When is a Handshake More Than a Handshake?
By
David Kailer
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/10/a-brief-but-important-handshake-between-obama-castro/
This week saw the passing of revered statesman Nelson Mandela, the champion of the movement against apartheid. He laid in state earlier this week while leaders from around came to pay tribute.
During the tribute, President Obama was seen shaking hands with Cuban president Raul Castro. This gesture sparked controversy as news media covered the event, prompting reactions from respect for decorum at a state funeral to outrage that the President would shake the Cuban leader’s hand without making some sort of political statement about the status of human rights in Cuba.
The Obama administration has insisted the handshake was not a pre-planned event, but rather arose spontaneously during the memorial. Afterwards, the article indicates that many commentators looked for any meaning or symbolism behind the gesture, while others saw it as a political nicety. The article itself seems to come down on the side that Obama was respecting the scene and Mandala’s legacy by not making a scene of avoiding Castro.
Others have apparently suggested that the handshake, while good in and of itself, also represented a missed opportunity on Obama’s part. “If the President was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican whose parents emigrated from Cuba, said in a statement.”
Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who was born in Cuba, made her feelings known to Secretary of State John Kerry in a congressional hearing.
“Mr. Secretary sometimes a handshake is just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raul Castro, it becomes a propaganda coup for the tyrant,” she said. “Raul Castro uses that hand to sign the orders to repress and jail democracy advocates.”
Given the circumstances, the event being a celebration of Nelson Mandala’s legacy rather than an explicitly political event, how should President Obama have handled the situation? While it is perhaps unavoidable, is it even appropriate to scrutinize such a minute action by a world leader for wide-ranging political meaning? Is this distinguishable from the incident at the beginning of Obama’s first term wherein he bowed in the presence of the Japanese emperor on a diplomatic trip?