Could 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Bring Peace to the Middle East?

Should actor, writer, and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David soon add a Nobel Prize for efforts fostering Middle East peace to his cache of Emmy awards and nominations? Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz' answer might surprise you. In a recent interview with "The Columbia Current," the Harvard Law School professor revealed that he recently sent a copy of his favorite episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the hope that it might serve to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

In Dershowitz' favorite episode, "Palestinian Chicken," David and friends start eating at Al-Abbas, a Palestinian restaurant that apparently serves undeniably delicious chicken. The chicken is so good that David declares the Palestinians should send it over to Israel—if they did, he says, the Israelis, "would take down all the settlements in the morning." When the restaurant announces plans to open a new venue next door to a Jewish deli, however, David finds himself torn between his Jewish friends, who demand he protest the opening with them, and a beautiful Palestinian woman from the restaurant he has begun seeing.

Dershowitz said that when he sent the episode to Netanyahu, he suggested that the prime minister and President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas watch the show together. "Maybe if they both get a good laugh, they can begin a negotiating process," he said.

While we await a day during which Netanyahu and Abbas bond over Larry David, Dershowitz remains hopeful. "I know that Netanyahu has received the DVD, and he was looking forward to watching it."