Whose Falafel Is It, Anyway?

The conflict between Israel and Lebanon has entered a new and more dangerous phase, this time in the kitchen. Lebanon is planning to file an international suit claiming that by marketing original Lebanese food like tabouleh, hummus, and falafel, Israel has cost Lebanon tens of millions of dollars a year. Crazy as the suit sounds, it's apparently not without legal grounds. Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, has prepared a memo citing the "feta cheese precedent" of 2002, which granted Greece the sole right to produce and market the cheese under that name.