VOA标准英语2010年-Gaza Lessons Harden Israeli Views on S

As Israelis and Palestinians head into U.S.-brokered negotiations¹, both sides are drawing lessons from Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip, five years ago.  By removing thousands of Jewish settlers and Israeli troops, Israel hoped to ease tensions.   Israelis wanted security.  The Palestinians hoped greater autonomy would bring peace and prosperity.  Since the withdrawal², neither side has achieved its goals.  For Israelis, the violence of the last five years gave a lesson that has hardened their reluctance³ to agree to a total pullout from the West Bank - a key issue in the talks.

 

Hopes dashed

Aziz Aziz owns a clothing factory in the northern Gaza Strip.  Five years ago, he was full of hope that the end of the Israeli occupation was going to mean more business opportunity.

Aziz says that five years after the Jews left Gaza, he expected his situation to be better than it is.  He believed that life would be better and that the economy would grow.  But he says he has seen the opposite happen.  He says that, for the last five years, everything has gone backward.

Aziz had secured lucrative⁴ export contracts, but his dreams faded when fighting erupted between rival factions⁵ -- President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah and the militant⁶ Islamist group, Hamas.

Gaza descended⁷ into chaos⁸, with members of both factions fighting in the streets.

 

What happened?

Israel imposed a tight embargo⁹ when Hamas seized control of Gaza and militants¹⁰ who oppose the existence of a Jewish state stepped up their rocket attacks at southern Israel.

Israel responded in late 2007 with a 22-day attack that leveled much of Gaza's industrial infrastructure¹¹.

Even before the Israeli assault, the embargo had already choked fuel imports.  The isolation¹² made exporting to world markets nearly impossible.

Who is to blame?

With electricity off for up to six hours at a time, Aziz's factory sits idle for much of the day.  He formerly¹³ had 70 employees. Now, he struggles to keep eight.

He says he blames the Palestinians' own leadership, be it Fatah or Hamas.  He says both of them should agree and not cause harm to ordinary people.  He says the two groups have destroyed themselves and they are destroying the people.

Israeli viewpoint

Israelis also blame themselves for the way the pullout was carried out.  Their goal was to guarantee their own security, following the failure of negotiations in 2000 and a bloody¹⁴ Palestinian uprising that followed.

Giora Eiland - former head of Israel's National Security Council - was in charge of planning the pullout from Gaza five years ago, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

He says the pullout was an expression of frustration¹⁵.

"Prior to this decision, nothing clearly worked with the Palestinians," Eiland said.  "We tried to reach an agreement with them.  It didn't work out.  We tried to fight them.  It didn't succeed, as well, so the prime minister made a decision to try to divorce the Palestinians.  We thought, in quite a shallow way:  Let's evacuate¹⁶ the area. Let's build a fence around this area, and at the end of the day, they will be there and we will be here and this is the solution to the problem.  Obviously, it is not as simple as we thought."

Lessons learned

Israeli leaders perceive the 2005 pullout as a lesson that any kind of unilateral withdrawal will be viewed by the enemy as a sign of weakness that encourages extremists to attack.

"If Israel, as a result of a potential peace agreement with the Palestinians, will have to withdraw from a major part of the West Bank, I guess a lot of importance will be given to the security arrangements to make sure that this new vacated area would not turn out to be an area in which so many rockets and missiles and other advanced weapons are produced," Eiland said.

Security concerns

Going into the negotiations, Israel has made security its top priority.  It is demanding a demilitarized future Palestinian state and a continued Israeli presence on the border between the West Bank and Jordan -- two conditions that the Palestinians say amount to continued occupation.

Gaza's Hamas rulers have condemned¹⁷ the negotiations and are not taking part.

Aziz Aziz says he is placing some hope on Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, that they will draw lessons from what he says is the tragedy of Gaza.  He hopes they will find a way to end the Israeli occupation while, at the same time, safeguarding the interests of all Palestinians.

Aziz says that, if the Israelis pull out of the West Bank, he hopes it will not happen like it did in Gaza.  If it does, he says it means that the Palestinians will be destroyed.

He says he has hope that President Mahmoud Abbas can negotiate and reach an agreement for the good of all people in Gaza and the West Bank.

1 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

2 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

3 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

4 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

5 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

6 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。

7 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

8 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

9 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。

10 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。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

13 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

14 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

15 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。

16 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

17 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。