2008/03/11 Tel Aviv
The minder
Forgiveness
On my first day with the IDF a minder was assigned to me who turned out to be an intelligent and fairly attractive nineteen-year-old soldier.
Her mother is a novelist, published also in the US.
The minder took notes while I conducted an interview with a lieutenant colonel. The last time a minder took notes while I conducted an interview was when I visited the Kosovo Liberation Army in 2006.
But a charming nineteen-year-old you are willing for to forgive.
My minder for tonight is going to be a man, in his twenties.
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6 comments 
To forgive?
She took lessons from the master!
She took lessons from the master!
What does these minders actually do and what permissions do they have?
Richard
The dictionary says about “minder”:“an official whose job is to restrain access or the free flow of information, especially with an implied threat of force : their dispatches were censored, delayed and sometimes blocked by military minders.”
My minders here don’t use the threat of force, please take note of that. And they don't censor, the minder is just always there when I speak with soldiers, which might be explained as a kind of preventive censorship.
Arnon thanks for the explanation. Isn't it funny that they give you a minder but do not censor your articles? I assume that you don't have to let them read your writings before they get published.; this because you say they do not censor. I mean they find it worthy to let someone accompany you but the results they are not interested in and the results are what will reach the world.
Richard
Exactly, they don't want to read the article before it is being published.I've never met a female soldier. Somehow I think of them as Butch.
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