Lynch on the Handshake

Marc Lynch has some useful observations on the continuing flap over the Ayalon-Turki handshake. As he notes, Saudi-Israeli contacts have occurred for some time, but they are generally unpublicized, and the highly public nature of this handshake at a time when Israeli policies toward Gaza have particularly inflamed the Arab world is embarrassing to Prince Turki and the Saudis. He has links to a number of Arab world reactions.