In death as in life, Shimon Peres brings together longtime adversaries. But no one expects reconciliation at his funeral which Israeli and Palestinian leaders were both due to attend on Friday.
Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, announced he would attend the funeral, putting him in proximity to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The two have been jousting over who is to blame for their failure to sit down and talk.
The tension between Abbas and Netanyahu, in fact, underscores just how far the two sides have separated since the Oslo Accords that Peres helped negotiate in the early 1990s, which created the framework for peaceful Israeli and Palestinian coexistence.
While Israeli and Palestinian leaders shared handshakes on the White House lawn back then, Abbas and Netanyahu have engaged in a long-distance argument, leaving little hope of actual talks, much less agreement.