No tango in Paris for Olmert and Assad

Two leaders' rendezvous in Paris ended on Monday with the two tantalizingly close, but in the end neither touching nor talking.

By HERB KEINON- JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
assad olmert 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
assad olmert 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
PARIS - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad's rendezvous in Paris ended on Monday with the two tantalizingly close, but in the end neither touching nor talking. At the conclusion of the annual Bastille Day Parade, Olmert and Assad stood about a meter apart on a grandstand set up at the Champs-Elysees, greeting other leaders but also obviously very aware of each other's presence. As Assad moved to his left, Olmert gravitated in that direction as well. All the while, Assad pretended Olmert wasn't there. At one point UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon motioned to Olmert to come shake Assad's hand, but Olmert raised his hands as if indicating that if Assad wasn't interested, neither was he. While Olmert was hugging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Assad passed directly behind him, and the photographers, realizing that the potential of a historic picture was within their lenses, shouted "Ooh la la." But Olmert did not turn around, Assad did not tap him lightly on the shoulder, and the Mediterranean Union summit ended without the much anticipated historic handshake. Likud MKs criticized Olmert and Livni for their pursuit of Assad at Monday's Likud faction meeting. "What happened in Paris was shameful," MK Yuval Steinitz said. "The prime minister and the foreign minister were both running after the Syrian dictator to try and shake his hand. Their behavior humiliated the state of Israel and the entire Jewish people."