Translation Alternative

In his review of A.B. Yehoshua's newest novel rendered into English, Ethan Bronner writes this paragraph:-

the death that haunts this story isn’t that of her sister, Yirmi’s wife, but of her nephew, his son, six years earlier as a soldier in the Israeli-­occupied West Bank. He was accidently shot by fellow soldiers during an ambush, the victim of what is called in English “friendly fire.” In Hebrew — Eish Yedidutit — these words don’t carry the same meaning, and therefore have a jarring impact on both the ear and the heart. In his rage and desperation, Yirmi seizes on this phrase, translated from English, when he first hears it as “some small spark of light that would help me navigate through the great darkness that awaited me and better identify the true sickness that afflicts all of us.”

The translation of that phrase, which is Stuart Schoffman's, is indeed problematic but the translation is adequate.

What I think, though, that Bronner is trying to convey in his comment that "these words don’t carry the same meaning" is that it could have been rendered as "friendship fire" to give it a more resonant meaning since 'friend' in Hebrew is actualy "chaver" (חבר) and 'friendly fire' should have been then: "eish chaverit".

Yedid in Hebrew also relates to God, as in the 500-year old Sabbath Hymn, "Yedid Nefesh".