Israel plays the name game

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Content with neither “July War” nor the “Second Lebanon War”—as the July 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is known respectively in Lebanon and in Israel—Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz has set up a commission to bestow an official name upon the conflict. Given how disastrous the fighting was both for the Israeli military and Peretz personally, his search for a more flattering appellation is understandable.

Rumor has it that Peretz’s commission is facing intense competition throughout the Israeli government from departments eager to coin a designation that sticks:

Yaacov Ederi, a cabinet minister who chairs a committee responsible for official ceremonies, told army radio that he was also on the hunt for a name. He said a committee was due to meet on Monday, and that he had “been working on [the issue] for 10 days at the request of the bereaved families.”

“Defence officials can bring their suggestions to the committee on Monday,” he said, denying there was any competition between rival departments and preferring talk of a “military operation” rather than war.

Peretz has good reason to avoid deferring to the army on this one:

The Israeli army initially called its 34-day campaign in Lebanon Operation Just Reward, before renaming it Operation Change of Direction.”