ISRAEL: Iranian pistachios? Diplomacy can be nutty

OK, so Israel has issues with Iran. But splitting atoms is one thing; splitting hairs on where Israel gets its pistachios
is entirely another. 

For years, the U.S. has been pressuring Israel to break the habit of buying Iranian pistachios from third-party markets such as Turkey and turning a blind eye to trade-embargo issues (although the U.S. trade sanctions seem to have their own quirks).

To be sure, Israelis love pistachios. In a recent interview, President Shimon Peres recalled with nostalgia the wondrous fistouk shammi (Aleppo pistachios) he enjoyed years ago in Iran as the shah's guest.

Now he might get a taste of California instead, as reports say San Joaquin pistachios are headed for Israel.

A convenient solution to the diplomatic discomfort came about with recent tinkering to Israeli taxes that raised tariffs on  non-U.S. pistachios, making the U.S.-grown nuts a much better deal and providing Israel with politically correct pistachios to boot.

The intense lobbying at surprisingly high echelons is probably due not only to diplomatic efforts but also to the fact that Israel has the highest pistachio-per-capita consumption rate in the world, making it a lucrative market to penetrate. And the U.S. is the world's second-largest producer of pistachios -- after Iran.

-- Batsheva Sobelman

Photo: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

IRAQ: Weight-loss surgery works for one Iraqi

Last year, we told the story of Haider Kareem Said, a young Iraqi man whose weight had ballooned to more than 495 pounds, attached precariously to his 5-foot-4 frame. Said was desperate to lose the extra pounds, but like many people, he had failed repeatedly at diets.

Years spent virtually locked in his house because of Baghdad's sectarian war only made matters worse. He spent much of his time sitting in front of the TV eating too much. In August, Said took what some would consider a desperate measure: He had weight-loss surgery. Said had a band surgically wrapped around his stomach by the one Baghdad surgeon who performs the operation, forcing him to eat a fraction of what he had been consuming.

Six months later, we visited Said at his home in eastern Baghdad to see how he's doing.

LEBANON: Rage against Starbucks over Gaza fighting

“One cup of coffee equals a bullet,” was the main slogan that demonstrators in Beirut blurted out against the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

In the latest of a series of daily protests in Lebanon, pro-Palestinian activists unleashed their fury at a new target, Starbucks.

Around 100 of them caused one branch of the U.S. coffee shop chain to close its doors Tuesday evening on Hamra Street, Beirut's bustling main commercial corridor, local media said.

The protesters accused the chain of supporting the Israeli army. They urged the customers inside the coffee shop to boycott Starbucks coffee. They accused the company’s chairman and president, Howard Schultz, of donating money to Israel.

A spokeswoman for the Seattle-based corporation told the Associated Press that the accusations against Starbucks of supporting Israel were false, adding that the political preferences of any one of its employees -- whether the CEO or a clerk -- have no bearing on the company's policies.

ISRAEL: The snack panic attack

A recent sequence of apparently unrelated sudden infant deaths had Israeli parents nervous that a violent bacteria or virus was the cause. For one day this week, the tragic cases had been linked together by an infection of a different kind: viral e-mail.

An e-mail warning that one of the country's large drugstore chains was expected to pull the popular "Bamba" snack off shelves in connection with the children's deaths went outta control, causing mass panic, heavy financial losses and probably legal consequences too.

The original letter appears to have been sent by a women named Keren, a software engineer employed by HP in Israel. From the company's mailing group of 800, the message reached hundreds of thousands of Israelis within hours. The Health Ministry issued a statement dispelling the rumors but the damage had been done. Shares of Osem, the manufacturer, took a nosedive and had fallen by more than 6% before beginning to recover later in the day. More than 27 million shekels ($7.1 million) had changed hands in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that day over the false alarm.

DUBAI: Sex on the beach, then prison

A British couple whose drunken escapade involving sex on the beach led to tabloid headlines -- and a clash between Western permissiveness and Islamic values -- were sentenced Thursday by a Dubai court to three months in prison.

Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer were each sentenced to the prison term, fined $272 for drinking alcohol and ordered to be deported immediately upon leaving prison.

The pair was found guilty of having unmarried sex after a taxi had picked them up from a champagne brunch at a five-star hotel and drove them to Jumeirah beach in the United Arab Emirates’ most culturally-tolerant emirate of Dubai. 

ISRAEL: Yallah, food fight!

More on the previous post on the falafel wars:

Old traditions are going new age everywhere, and nations, regions or just traditional craftsmen are scrambling to copyright their culture and cuisine. Parmigiano Reggiano is a legally patented trademark, champagne must come from Champagne itself and only Greece can market Feta cheese under that name.

The European Union law for protecting regional food names has an elaborate mechanism that classifies products as PDO (protected designation of origin), PGI (protected geographical indication) and TSG (traditional specialty guaranteed). Dozens of producers submit requests for protecting their intellectual property rights every year, from the native Shetland organic wool to Cornish sardines that are currently under review.

Israel has a love-hate relationship with Arab countries. The hate part is self-explanatory. The love part involves the food.

LEBANON: Launching a falafel war against Israel

It sounds like satire, a tall tale meant to illustrate the downright pettiness of the Middle East's ongoing rivalries and resentments.

But apparently, it's totally serious.

According to a report by the Deutsche Presse Agentur, Germany's news agency, a Lebanese trade union is planning to sue Israel for claiming that the Jewish state has propriety over traditional Arab cuisine such as falafel, tabbouleh and hummus, which Lebanese consider their own.

The president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Fady Abboud, has apparently said he's preparing a lawsuit in international courts against Israel for "taking the identity of some Lebanese" meals, according to the report, which was picked up by the Israeli media, including Haaretz:

"In a way the Jewish state is trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies such as falafel, tabbouleh and hummus [costing Lebanese] tens of millions of dollars annually. ... The Israelis are marketing our main food dishes as if they were Israeli dishes."

He said his union is trying to register Lebanese foods and ingredients with the government in Beirut "so it can appeal to the international courts against Israel," Abboud said.

IRAQ: Hotel California in Baghdad

By Saif Rasheed in Baghdad

As a tradition during the feast of Eid, my family used to visit the homes of relatives and relax amid the wide gardens at the social Hunting Club in Baghdad's Mansour district.

Then came the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and many of my relatives fled the country.

These days, with fewer family members to visit, we find ourselves spending more time at the Hunting Club. It is protected from gunfire, serves alcohol and steers conversations away from sectarian politics. 

The Hunting Club is different from what it was just a year or two ago. Security is better in Iraq.

DUBAI: Sex on the beach?

A Muslim emirate is not the best place to mix champagne and beach romance. A British couple is facing up to six years in prison for allegedly having public sex near the surf in Dubai, a split-personality emirate that toys with Western permissiveness but is ruled by Islamic tenets.

The couple -– Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer -– face up to six years in jail for indecency and having unmarried sex. A trial on the charges is expected to begin next week. The British Broadcasting Company quoted Palmer, who was reportedly fired from her job at a publishing house after the incident, as saying:

“We were just kissing and hugging. We didn’t have sex together. I was lying on top of him. I have been to Dubai for 2 1/2 years without committing any kind of offense. I’m sorry.”

Authorities in Dubai -- the flashy, financial hub of the United Arab Emirates -- said the couple met at a champagne brunch, got in a taxi and were arrested on the beach by a policeman who spotted Palmer sitting on Acors with her shirt off.

“The lady is innocent,” Palmer’s lawyer, Hassan Mattar, told the media after the couple appeared in court this week. “The medical reports from the police show she didn’t have sex.”

Foreigners make up about 85% of the UAE's population of 5.6 million, and cultures often collide.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Vince Acors, accused of having sex on a Dubai beach. Credit: Reuters

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LEBANON: Beirut nightlife again starts to sizzle

Beirut will be back on the world map and, this time, it will be for good reasons. That was the message behind the relaunching party of Time Out magazine’s Beirut edition, after a two-year hiatus, at the Riviera Beach Lounge along the capital's seafront.

With fireworks and champagne bottles in sparkling boxes, the party was designed to mirror the reemerging face of Beirut: a city of glitz and glamour boasting many trendy open-air rooftop nightspots, underground nightclubs and funky bars.