Emanuel directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

I was reminded of that famous handshake between the leaders of our two political parties in 1995 - President Clinton and Newt Gingrich.

So this afternoon's event marking limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank, like the one on the White House lawn two years ago that produced the famous handshake of reconciliation, provided some badly needed political theatrics.

And its export-oriented high-technology companies are already profiting from that famous handshake on the White House lawn three years ago.

Nixon greeted China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai with one of the most famous handshakes in history.

In 1993, Rosh ha-Shanah followed by two days Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's famous handshake in Washington with Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

And that's the famous three-way handshake.

While the famous handshake of peace between Mr. Rabin and Mr. Arafat took place on the White House lawn, the agreement was negotiated in Oslo without American involvement.

And it makes much of Mr. Clinton's famous handshake, while a 16-year-old at Boys Nation, with President John F. Kennedy.

It could have been a vehicle for the abandoned deal in the famous handshake between Mr. Gingrich and President Clinton in 1995.