Here's a tale to illustrate how crazy life in the Middle East has become:

One day a crocodile swimming in the Jordan River looked up on the bank of the river and saw a huge scorpion.

"Salaam!" says the scorpion.

"Listen, my brother, we need to form an alliance," continues the scorpion. "I need to get across the river. Will you ride me across the river on your back?"

"Forgive me, Scorpion," replied the crocodile, "but we are ancient enemies and if I trust you to get on my back, you will surely sting me to death."

"By the Prophet's beard! But you are wrong!" responded the scorpion. "I can't swim. So if I sting you while we are crossing the river, truly we both would die."

The crocodile thinks this makes good sense, so the scorpion gets up on the crocodile's back, and they start across the river. Halfway across the river, the scorpion suddenly plunges his poisonous stinger into the back of the crocodile, and as the crocodile realizes that he is dying, he cries out:

"In the name of Allah the Most Merciful! Oh, scorpion! Why did you do that? Now we will both die. This doesn't make any sense."

"Sense?" replied the now-doomed scorpion. "What does sense have to do with it? This is the Middle East!"

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