How to tell when a Mideast Expert is lying

Allow me to begin with a word or two about lying. Lying in the Middle East is not the same as lying other places. In the Mideast, lying is a way of life, which is to say, it is a cultural imperative. It is at once armor and entryway. It cushions and conditions the way people feel and think, it lubricates commercial and social intercourse, it frames all political debate and negotiation. Lying, for the permanent population of this area, is the very foundation of truth. That is to say, hereabouts, your personal set of familial, professional, and ideological lies, is the core of your identity. So if it may appear to the tourist, to the journalist, to the fair-minded researcher, that everyone here lies all the time, this is more than just appearance.