美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-11-21

 First up today, we are looking at the increased fighting between the Israelis and Palestinians. Representatives from other countries are trying to work out a ceasefire to stop the violence, but until that happens, millions of people from both sides are in harm’s ways. The attacks are mostly made up of two things, that’s Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rockets. And those rockets like the ones that are being launched right here, those are fired at Israel from Gaza. That’s Palestinian-controlled territory. Israel says the air strikes it launched at Gaza are aimed at terrorist targets, including leaders of Hamas. That’s an organization that runs the Palestinian government in Gaza, and it’s been labeled as a terrorist group by the U.S. government. The U.S. and some European nations say Hams should get most of the blames for the current crisis, but most Arab and Muslim nations, though, have accused Israel of being the aggressor or the one who attacked first. Tom Foreman breaks down some of the comparisons between the two sides in this conflict. 

 

Let’s look at how the battlefield is shaping up over in the Middle East. Here is Israel alongside the Mediterranean¹. It’s about the size of New Jersey². 7.5 million people, 75% Jewish. The economy is good, unemployment below 7%. Gaza by comparison geographically³ very small, only about twice as big as Washington D.C., predominately Palestinian. The economy there is quite bad and unemployment is very high. 

 

Globalfirepower.com has called Israel the tenth most powerful military in the world, so let’s break that down and see why. They have compulsory⁴ military service, that means every young person must go into the military for a while. 176,000 active troops are available and they have about half a million that they can call up from the reserves very quickly. Ground forces, also impressive. Some 3,000 tanks. If you count at the artillery⁵ pieces and mortars⁶, things like that, you get up to about 12,000 units that can operate on the ground. And of course, their air force is formidable. About 800 aircraft out there, including some 200 helicopters. This is largely what they’ve used to have these strikes within Gaza. 

 

Now, if you look at Hamas, their forces are much smaller in terms of their official forces, certainly, if you look at people who are really in uniform, soldiers, police, whatever you want to call it, about 12,500 and of course they have nothing like the weapons that the Israelis have. However, Palestinian militants⁷ do have lots and lots of rockets, and I want to bring in a model of one of them here. This a Kassam 2, you probably heard this a good bit. These rockets are popular because they are cheap, they’re easy to make out of steel tubes. They only weigh 70 to 100 pounds, and they are fueled essentially⁸ by commercial-grade fertilizer, and they can pack quite a punch. They’re not very accurate, but if you fire enough of them, they don’t have to be accurate. If you go beyond this to some of their more robust⁹ and better targeted rockets and missiles, then you also start talking about range. In this conflict so far, we have reports of weapons fired from Gaza traveling as much as 50 miles to hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In fact, Israeli officials now believe as much as a fifth of population of Israel is subject to these rocket attacks. That’s something they say they simply will not tolerate anymore, and that’s why we keep hearing all this talk and speculation¹⁰ about a possible ground invasion of Gaza.

1 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

4 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

5 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

6 mortars   

n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵

参考例句：

• They could not move their heavy mortars over the swampy ground. 他们无法把重型迫击炮移过那片沼泽地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Where the hell are his mortars? 他有迫击炮吗？ 来自教父部分

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

10 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。