2007年VOA标准英语-In Egypt, Legacy of 1967 Defeat Still Burns

By Challiss McDonough
Cairo
06 June 2007

Egyptian airplanes are seen destroyed on the runway after being bombed by Israeli warplanes during the Six Day War, June 1967

As countries throughout the Middle East mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Six-Day War, the sting of the rapid military defeat is still sharply felt in Egypt and across the Arab world.  Increasingly, critics are noting another side of the war's legacy¹, saying the humiliating military loss to Israel has been used to justify² authoritarian³ rule.  VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from Cairo.

The rapid and extreme military defeat stung all three Arab states that fought in the war.  All three lost territory; in six days, Israeli troops took the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt.

For the people of Egypt, where then-revered leader Gamal Abdel Nasser had touted⁴ the country's military might as unparalleled, the defeat was especially shocking, because it shattered the nation's carefully cultivated myth of invulnerability.

Cairo resident Ahmed Awad was 22-years old at the time, and remembers the war well.

He says "In the beginning I can tell you that everyone truly believed that in two hours, we could invade Israel and seize it all, and that would be it, we would have taken it.  Because what is this Israel?  And how many millions are we?"

The Egyptian press tried to convince the people that they were winning the war.  Awad, now 62, was then living in the town of Suez, near the canal.  As he saw exhausted⁵ and battered⁶ Egyptian soldiers returning from Sinai, he slowly realized that the reports of victories were lies.

Political and military analyst⁷ Mohamed el-Sayed Said is a deputy head of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

Egyptian prisoners are guarded by Israeli troops after being captured near Al Arish in the Sinai during the Six Day War, June 1967

"The 1967 defeat was like throwing us all into the gates of Hell," he said. "It shocked us to the bones, and obviously changed dramatically the chemistry of political and cultural life in the country."

People in the Arabic-speaking world usually refer to the Six-Day War as "naksa," the Arabic word for setback⁸.  Originally, the term was aimed at downplaying the significance of the defeat.  But this year especially, critics are saying the Arab world has suffered 1,001 setbacks since 1967.

In the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a political cartoon showed a man with a calendar, where every single day is June 5.  

The lingering legacy is still felt acutely in Egypt, which at the time of the war was a leader of the Arab world.  But in the 40 years since, Egypt  has lost much of its stature⁹.  A newspaper columnist¹⁰ recently wrote that Egyptians blame the 1967 defeat for everything from price hikes to sexual impotence.

The complaints echo a common frustration¹¹ with what many people here see as the stagnation¹² or regression of Egyptian society in many areas, including education, culture, politics, the economy and even sports.

Mohammed el-Sayed Said says one legacy of the defeat is the rise of political Islam, as disappointment in Mr. Nasser's secular¹³ Pan-Arabism began to turn more and more young people toward Islamist movements.  He says secular reformers, having failed in their bid to democratize Egypt, are "totally demoralized."

"Well when we reminisce over the last 40 years, the greatest frustration is not the defeat itself, it is in fact the failure of the reform movement to bring about democracy, because that was the focus of all political and cultural criticism that focused on explaining the 1967 defeat," Said said. "We have all come to agree that the defeat is caused by the lack of transparency, lack of checks and balances, lack of accountability and lack of, you know generally, democracy."

To mark the anniversary, Arab satellite TV stations are broadcasting grainy old television footage of the battles and speeches surrounding the war.  Egyptian newspapers are full of bleak¹⁴ commentary, much of it critical of the Arab regimes.

An unsigned editorial in the Egyptian opposition¹⁵ weekly newspaper Al-Dustour said after 40 years, Egypt has failed to learn any true lessons from the war.  The paper wrote  "The lesson was clear:  If we want victory over our enemies, we must build a democratic country." 

But Al Dustour said after 40 years, Egypt is still ruled by one man "who always takes us backward while other nations move forward." 

In the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat, columnist Abdullah Iskandar blasted Arab leaders for failing to analyze¹⁶ and address the root causes of the defeat.  He accused them of focusing more on retaining their own power.  Iskandar says the 1967 war has been used as "a justification¹⁷ for despotism and totalitarianism, and a pretext¹⁸ to suppress Arab society."

He writes that "forty years ago, the choice was between a military regime resulting from a coup¹⁹, or a pluralistic democratic system."  He says today, the options are "a despotic ruler on the one hand, and fundamentalism and civil wars on the other." 

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

3 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

4 touted   

v.兜售( tout的过去式和过去分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• She's being touted as the next leader of the party. 她被吹捧为该党的下一任领导人。
• People said that he touted for his mother and sister. 据说，他给母亲和姐姐拉生意。 来自辞典例句

5 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

6 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

7 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。

8 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

9 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

10 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

11 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

12 stagnation   

n. 停滞

参考例句：

• Poor economic policies led to a long period of stagnation and decline. 糟糕的经济政策道致了长时间的经济萧条和下滑。
• Motion is absolute while stagnation is relative. 运动是绝对的，而静止是相对的。

13 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

14 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

15 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。

16 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

17 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

18 pretext   

n.借口，托词

参考例句：

• He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
• He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口，没参加那个会议。

19 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。