Edited by Gillian Palmer
The president of the United States was wrong regarding Abu-Mazen, forgot King Abdullah of Jordan and looked at Mubarak before mentioning his name. It is in fact hard to remember names that sound unfamiliar to us; however, it still seems as though the U.S. president is stressed. A summary of the analysis of the body language of leaders in the peace summit in Washington follows.
Barack Obama is the young leader within the group of veterans in peace talks. Therefore, he finds it a bit difficult to remember all the names and ranks of the Middle Eastern leaders. He calls Abu-Mazen “president” and immediately corrects himself to “prime minister”; he also needs a second to remember Mubarak.
It is difficult to remember names that sound unfamiliar to us, and it is even harder to say them in the correct order without getting confused and offending someone. It is so especially when every word might trigger a diplomatic incident.
Before Obama manages to remember the king of Jordan, he has to look around. This kind of behavior at times of pressure indicates that a person feels trapped. In the long pause Obama takes to remember the name, Prime Minister Netanyahu feels Obama’s difficulty and immediately looks away so as not to embarrass him.
Beyond the leader’s speeches in Washington, it is interesting to look at moments of physical contact that indicate the nature of the connection between the leaders. The natural tendency of all people is to protect their personal territory. The moment a contradiction is formed between the will to remain distant and the will to form interaction forms different kinds of physical contact.
When Obama and Netanyahu move away from the speech stand and turn their backs to the media, Obama pats Netanyahu’s back and Netanyahu returns a pat with similar force. This social action is similar to a small hug that indicates mutual acknowledgment of effort and performance. After a few steps Netanyahu touches his temple. This movement is typical of Bill Clinton and common among men twice as much as among women. The touching of the temple at moments of large social stress indicates an attempt to find a small consolation.
Perhaps, despite everything, there is hope.
In order to express emotions you must diverge a little from the expected formality of a handshake, and there are 14 main intimate moments that are accepted on a social level. Examples of these could be seen in the peace talk meetings lead by Obama; they tell us a lot about the connection between the leaders at that moment.
At moments of somewhat intimate three-way conversation, before entering the hall, Obama shakes Netanyahu’s hand and puts his other hand on Abu-Mazen’s shoulder. Obama is pleased with the communication between his two guests, who seem calm with one another, and provides Abu Mazen with a few strong friendly “tzaphot” (pats on the back) followed by a satisfied grin.
Later on, right after Netanyahu finishes his speech, he turns to Obama and both leaders shake hands in thankful reorganization. When Netanyahu returns to his place he shakes Mubarak’s hand; Mubarak responds to him with an honorable bow. Then he shakes the king of Jordan’s hand, who rises a bit from his chair in honor; after that he shakes Abu-Mazen’s hand, and this shake is the longest and friendliest.
What we can conclude from all those scenes is that the leaders are alive, breathing, talking to one another, shaking hands and sitting together in the same room, and the relations among them are friendly and intact. They are obviously aware that this is a show they carry out for the public and that more is hidden than shown. But if Netanyahu and Abu-Mazen are on good terms, Obama and Netanyahu have cooled their interactions down a bit, Mubarak and the king of Jordan are part of the process and Hillary continues to charm them all, then perhaps there is hope?
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