War and Peas

Israel has taken the upper hand in a new kind of Middle East conflict.

Cooks in an Arab town near Jerusalem whipped up more than four tons of hummus, which doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving - set in October in Lebanon - and broke an earlier Israeli record.

Hundreds of jubilant Israelis, a mix of Arabs and Jews, gathered around the satellite dish used to prepare the hummus in the town of Abu Ghosh.

Guinness World Records confirmed the Israelis now held the record putting the exact amount of hummus in the giant dish at 9,017 lbs (4,090 kilograms).

Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for six decades. Three months ago, when the Lebanese chefs prepared their record-breaking dish, they called it a move to reaffirm ownership of a Lebanese food they claimed had been appropriated by Israelis.

The hummus war has been simmering for some time. In 2008, a group of Lebanese businessmen announced plans to sue Israel to stop it from marketing hummus and other regional dishes as Israeli.

Read the Los Angeles Times story.