Dear rss free blog,
When
I worked as a reporter in Paris, one of my colleagues and sources was
a Palestinian, Mohammed (Mo) Tarbush, who acted as a spokesman for an
Arab-American group at the same time as being a journalist. My
favorite Mo outrageous statement was: “The Jews not only stole our land; they
also stole our food.”
He
was reacting to the French gastronomic success of prepared foods
like humous bi tahini (a dip ground chickpeas or garbanzo beans in
sesame sauce), falafel (fried chickpea balls), and sharawma (lamb
slices off a vertical spit.) These supposed Israeli dishes lured French fast food eaters along with McDonald’s hamburgers. But as Mo
groused, they were “really Arab”.
Actually,
they are a suitable diet in areas like the Middle East where
conditions are tough for raising livestock. While European-origin
Israelis like my relatives called humous etc. “Arab food” in the
1960s, such “mezzes” were already staples among Sephardic and
Yemenite Jews from North Africa and Middle Eastern countries who had
been driven out of their homelands after the creation of the State
of Israel. Of course Mo, who recently wrote a memoir of his life
which earned some critical success, was not likely to recall the
non-Palestinian Middle Eastern refugees.
Mo
would have been delighted at an exercise undertaken last weekend in
Lebanon for the Guinness Book of Records. The largest ever plate of
humous bi tahini was created and consumed to top an earlier Israeli
record.Peaceful competition at work!
My
real gripe with the influx of Middle Eastern eats is that the thing
you need to eat your humous with, fresh pita bread, is virtually
unobtainable even in the great city of New York. It is delivered once
a week or so by the Thomas English muffin people and is stale by the
time I get around to buying it.
If
Mo is anywhere out there, I would like to start an ecumenical
enterprise in fresh pita. It certainly beats the ecumenism exhibited
by Pope Benedict toward the Anglican Communion.
While
on the subject of Israel let me mention that one way we
achieve investment success is by not always running articles our
bright-eyed reporters come up with. My team of reporters, unlike Mo,
are not tainted by a 2nd spokesman role. But sometimes they get
enthusiastic about bad ideas. The one I am proudest of having shot
down was real estate group Africa-Israel which one team member
drummed on about.
*Another
Israeli note for paid subscribers, from of all places, Barcelona,
follows.
