By: Micah Halpern – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
ABOVE THE FOLD: The Bible still plays an ever-important role, even in modern warfare.
There are, of course Russian spies all over Ukraine. We would expect no less. They scout and they report back to their superiors. And sometimes, they are caught. Sometimes, their cover – as they say in B-movies – is blown.
Ukrainians have figured out how to ferret out many of the Russia spies wandering around their country. And their trick, the litmus test to discover who is a real Ukrainian and who is a fake, is as far from high tech an anything can be. They use the ancient biblical tool called the shibboleth.
While the languages spoken in Russia and Ukraine are similar, there are significant differences. Note, for example, the phonetic spelling of the first names of the respective leaders of both countries. They carry the same name, yet they spell their names and pronounce their names with nuanced differences. In transliteration, it’s Vladimir for Putin and Volodymyr for Zelensky.
cont’d…