An old Jewish adage as well as a hackneyed Israeli idiom have teamed up to portray the lack of wisdom underpinning the obsequious meeting of [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo [Feb. 6].
Attributed to the sages, the first adage expresses the revulsion that most — if not all — Israelis felt at seeing the man who keeps reiterating that there is no better partner than him for peace, seated smilingly next to a man who just as frequently claims that he plans to obliterate Israel from the map. The old Jewish adage loosely translates into "birds of a feather flock together."