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Was there a handshake?

It's inevitable, with scores of TV cameras and photographers covering this summit, that there is always a search for a symbolic picture that sums up the mood and any progress made. It's inevitable that today the question was whether there would be a handshake when the Israel prime minister met the Palestinian leader in Paris.

I am not sure whether there was or not, but the real, actual picture probably says more about the relationship between the Israeli PM and the leader of the Palestinian Authority.

President Sarkozy could hardly contain himself before the meeting, seizing the hands of both men and pumping them up and down with a manic energy.

After the meeting the Israeli PM Ehud Olmert was effusive, saying that never before had a deal been so close. It's worth remembering that there are new allegations of corruption against him today and describes him as not so much a "lame duck as a cooked goose". It would not be the first time a leader with domestic troubles suggested he was on the verge of a big breakthrough on the world stage.

Then as the news conference ended the French president again seized their hands and, looking like a man bringing two opposing sets of magnets together, slowly dragged them closer and closer and then performed an operation a bit like a children's pat-a-cake game, until all three were at least holding hands and arguably engaging in a three-way handshake. I've got a feeling that Bill Clinton once did something similar with Rabin and Arafat.

Perhaps there is more accurate symbolism, about the role of "the international community", than the photographers hoped for.

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