PALESTINE: Lawgivers

In Tel Aviv, Palestine’s modern all-Jewish city, streets are customarily named after Zionist heroes (Theodor Herzl, Baron Rothschild, Field Marshal Lord Allenby, etc.). Last week, when the city fathers pondered street names for a new suburb, a councilman suggested: Why not name the streets after the Ten Commandments?

A fellow legislator, with a quick thought on recent terrorism, offered an endorsement. Said he: “This suggestion would be useful if certain people were thus reminded of ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ ” But the council dropped the suggestion after a member asked: How would the naming system look to a mailman who had to deliver letters to No. 7, Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Street?