In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “commander of the givati brigade during the 1948 arab-israeli war and also the commander of operation nachshon”. Today it says “palmach soldier and idf military leader”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “commander of the givati brigade during the 1948 arab-israeli war and also the commander of operation nachshon”. Today it says “palmach soldier and idf military leader”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2020 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2020
Shimon Avidan ( Hebrew : שמעון אבידן; February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Siegbert Koch ( Hebrew : זיגברט קוך), was an Israeli soldier and officer , the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war .1Born in Germany, he moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1934, and lived on Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar and then Ein HaShofet He fought with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War . Avidan is also known for his activities in the Palmach in World War II . He led the "German Unit" of the Palmach, which was responsible for conducting guerrilla operations against the Axis powers . In 1945 he commanded the Saison operation against the Irgun and Lehi . During the 1948 war he was the operational commander of Operation Nachshon , Operation Barak , Operation Pleshet and Operation An-Far . His troops also fought at Nitzanim as well as joining Operation Death to the Invader and Operation Yoav . He resigned from the army after, according to Chaim Herzog , "His extreme left-wing philosophy proved to be irreconcilable with David Ben-Gurion 's policies." In 1975, he was appointed as the internal comptroller of the Ministry of Defense by the minister Shimon Peres . Avidan died in 1994 at age 83. Streets were named for him in Rishon LeZion and Beersheba .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 912263067.
The opening as it stood in 2005
Shimon Avidan was the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and also the commander of Operation Nachshon . v t e
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 16201807.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Shimon Avidan (February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Shimon Koch , was an Israeli soldier and officer , the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war .He was the operational commander of Operation Barak , Operation Nachshon , Operation Pleshet and Operation An-Far .Born in Germany in 1911, in 1934 he moved to Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar and then Ein Hashofet in Palestine.Avidan is also known for his activities in the Palmach in World War II .He led the "German Unit" of the Palmach, which was responsible for conducting guerilla operations against the Axis powers .In 1945 he commanded the Saison operation against the Irgun and Stern Gang .He resigned from the army after, according to Chaim Herzog , 'his extreme left-wing philosophy proved to be irreconcilable with Ben-Gurion 's policies'.In 1975, he was appointed as the internal comptroller of the Ministry of Defense by the minister Shimon Peres .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 357988642.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Shimon Avidan ( Hebrew : שמעון אבידן; February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Siegbert Koch ( Hebrew : זיגברט קוך), was an Israeli soldier and officer , the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war . Born in Germany in 1911, in 1934 he moved to Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar and then Ein HaShofet in Palestine. He fought with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War . Avidan is also known for his activities in the Palmach in World War II . He led the "German Unit" of the Palmach, which was responsible for conducting guerrilla operations against the Axis powers . In 1945 he commanded the Saison operation against the Irgun and Stern Gang . During the 1948 war he was the operational commander of Operation Nachshon , Operation Barak , Operation Pleshet and Operation An-Far .His troops also fought at Nitzanim as well as joining Operations Death to the Invader and Yoav . He resigned from the army after, according to Chaim Herzog , "His extreme left-wing philosophy proved to be irreconcilable with David Ben-Gurion 's policies." In 1975, he was appointed as the internal comptroller of the Ministry of Defense by the minister Shimon Peres .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 660803983.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Israeli soldier (1911–1994) Shimon Avidan ( ; February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Siegbert Koch ( ), was an Israeli soldier and officer , the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war . Born in Germany, he moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1934, and lived on Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar and then Ein HaShofet He fought with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War . Avidan is also known for his activities in the Palmach in World War II . He led the "German Unit" of the Palmach, which was responsible for conducting guerrilla operations against the Axis powers . In 1945 he commanded the Saison operation against the Irgun and Lehi . During the 1948 war he was the operational commander of Operation Nachshon , Operation Barak , Operation Pleshet and Operation An-Far . His troops also fought at Nitzanim as well as joining Operation Death to the Invader and Operation Yoav . He resigned from the army after, according to Chaim Herzog , "His extreme left-wing philosophy proved to be irreconcilable with David Ben-Gurion 's policies." In 1975, he was appointed as the internal comptroller of the Ministry of Defense by the minister Shimon Peres . Avidan died in 1994 at age 83. Streets were named for him in Rishon LeZion and Beersheba .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1164405280.
The opening as it stood in 2025 9 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Israeli soldier (1911–1994) Shimon Avidan ( Hebrew : שמעון אבידן ; February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Siegbert Koch ( Hebrew : זיגברט קוך ), was a Palmach soldier and IDF military leader . He was the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1287151983. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “commander of the givati brigade during the 1948 arab-israeli war and also the commander of operation nachshon”. Today it says “palmach soldier and idf military leader”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2025.
Then
commander of the givati brigade during the 1948 arab-israeli war and also the commander of operation nachshon
Now
palmach soldier and idf military leader
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
