Negotiating in the Middle East

The Israeli Ambassador was sitting down with Arafat to try to work out an agreement. The ambassador asked if he might first tell a story. Arafat told him to go ahead. The ambassador began:

When Moses was in the desert for forty years the Jews got very thirsty and Moses asked G-d for water and there appeared a beautiful lake. The Jews first drank and then bathed themselves. Moses did the same but when he came out of the water his clothes were gone. Moses shouted, “Where are my clothes? Who took them?”

The Jews answered, “The Palestinians took them.”

The ambassador looked at Arafat and said, “Now we can begin to negotiate.”

And that, children, is how they negotiate in the Middle East.