness. Indeed, many mornings, many times, I look at the world situation, and think, oh what the hell, what's the point even in trying. Then, today, I see a city of almost 4 million grow to a city of 8 million, overnight, and warring nations touched hands.

Just reaching out to each other, takes faith - and with the world shrinking as it has, and danger all around us, we need love, faith in the good things, so much:)

Peace!

[pissed_American]

9. very wise observation n/t

[nodehopper]

10. I suppose he will go to Heaven for all those deaths he caused in Africa?