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."

Abu Mazen, the statement read, met with Ahmadinejad to thank him for the support of the Islamic Republic at the U.N. vote which awarded Palestine an observer-state status.

Truth be told, Abu Mazen needed every vote in his unrelenting endeavor for a Palestinian state. This was especially true given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did everything he could to humiliate him and prove to the world that he is no partner, that he is no longer relevant and other similar epithets, all aimed at depicting him as a "a chick without feathers,” as former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once described him. Putting aside all the condescension and patronizing of the former prime minister, we can see that Abu Mazen indeed has yet to learn how to walk the avenues of international politics and diplomacy.