VOA标准英语2013--Expectations Low for Mideast Peace Talks

 

Expectations Low for Mideast Peace Talks 

The latest effort to inject life into the long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians is expected to resume Wednesday. Senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators - along with United States mediators -- are set to meet for a second round of talks at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

U.S. State Department officials have expressed high hopes. "Both sides are at the negotiating table in good faith here because they believe in the importance of the peace process. They believe that the most important way to settle these issues is through a negotiated final status agreement," said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman.

But contention¹ runs deep even as Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners - a condition of the talks.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, Umm Asem was looking forward to seeing her husband, imprisoned² in Israel for the 1992 killing³ of an army reservist. "It is difficult to describe my feelings. It is a feeling of happiness which I hope God will grant to all people,'' she said.

The release of the pisoners has riled many Israelis, some of whom tried and failed to get the Israeli courts to intervene.

"Where are we going now?" pondered Meir Indor, a member of the Almagor Terror Victims Association. "The terrorists to go out, the people who have been murdered are in the grave. That's not the way to bring peace. It will bring more violence.

Meanwhile, Israel's approval this week of about 2,000 new settlement homes, including some in mainly-Palestinian East Jerusalem, has Palestinians fuming⁴.

Israel's housing minister, though, was defiant⁵. "In simple words, we are simply building. Go outside and see we are building. And not only that, we will continue to build thousands of housing units. This is appropriate, this is what we should do, and so we shall do," said Uri Ariel.

Senior Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi said the settlement announcement could sabotage⁶ peace talks. "It's very clear that Israel once again is manipulating the process in order to create facts on the ground that would render negotiations⁷ entirely⁸ irrelevant⁹ because it would preempt¹⁰ their outcome," he stated. 

Anthony Cordesman, an analyst¹¹ at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it does not have to be a deal-breaker. “A lot depends on how pragmatic both sides are, how willing they are to look at the full range of pressures that affect and threaten them,” he explained.

Those pressures, Cordesman said, include the political uncertainty¹² across Israel's borders in Egypt and the continuing war in Syria. And for the Palestinians, the longer it takes to forge a compromise with the Israelis, Cordesman said, the more Israeli settlements are likely to go up.

1 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

2 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 fuming   

愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• She sat in the car, silently fuming at the traffic jam. 她坐在汽车里，心中对交通堵塞感到十分恼火。
• I was fuming at their inefficiency. 我正因为他们效率低而发火。

5 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

6 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

7 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。

8 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

9 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

10 preempt   

v.先发制人；先取

参考例句：

• We arrived early at the theatre so as to preempt the front seats.我们早早来到剧院，以便捷足先登占到前排座位。
• He pre-empted any decision to sack him.他预先阻止了所有解雇他的决定。

11 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。

12 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。