Should Israel Officially Renounce Oslo?
Or keep going through the motions?
May 5, 2016
The Hebrew of the IDF, and What It Says about Israeli Society
Two flowers and an oleander.
When an Israeli infantryman radios for a helicopter to remove two wounded comrades, and the corpse of a third, from the battlefield, he says, “We have two flowers and one oleander. We need a thistle.” Other militaries, writes Matti Friedman, have their own jargon that similarly obscures what goes on in war, but IDF lingo may be uniquely horticultural. “What,” Friedman asks, “does this say about Israel’s military?”