Soldiers were wielding scissors today cutting out an editorial from Bamahane Nahal, the weekly magazine of the Nahal (para-military corps) which presented a gloomy view of the lot of Israeli troops assigned duty in Lebanon.
The deletion, after the magazine had gone to press, was ordered by the Nahal commander Brig. Gen. Yosef Eshkol, according to an Israel Defense Force spokesman. It is the commander’s right and duty to see to it that the publication suits the army’s wishes, the spokesman said.
The offending editorial was written by Meir Dorom, editor of Bamahane Nahal. He referred to soldiers returning “eroded from yet another stint in Lebanon. I see them getting poorer from (one tour of duty to another) … I have friends and they are becoming fewer … I am afraid we are not counting our closed hearts among the casualties of this war,” Doron wrote.
The editorial was excised only from those issues of the magazine going to servicemen discharging their military duties at Nahal settlements which combine agriculture with military training. It was left intact for civilian subscribers.
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