Ray Hanania: You can’t force human beings of any age to do or say anything. By Ray Hanania

My wife and I have rivalries about everything, but the most competitive was to teach our son how to speak. We each wanted to be the one to teach him his first word.

For Alison, being Jewish, she wanted him to say "Shalom."

For me, being Palestinian, I wanted to teach him something simple like "Palestine is Arab Land. Free Palestine. Long Live the Revolution. Down with the Shah. The people, united with never be defeated."

But I ended up compromising with myself, as many Palestinians often do. And I settled on just trying to teach him to say the word "Salam."

When Alison wasn't watching, I would turn towards my son and repeat the word over and over again. "Salam! Salam! Salam!" Being only two, he just looked at me like I was some kind of nut.

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