2006年VOA标准英语-Tensions Remain High in Lebanon

By Challiss McDonough
Beirut
30 November 2006

In the aftermath of yet another political assassination¹ in Lebanon, analysts³ say political and sectarian tensions are at the highest point since the end of the civil war more than 15 years ago.  But despite what all agree is a potential for the country to slide back into conflict, the current crisis does not appear to be heading in that direction.  VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from Beirut.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora (r) and his Cabinet stand for a minute's silence in memory of Pierre Gemayel
With the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel last week, Lebanon looked set to explode.  He was the sixth anti-Syrian politician to be killed in the last two years, and the son of a prominent Maronite Christian⁴ family that has produced two presidents. After his death, the anger on the streets of Christian neighborhoods was palpable.

"If you look at a checklist, a cliché checklist, there is every possibility of a civil strife⁵ breaking out again," Goksel says.  "But it doesn't."

Long-time U.N .spokesman Timur Goksel is now teaching at the American University in Beirut and is a respected political analyst².

"Certain people, they saw the dangers that was caused by this murder, and they stopped it," Goksel says.  "I mean, as you see, Hezbollah backed out, Amal backed out, and all the key parties that would cause mischief⁶, mayhem in this country, they all put the brakes on.  If they hadn't, we would have gone straight into free fall interior war here."

 
Pierre Gemayel (File photo)
Before Gemayel's death, the opposition⁷ parties, including the Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal, had been planning to hold street protests to push for the resignation of the government.  They say it is illegitimate after six ministers resigned from the cabinet, including all five of the Shiites, in a dispute over an international tribunal that would prosecute⁸ those responsible for the political assassinations⁹.

Ibrahim Mousawi is the editor of Hezbollah's weekly newspaper, Al-Intiqad.  He says the planned protests had to be postponed¹⁰ for fear of violence in the wake of Gemayel's death.

"What happened with this assassination of Pierre Gemayel is that they were dealt a blow, a heavy blow, that they need to reconsider all their demonstration¹¹ policy, or opposition protest policy with all of its constituents¹² and phased schedule," Mousawi says. "And now they are waiting to reassess and see what they want to do."

And so for the last week, all of Beirut has been waiting to see what Hezbollah will do. Now, the group's leaders have announced that the protests will begin Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the anger on the streets remains¹³, and Lebanon is more divided than it has been in many years.  But the situation is very different than the one that disintegrated¹⁴ into civil war in 1975.  Former enemies are allied¹⁵ with each other, and former friends are on opposite sides of the widening ideological¹⁶ chasm¹⁷.

The day after Gemayel's funeral, university student Elie Geagea joined a march of young Phalange party loyalists marching to Martyr's Square in the center of Beirut, to hang a picture of the slain¹⁸ minister and decorate a famous statue with party flags.

"Yes, I am sure that the government will survive, because the government is supported by the Lebanese people, Christian, Sunni," Geagea says. "I know most of the Shia are with Hezbollah, because Hezbollah has the arms and Hezbollah has the money. When Hezbollah will work for Lebanon, I will say that I will be with Hezbollah, but not with the arms of Hezbollah.":

The opposition group includes both main Shiite parties, Hezbollah and Amal, plus the largest single Christian group in parliament, the Free Patriotic¹⁹ Movement led by General Michel Aoun.  That alliance has sparked tensions within the Christian community, where the other major factions²⁰ are allied with the government.

Earlier this week, a group of Aoun's young supporters clashed with students from other Christian factions.  And there have been other incidents, small confrontations²¹ between groups of Druze and Shiites, or groups of Shiites and Sunnis.  Many media reports, both here and abroad, have raised the specter of a possible return to civil war.  But nobody seems to really want that.

Geagea - who is not related to the Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea but is a member of his mainly Christian party - said at a Lebanese Forces lecture on campus recently, he heard a strong anti-war message.

"And he has told us, whatever, whatever the price, we should not go into war.  We have seen the war, the war has not given us anything.  We should always use the diplomatic way," Geagea says. "The diplomatic way will help us. We will try, we will keep trying."

And according to Ibrahim Mousawi, Hezbollah leaders have also made it clear that their intentions are peaceful.

"The opposition, Hezbollah and the others, they have put it very clearly, that 'we want to do anything and everything democratic, everything peaceful," Mousawi says. "We are going to resort to a peaceful and democratic, constitutional measures.  We don't want to have destabilization, we don't want to have any clash in the streets.'"

Although both sides are calling for peace, both sides are also clearly encouraging their supporters to remain angry over the current political crisis, as a way of trying to keep momentum²² on their side.

And so as gloomy predictions of all-out civil war appear to be fading, the tensions on the streets of Beirut remain high, and are likely to stay that way until the political standoff is resolved.

1 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

2 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

6 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

7 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

8 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

9 assassinations   

n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most anarchist assassinations were bungled because of haste or spontaneity, in his view. 在他看来，无政府主义者搞的许多刺杀都没成功就是因为匆忙和自发行动。 来自辞典例句
• Assassinations by Israelis of alleged terrorists habitually kill nearby women and children. 在以色列，自称恐怖分子的炸弹自杀者杀害靠近自己的以色列妇女和儿童。 来自互联网

10 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

11 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

12 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 disintegrated   

v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The plane disintegrated as it fell into the sea. 飞机坠入大海时解体了。
• The box was so old;it just disintegrated when I picked it up. 那箱子太破旧了，我刚一提就散了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

16 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

17 chasm   

n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突

参考例句：

• There's a chasm between rich and poor in that society.那社会中存在着贫富差距。
• A huge chasm gaped before them.他们面前有个巨大的裂痕。

18 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

19 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

20 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

21 confrontations   

n.对抗，对抗的事物( confrontation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At times, this potential has escalated into actual confrontations. 有时，这一矛盾升级为实际的对抗。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• These confrontations and uncertainties were bing played out for the first time on a global scale. 所有这一切对抗和不稳定，第一次在全球范围内得到充分的表演。 来自辞典例句

22 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。