Israeli President Moshe Katzav had quite a surprise Friday morning while attending the funeral of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican: he received handshakes from Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and spoke to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Both Syria and Iran are in a formal state of war with Israel and seek the Jewish State's destruction.

Assad was sitting one row away from Katzav and according to the Israeli president, said 'Good morning' and shook Katzav's hand. After the funeral, the two shook hands again.

It is believed this is the first time that a president of Syria shook hands with the president of Israel.

Assad has called for renewed peace negotiations between Syria and Israel. Israel has asked Syria to end its occupation of Lebanon and to stop supporting militant groups that are responsible for terrorist attacks against Israelis first. Peace talks between the two countries last broke of in 2000 when Assad's father was still in power in Syria.

Katzav told Israeli radio that he had a conversation with Iran's Khatami in Farsi. Katzav was born in Iran and speaks Farsi fluently. Katzav said the conversation was about the town in which both he and Khatami were born. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran has had very hostile relations with Israel and has supported militant groups like Hezbollah which carry out terror attacks against Israel.

The handshake and conversation between individual leaders is just a minute step towards peace in the Middle East. Perhaps it is a fitting gesture that this small but symbolic move happened during the funeral of Pope John Paul II who cared so much about peace.