so here it is .....first contact with the bloggasphere......at last we meet!

i look forward to a lasting relationship -

today at the funeral for Pope John Paul II the Presidents of Israel and Iran shook hands and spoke with one another for approximately one hour. Their discussion appeared friendly. The two men, both born in the same city of Yazd in central Iran, spoke in their native toungues of Farsi. Moshe Katsav, President of Israel is an Iranian Jew who can proudly claim that his ancestors were a part of the saga recalled in the Old Testament - The Babylonian Captivity. As a child, together with his family, Moshe Katsav emigrated to Israel from Iran.. For this reason, the conversation today between the two Presidents was probably quite a comfortable exchange of two countymen meeting in a foreign land. The interesting nature of the handshake is a consequence of the hodge podge of nationalaties and cultures that form the modern Middle East.