Regarding The Arab-Israeli Conflict

I'm reading about the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 - the war for Israel's independence - and it leaves me with a question that gets to the present conflict.

In 1948 the UN voted to partition Palestine into an Arab state and an Israeli state, with Jerusalem as an international city. The Arabs were not satisfied and chose to fight rather than accept the deal. The Arabs lost the war and in the course of that they lost control of much of the land they'd been granted by the UN partition. So here's the question - if the fighting had gone the other way - with an Arab victory - would the Arabs have given back enough land for an Israeli state?

Fried Bacon - Maybe It's Not So Bad After All

Not too long ago I read an article about longevity that indicated some of the longest lived people reside in Asia, particularly in Japan and China. In studying them, researchers found several noticeable traits in their lifestyle that differ from the typical Western lifestyle. One of those was the practice of preparing meat by boiling it, which was thought to remove much of the fat. 

 

Here in Texas, we love fried bacon, especially on Sunday morning. Usually, the task of preparing it falls to me. Bacon, being pork, contains more fat than you’d like to know about. As a result, a pound of bacon fried in a skillet on the stove produces a large quantity of grease. While frying a pound this morning I thought of the long-lived people in Asia and about how they reduce the fat from their diet by boiling it. And it occurred to me that frying meat in its own grease accomplishes the same thing. So doesn’t it follow that by frying bacon, and thereby extracting the fat, I have turned greasy pork bacon into a healthy component of a low-fat diet?