Chickpeas of Wrath

The guy who thought that breaking bread was a way to bring people together needs to spend some time in the modern Middle East. First, there were the Palestinians accusing Israel of appropriating falafel. Now, the Lebanese are accusing the Jews of stealing hummus from them. Not only is a Lebanese trade group insisting that hummus is a Lebanese creation (an assertion which is far from proven), but they are petitioning the EU to recognize hummus, as well as tabbouleh and arak as belonging to them. For those unfamiliar with the EU’s curious rules about such things, recognizing "hummus" as Lebanese, in the same way that "champagne" is French and "feta" is Greek, would prohibit any other country from using that label for it’s own tasty chickpea spread. While Jewdar neither knows nor cares who invented hummus, compared to that whole monotheism thing that they borrowed from us, mashing up chickeas with tehina and garlic hardly seems such a serious swipe.

What do you think?

About The Author

jewdar

The Tel Aviv-born, Milwaukee-bred Jewdar has a bachelors' from the University of Wisconsin, a Masters from NYU, and an Honorable Discharge from the US Army, where he spent two years as an infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division. He's the co-author of "The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies", the Humor Editor of Heeb Magazine, and a watcher of TV. Smarter than most funny people, funnier than most smart people, he lives on the Lower East Side with his wife and two sons.

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