The Directorate of Military Intelligence (Hebrew: אגף המודיעין‎, Agaf HaModi'in – lit. "the Intelligence Section"; Arabic: شعبة الاستخبارات العسكرية‎), often abbreviated to Aman (Hebrew: אמ"ן‎; Arabic: آمان‎), is the central, overarching military intelligence body of the Israel Defense Forces. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF's General Staff (then, Agam: אג"ם); the Intelligence Department itself was composed largely of former members of the Haganah Intelligence Service (HIS). Aman is an independent service, and not part of the ground forces, navy or the Israeli Air Force.

It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Mossad (national intelligence) and Shin Bet (general security). It is currently headed by Major General Aviv Kochavi. It has a staff of 7,000 personnel (1996 estimate). Its special forces and field-reconnaissance unit is Sayeret Matkal, and its elite training course is Havatzalot Program.

A Man (1979) (Italian: Un Uomo) (Greek: Ένας Άνδρας, transliteration: Enas Andras) is a novel written by Oriana Fallaci chronicling her relationship with the attempted assassin of Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.

Plot summary

The book is a pseudo-biography about Alexandros Panagoulis written in the form of a novel. Fallaci had an intense romantic relationship with Panagoulis. She uses the novel to put forth her view that Panagoulis was assassinated by a vast conspiracy, a view widely shared by many Greeks.

The work has had mixed reviews. Some will find the harsh polemic repetitive and disturbing. Fallaci is said to have been angry at Ms Magazine for not reviewing the work and this enhanced her reputation as an anti-feminist.

Quotes

"Don't help me then, hand me over to the police, what's the use anyway--"
"Of suffering, fighting? It allows us to live, my boy. A man who gives in doesn't live, he survives."

Footnotes

References

The phrase "What a piece of work is a man!" comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, Scene 2, and is often used in reference to the whole speech containing the line.

The speech

The monologue, spoken in the play by Prince Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, follows in its entirety. Rather than appearing in blank verse, the typical mode of composition of Shakespeare's plays, the speech appears in straight prose:

Meaning

SparkNotes explains that Hamlet is saying while humans appear to think and act "noble" they are really essentially "dust". Hamlet is expressing his melancholy to his old friends over the difference between how men aspire to how they act, which is a great divide that depresses him.

Differences between texts

The speech was fully omitted from Nicholas Ling's 1603 First Quarto, which reads simply:

This version has been argued to have been a bad quarto, a tourbook copy, or an initial draft. By the 1604 Second Quarto, the speech is essentially present but punctuated differently: