Time for Name Change

The IDF's "Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories" is the unit within Israel's Ministry of Defense that coordinates civilian issues between the Government of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, international organizations, diplomats, and the Palestinian Authority. It is currently headed by Brigadier-General Eitan Dangot.

Yesterday, Dangot was the IDF representative for the laying of the wreath on the grave of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Rosh Betar, Father of the Irgun and the leader of military Zionism [see Rafael's article, "Militarism and the Status if the Israeli Arabs According to Jabotinsky," Haumma, 101, 1990 (Hebrew", for example]. His yahrtzeit is the 29th of Tammuz. He was, as Bernard Avishai summs up: "More important, Jabotinsky was the first military hero of the Zionist revival, the commander of the Jewish Legion, and the theoretician of Jewish militarism".

When his title was announced, my wife shuddered

and I knew why.

In Hebrew, "territories" is shtachim. Now, those territories have names: Judea and Samaria and in IDF parlance, the abbreviation is prounounced 'ayosh' for aizoray yehudah v'shomron. It is quite acceptable.

Moreover, as I once pointed out in a semantic debate with Yossi Sarid on the pages of Jerusalem's KolHazman weekly, in Hebrew usage, a person residing in the territories/shtachim would therefore be called shetchi, which also means plain and simple, with no depth. And we are not at all like that.

COGAYASH isn't bad, Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea and Samaria.

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