Nice feature on the Lebanese exclusive claim to ‘Humus.’
One thing.
Apparently the interviewer didn’t notice how the Lebanese gentleman repeatedly pronounced the word ‘Humus?’ It was CHOO-MOOS. That’s with two oo sounds.
I’m sure that he is not only upset that other countries dare to eat his Choomoos, but he probably took offense that we, in the US, not only eat his Choomoos, but we don’t know enough to even pronounce it correctly. Even correspondents on an NPR program called ‘The World’. Insult to perceived injury.

Now I’m hungry!

Brit’s are famous for tea
Swiss for chocolate,
Germans for beer,
Italians for wine and pasta,
Seattle for coffee,
Chicago for pizza and hot dogs.
Did they invent them?
Is Taco bell even Mexican food?

The purpous of the Association of Lebanese Industrialist in this whole hummus stunt was as clear as it was transparent, that was an atempt to try to score propaganda points by delagitimising some aspect of Israeli culture. As the report stated hummus has a long history in the middle east and it’s origins are unclear, but it survives from at least the time of the middle ages. According to renowned historian Bernard Lewis the culture of the Islamic middle ages was among other things a Judaeo-Islamic symbiosis. That is, that with the Muslim conquest of that part of the world the cultural creations which happened in it’s wake were the product of interaction between people of many different backgrounds which included Jews. Any thing that was created during this period was the mutual product of the different groups who took part in that symbiosis. The point of the Asssociation of Lebanese Industrialist in claiming hummus as exclusivly Lebanese is an atempt to paint Israel (and it’s jewish inhabitants) as not being a natural part of the region. This is doubly idiotic since some where around one half of Israel’s jewish population is or decends from Jews who came to Israel from North Africa and Southwest Asia, usualy under duress from the poulation and governments of the lands in which they came. When these people came to Israel they brought the customs, traditions and foods which were as much theirs as their former neighbors.To ignore this is to denude these people of culture, which in turn delegitimises their humanity. Furthermore making the claims that the Lebanese Association has made is as stupid as saying that hot dogs hamburgers and pizza are not american. Their origins may be in Germany and Italy but they were brought here by imigrants who along with their food were assimilated into the American mainstream. These foods are both of this country and the countries in which they came. It would do the Lebanese Association of Indistrialist as well as the Arab world in general a lot of good, if instead of trying to delegitimise Israel in the most odd ways, they looked for commonalities with Israelis such as the shared elements of their respctive cuisine’s.