I'm no climatologist, or even more than an armchair archaeologist, but that goes against everything I've ever learned. The papyrus fragments we have from Israel and Egypt needed a desert environment to survive thousands of years.
My guess is that Israel looked liked the land of Milk and Honey only in comparison to where the Israelites really came from, Mesopotamia.
That's my hunch, and I'll be glad to explain why tomorrow, since this is my last post for tonight.
It's thought that papyrus is only 5000 years old, about the time of Moses and we know by then much of the area was arid. The moderate climate in the ME was 5000 years before that.
I think your right. Moses's land of Milk and Honey was much different from the desert between Egypt and Israel but the ME much prior to that had a climate that was a very productive concerning agriculture.
In Diamond's "Guns, Germ and Steel" he make a good case for a latitudinal exchange of agriculture. From one armchair archaeologist to another, it's a fun book.
Also your comment on what your dog ate really broke up me and my 12 yo son. (He's an major archeology geek) Thank you.