necoandjeff wrote:
> "Curt Fischer" <crf3@po.cwru.edu> wrote in message
> news:2qg3b4Fviqd5U1@uni-berlin.de...
>> necoandjeff wrote:
>>> "Marc Adler" <marc.adler@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:hbt0d.512$YU2.276@twister.socal.rr.com...
>>>> Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Are you joshing? When people talk about trouble in the Middle
>>>>> East, you think that Israel *isn't* a part of what they are
>>>>> talking about?
>>>>
>>>> Most of the time, no, actually. They think the trouble is all on
>>>> the Palestine side of the wall (which is going to need a name
>>>> pretty soon).
>>>
>>> In my mind, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in that order,
>>> are borderline candidates for inclusion in the Middle East.
>>
>> If those are borderline candidates what do you count as undisputed
>> gold-standard countries in the Middle East?
>
> Arab countries that are surrounded by the above.

When you go to Chinatown in San Francisco, do you claim to have made a
voyage to the Far East?

-- 
Curt Fischer