That famous handshake. It happened thirty years ago, September 13, 1993. When I close my eyes, I can still see the supposedly reformed terrorist Arafat grasping the palm of Prime Minister Rabin. I remember saying the Shehecheyanu prayer, thanking God for keeping me alive and letting me see this glorious day.

The whole world was full of optimism. Even Clinton’s Secretary of State, the usually dour Warren Christopher, stepped up to the microphone to gloat, saying the impossible was now possible. Like so many who believed they negotiated a peace, Christopher was wrong.