Israel's siege mentality
点距以色列的受困心理
The government’s macho attitude is actually making Israel weaker
政府强硬的态度实际上削弱了以色列
Jun 3rd 2010 | From The Economist print edition
庭院绿植THE lethal mishandling of Israel’s attack on a ship carrying humanitarian supplies that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza was bound to provoke outrage—and rightly so. The circumstances of the raid are murky and may well remain that way despite an inquiry (e article). But the impression received yet again by the watching world is that Israel resorts to violence too readily. More worryingly for Israel, the episode is accelerating a sli
de towards its own isolation. Once admired as a plucky David facing down an array of Arab Goliaths, Israel is now en as the clumsy bully on the block.
以色列在处理其袭击一艘试图打破封锁，驶往加沙的运送人道主义救援物资船只上犯致命性错误必将激怒国际社会，而且这也是它应得的。这次袭击的具体情形还不清楚，虽然会进行调查，但可能也没法弄清楚。但是，以色列却再次给全世界留下其毫无顾忌地使用武力的印象。更让以色列担心的是，此次事件将使它更被孤立。以前以色列像勇敢的大卫，面对一大群歌利亚巨人般的阿拉伯国家，为人敬佩，现在的以色列就像街上以强凌弱的流氓。
Israel’s desire to stop the flotilla reaching Gaza was understandable, given its determination to maintain the blockade. Yet the Israelis also had a responsibility to conduct the operation safely. The campaigners knew that either way they would win. If they had got through, it would have been a triumphant breaching of the blockade. If forcibly stopped, with their cargo of medical equipment and humanitarian aid, they would
be portrayed as victims—even if some, as the Israelis contend, brought clubs, knives and poles. As it was, disastrous planning by Israel’s soldiers led to a needless loss of life.
在以色列坚决封锁加沙的情况下，国际社会可以理解以色列想要制止援助船队进入加沙的想法。不过以色列同样有责任安全平稳地执行封锁任务。援助加沙的活动分子们知道在两种情况下他们都能取得胜利：如果他们成功到达加沙，就可以看成是成功打破了封锁；如果他们运送的医疗设备和人道主义救援物资被强迫拦截，他们还可以被描绘成受害者，这就算是如同以色列宣称的那样，他们中有人带了木棍，刀械和大棒也一样。实际发生的是，以色列愚蠢的行动计划造成了不必要的人命损失。
For anyone who cares about Israel, this tragedy should be the starting point for deeper questions—about the blockade, about the Jewish state’s increasing loneliness and the route to peace. A policy of trying to imprison the Palestinians has left their jailer strangely besieged.
对关注以色列的人来说，这次的悲剧引发了更深入的问题—关于封锁，关于这个犹太国越来越孤立，还有和平路线。想要把巴基斯坦人监禁起来的政策最后只能让看守人自己反倒也被围困起来。
Losing friends, strengthening Hamas
失去了朋友，反而加强哈马斯
The blockade of Gaza is cruel and has failed. The Gazans have suffered sorely but have not been starved into submission. Hamas has not been throttled and overthrown, as Israeli governments (and many others) have wished. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier taken hostage, has not been freed. Weapons and missiles can still be smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt.
魏桥实验学校对加沙的封锁是残忍的，而且已经失败了。加沙的人民遭受了巨大的苦难，加沙人民遭受
了巨大的苦难，但是还不会因为饥荒而屈服。济南什么时候供暖封锁没有像以色列政府（还有许多国家）希望的那样，将哈玛斯压制住或者推翻。以色列被俘的士兵吉拉德•沙利特仍然没能获得释放。武器和导弹还是能通过从埃及的地道运进加沙。
Just as bad, from Israel’s point of view, it helps feed antipathy towards Israel, not just in the Arab and Muslim worlds, but in Europe too. Israel once had warm relations with a ring of non-Arab countries in the vicinity, including Iran and Turkey. The deterioration of Israel’s relations with Turkey, who citizens were among the nine dead, is depriving Israel of a rare Muslim ally and mediator. It is startling how, in its bungled effort to isolate Gaza, democratic Israel has come off wor than Hamas, which ud to nd suicide-bombers into restaurants.
怎么做沙拉同样糟糕的是，从以色列一方来说，这加强了不仅仅是阿拉伯和穆斯林国家，还有欧洲国家对以的反感情绪。以色列曾经同周边一些非阿拉伯民族的国家有着良好关系，其中就包括伊朗和土耳其。此次事件中，九名死者中就有土耳其公民，以土关系的恶化使以色列失
去了一位难得的穆斯林盟友和调解人。更令人震惊的是，在其笨拙地努力封锁加沙这件事上，民主的以色列比曾经把自杀性炸弹袭击者派到饭店里的哈马斯表现得更差。
Most telling of all are the stirrings of disquiet in America, Israel’s most steadfast ally. Americans are still vastly more sympathetic to the Israelis than to the Palestinians. But a growing number, especially Democrats, including many liberal Jews, are getting queasier about what they e as America’s too robotic support for Israel, especially when its government is as hawkish as Binyamin Netanyahu’s. A gap in sympathy for Israel has widened between Democrats and Republicans. Conrvatives still tend to back Israel through hell and the high as. Barack Obama is more conscious that the Palestinians’ failure to get a state is helping to spread anti-American poison across the Muslim world, making it harder for him to deal with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. His generals have strenuously made that point. None other than the head of Israel’s Mossad, its foreign intelligence rvice, declared this week that America has begun to e Israel more as a burden than an ast.
最引人注目的是以色列对它最坚定支持者美国国内形势的忧虑。相对于巴勒斯坦，美国人仍然更同情以色列。但越来越多的人，特别是民主党，还有许多自由派犹太人对美国机械支持以色列持怀疑态度，尤其当以政府被内塔尼亚胡这样的强硬派掌握时。民主党与共和党间对以色列的同情上态度的分歧也扩大了。保守派依然不管什么情况都支持以色列。而巴拉克•奥巴马愈加认识到，如果巴勒斯坦人无法拥有一个国家，那将促使反美情绪的毒害在穆斯林国家蔓延，使他更难以处理伊朗、伊拉克和阿富汗问题。将军们也极力向他提出这一点。本周正是摩萨德（以色列对外情报机构）的主管宣称美国开始把以色列看成是一个负担而不是一项资产。
That has led to the charge by hawkish American Republicans, as well as many Israelis, that Mr Obama is bent on betraying Israel. In fact, he is motivated by a harder-nod appreciation of the pros and cons of America’s cosiness with Israel, and is thus all the keener to prod the Jewish state towards giving the Palestinians a fair deal. He has condemned the building of Jewish ttlements on Palestinian territory more bluntly than h
is predecessors did, becau he rightly thinks they make it harder to negotiate a peace deal. Mr Obama’s greater sternness towards Israel is for the general good—including Israel’s.
这让美国强硬的共和党人以及许多以色列人指责奥巴马，称他要背叛以色列。实际上，奥巴马深刻了解同处理美以关系的有利和不利两个方面，更热切地促使以色列给予巴勒斯坦人一个更为公平合理的方案。他比起前任来更加直率地谴责以方在巴勒斯坦领土上修建犹太定居点，因为他认为这会使谈判和平方案更为困难。奥巴马更为严厉地对待以色列是为了大家的利益—其中也包括以色列。桌面的英文
Harmony is not just a dream
和谐不是一个梦
Israel is caught in a vicious circle. The more its hawks think the outside world will always
hate it, the more it tends to shoot opponents first and ask questions later, and the more it finds that the world is indeed full of enemies. Though Mr Netanyahu has reluctantly agreed to freeze ttlement-building and is negotiating indirectly with Palestinians, he does not give the impression of being willing to give ground in the interests of peace.狐狸和葡萄告诉我们什么道理
以色列正陷入一个怪圈。它的鹰派越认为外界总是敌视它，它就越可能先攻击对手再问原因，之后它就越发看到世界上的确到处都有敌人。尽管内塔尼亚胡勉强同意冻结修建定居点计划，并与巴勒斯坦方面展开间接谈判，但他没有表现出任何愿意为了和平而作出让步的迹象。
Yet the prospect of a deal between Palestinians and Israelis still beckons. The contours of a two-state solution remain crystal-clear: an adjusted border, with Israel keeping some of the biggest ttlements while Palestine gets equal swaps of land; Jerusalem shared as a capital, with special provisions for the holy places; and an admission by Palestinians that they cannot return to their old homes in what became Israel in 1948, with some theor
etical right of return acknowledged by Israel and a small number of refugees let back without threatening the demographic preponderance of Jewish Israelis.
尽管如此，但巴以间达成和平协议的前景仍然很有诱惑。两国共存的解决方案显而易见：一条调整过的边界，其中以色列拥有一些大定居点，而巴勒斯坦方面取得同等的土地作为交换；耶路撒冷作为共同的首都，并对圣地做出特别规定；巴勒斯坦人同意不返回在1948年就成为以色列一部分的家园，而以色列承认一些巴勒斯坦人有返回家园的理论上的权利，并在不威胁以色列犹太人在该地区人口上占优势的情况下允许一小部分难民返回家园。
And what about Hamas, if Israel is to lift the siege of Gaza? How should Israel handle an authoritarian movement that refus to recogni it and has in the past readily ud terror? One answer is to ask the UN to overe the flow of goods and people going in and out of Gaza. That is hardly a cure-all, but Hamas would become the world’s problem neighbour, not just Israel’s. The Arab world must do more, pressing Hamas to disavow vio
lence, publicly pledge not to resume the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians and revoke its anti-Semitic charter. The West, led by Mr Obama, should call for Hamas to be drawn into negotiations, both with its rival Palestinians on the West Bank as well as with Israel, even if it does not immediately recogni the Jewish state. It is still the party the Palestinians elected in 2006 to reprent all of them. None of this will be easy. But the prent stalemate is bloodily leading nowhere.
如果以色列撤除对加沙的封锁，哈马斯怎么办？以色列如何应对一个不承认其存在，在过去常使用恐怖手段的集权运动？有一个答案就是要求联合国对加沙人员物资流动进行监督。这不是一种万灵药，但哈马斯就会变成全世界的麻烦，而不仅仅是以色列的。阿拉伯世界就会向其施加更多压力，要求哈马斯放弃暴力手段，公开声明不再向以色列平民发射火箭弹，废除反犹宪章。在奥巴马的领导下，西方世界将会呼吁哈马斯，即便它不立即承认以色列这个犹太国家，也要同西岸的巴勒斯坦对手与以色列三方一道参加和平谈判。因为哈马斯是巴勒斯坦人2006年选举出来，代表他们的政党。要想做到这些都很不容易，但现在的僵局带来的只有流血，没有前途。
Israel is a regional hub of science, business and culture. Despite its harsh treatment of Palestinians in the land it occupies, it remains a vibrant democracy. But its loneliness, partly lf-inflicted, is making it a wor place, not just for the Palestinians but also for its own people. If only it can replenish its stock of idealism and common n before it is too late.
以色列是地区科学，商业和文化的中心。尽管它在占领领土上粗暴对待巴勒斯坦人，以色列仍然是一个充满活力的民主国家。它的孤立有一部分是自己造成的，这孤立正使它变成了一个糟糕的地方。这不只对巴勒斯坦人，而且对其它人来说都是这样。趁为时未晚，只要以色列重回当初的理想主义与常识，就能恢复其地区中心的地位。
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