2006年VOA标准英语-Palestinian Rocket Attacks Test Truce with Isra

By Robert Berger
Jerusalem
26 December 2006

Palestinian militants² in the Gaza Strip have fired at least four rockets at Israel, including one that hit a major city. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, the Israeli government is coming under growing pressure to strike back.

 
Members of Israel Foreign service look at displayed exploded rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, during a visit at a police station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, 26 Dec. 2006
The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the latest rocket attacks on Israel, which violated a month-old cease-fire in Gaza. One of the rockets landed next to a strategic facility in the city of Ashkelon, close to where dangerous substances are stored.

Several other rockets landed in the hard hit Israeli town of Sderot, where residents are worn out. Resident Michelle Sendell told Israel Radio what it is like in Sderot.

"They're winning," she says. "I mean it may be just one battle out of a big war, but this battle they are winning. Hundreds of families have left Sderot already. People are afraid."

[Israeli medics say one of the rockets that hit Sderot wounded two people, including a teenage boy.]

Israel has opted³ for restraint, even though more than 50 Palestinian-made Kassam rockets have been fired across the Gaza border since the truce⁴ began. Israeli spokesman Mark Regev.

"I think everyone understands that there's not a magical military answer to the Kassam question. I mean if it was an easy issue to solve militarily we would have done it already," Regev says.

Sderot residents like Sendell say that is defeatism.

"You expect a country that has an army and that has a little bit of pride in itself to protect its citizens," Sendell says."   "Where is the government, where is the army?"

 
Palestinians wait to cross the Israeli army's Hawara Checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, 26 Dec. 2006
The government says it wants to give diplomacy⁵ a chance. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend in a bid to revive the peace process. Israel fears that military action in Gaza would weaken Mr. Abbas, who is locked in an increasingly violent power struggle with the ruling Islamic militant¹ group Hamas.

Diplomacy will get another boost next week, when Mr. Olmert travels to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 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。

3 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

4 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

5 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。