The Angry Arab News Service

I spoke yesterday at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. I only realized yesterday that this was the college where Rachel Corrie was a student. The lousy cowardly university of the college has not even dedicated a memorial for her. This is a really leftist college with very leftist student body, and where people do "get" the significance of Palestinian struggle. This is a campus where students don't consider voting for the Democratic ticket as the ultimate act of leftism. I met a Palestinian student from Chicago whose baby brother was treated by Rahm Imanuel's father back in the 1990s. She said that when her mother discovered that he was an Irgun terrorist, she immediately discontinued his services. One thing disturbs me: almost always when I give a talk in the US, there is somebody in the audience who believe that Sep. 11 was "an inside job" to quote a member of the audience from yesterday. I always, of course, disapoint believers in those kooky conspiracy theorists when I tell that I don't buy those theories and that I am certain that Al-Qa`idah was indeed behind Sep. 11. The person yesterday (who was highly offended by the use of the world "kooky" in my answer) even believes that 11 of the hijackers are still alive--somewhere with Elvis no doubt. And a Syrian student from Aleppo got me Za`tar from Aleppo: I love Za`tar from Aleppo. But it must have seemed odd as I put the jar of Aleppo Za`tar near me on the table during my talk. I had to tell the audience to resist the urge to make some generalization about Arab culture and jars: I assured them that Arab culture does not dictate that Arab should always address a public with a jar of Za`tar next to them. But I did confirm to them that shoes are highly offensive in Arab culture, assertions to the contrary on this blog notwithstanding.