MR Benjamin Netanyahu embraced the enemy yesterday. The Israeli Prime Minister, who won elections here in May promising a more cautious approach to peacemaking with the Palestinians, and whose every party political broadcast stressed his distaste for the idea of dealing directly with Mr Yasser Arafat, shook hands with the Palestinian Authority President. They then entered two hours of talks designed to resuscitate the peace process.
But the hour long meeting at the Israel Gaza border began awkwardly with a brief handshake and did not resolve main sticking points: the date and scope of Israel's long delayed troop redeployment in the West Bank city of Hebron.
An Israeli Palestinian steering committee will begin meeting today to tackle that issue and others, Mr Terje Larsen, the UN's top official in the self ruled West Bank and Gaza, said.
For the handshake, Mr Netanyahu stood up, buttoned his blazer and, grim faced, stretched a hand out.
Mr Arafat's body language was also worth noting. At the White House in September, 1993, he had smiled through the ceremonies with all the enthusiasm of a man whose struggle was finally gaining legitimacy after decades in the wilderness.
Yesterday, he cut a markedly more sombre figure - deferential to Mr Netanyahu, even cowed.
At a joint press conference at the end of their meeting, he expressed his confidence that he and the Likud leader could make progress together, and even noted that it was the Likud, under the late Menachem Begin, that first initiated indirect contacts with him back in the 1970s. "I believe that we will work with Mr Bibi [Netanyahu] and his government to push the peace process, the peace of the brave," he said.
Referring to the self rule accords between the Palestinians and the previous government, Mr Netanyahu commented: "Both parties reiterate their commitment to the interim agreement and their determination to carry out its implementation."