Middle East & Africa

Israel and America

A test of friendship
友谊考验

Jun 11th 2009 | JERUSALEM
From The Economist print edition

Picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Barack Obama
奥巴马发飙,内塔尼亚胡接招…

Big bad Obama wants to blow their house down

IN AN interview before his address to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4th, President Barack Obama urged honesty in the American-Israeli dialogue. “Part of being a good friend is being honest,” Mr Obama said. On June 14th it will be Binyamin Netanyahu’s turn. The Israeli prime minister is due to give his reply to Mr Obama’s unwelcome demands that Israel freeze settlements, accept the principle of the two-state solution and get on with negotiations with the Palestinians to bring it about.

6月4日,美国总统巴拉克.奥巴马在埃及开罗面向对穆斯林世界发表讲话. 而在此之前的一次访谈中,奥巴马敦促美以对话中应相互”坦诚”. “做为好朋友,坦诚相待是题中之义.”奥巴马说. 6月14日就要看本雅明.内塔尼亚胡的了. 奥巴马要求以色列冻结定居点修建,接受两国原则,同时与巴勒斯坦谈判以促成协议. 以色列总理即将就上述几点做出回应.

Israeli politicians and pundits have been speculating about what the hawkish Mr Netanyahu might say. Could the name given to the speech provide any clues? At first it was dubbed “The Bar-Ilan Speech”, after the university that was chosen as its venue. Was Mr Netanyahu trying by that choice to signal reassurance to his seriously worried followers on the right, among the settlers and in his own Likud party? Bar-Ilan was founded as a religious university and it retains a reputation, not entirely fairly, as a hotbed of right-wing and religious sentiment.

以色列国内政治家及精英猜测鹰派人物内塔尼亚胡会做何反应.从(奥巴马)演讲中的”点名”能找到线索吗?开始,它被称作”巴依兰演讲”,原因是演讲的地点即是巴依兰大学. 内塔尼亚胡是不是因安抚其右翼支持者(包括定居者及其利库德集团内部)而饱受折磨? 巴依兰大学起初是作为一所宗教大学.她被称作”右翼”或”宗教倾向分子”的温床(尽管这并非完全公正).

Then a decision was made to change the name to “The Begin-Sadat Speech”, after the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, a think-tank attached to the university where the speech will be given. Begin-Sadat is a brace of words that evokes conflicting emotions for Israelis. The 30-year-old peace with Egypt has been a bedrock of strategic stability for both countries. But it was achieved by Israel withdrawing from all of occupied Egyptian territory—a bad precedent for the right. On the other hand, it enabled Israel to keep control of “Eretz Israel”, biblical Palestine which is at the heart of the right-wing religious ideology. The peace with Egypt, moreover, gave birth to the double-talk over Israeli settlement-building in the Palestinian territories that has soured Israel’s relations with America ever since. Jimmy Carter, who as president brokered the Egypt-Israel peace at Camp David, thought he had got a commitment from Israel’s then prime minister, Menachem Begin, to stop building them. Begin said he had only promised to stop for three months.

之后,有人提议将名称改为”Begin-Sadat 演讲”,原因是Begin-Sadat 战略研究中心是隶属于巴依兰大学的一所智库.而内塔尼亚胡的演讲即将在这里进行.Begin-sadat 是由两个易引起以色列人的复杂情感的单词组成. 与埃及间长达30年的和平相处是两国战略稳定的基石.不过代价是以色列从埃及被占领的土地上撤军.而这为右翼开了坏头.另一方面,撤军让以色列始终控制着”Eretz Israel”.而在圣经上,此处被认为是巴勒斯坦的领土,同时也是以色列右翼宗教意识形态的中心. 同埃及间的和平关系,使得关于在巴勒斯坦领土上建立以色列定居点的谈判辗转进行了两次,美以两国间的关系也由此而恶化.时任总统 吉米．卡特在戴维营最终促成了埃-以和平条约.吉米．卡特以为自己得到了当时以色列总理Menachem Begin的”停止建造定居点”的承诺.而Menachem Begin表示,他只承诺三个月内停建定居点.

Right-wingers with long memories recall, too, that Begin was able to push the Egyptian peace treaty through the Israeli parliament only with the help of the opposition Labour party. A majority of his own supporters opposed it. Is that, too, a precedent that the beleaguered Mr Netanyahu is eyeing, caught as he is between the proddings of the Obama administration and the resistance of his own coalition allies?

以色列右翼人士当然知道,当时Begin仅仅借助反对党工党的帮助就让埃-以和平协议在以色列议会中通过,而当时党内Begin的多数支持者反对Begin. 而现在处于前有奥巴马政府的压力,后有本联盟反对的内塔尼亚胡,会不会将Begin的经历视为先例而步其后尘?

Today’s centre-left opposition party in Israel is Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni. She lines up unreservedly behind President Obama’s initiative. She says she will continue to reject Mr Netanyahu’s overtures to her to join his government unless he accepts the two-state solution. If Mr Netanyahu decides on open confrontation with the American president, the tenor of Israeli politics could rapidly turn ugly. Ms Livni could find her party’s patriotism impugned by the more strident voices on the right. Some of these have already accused Mr Obama of seeking to engineer regime change in Israel.

以色列中左反对党现在是由齐皮.利夫尼领导的前进党(Kadima).她极力拥护美国总统奥巴马的提议,并表示,除非内塔尼亚胡接受两国方案,否则拒绝接受内塔尼亚胡提议该党加入联合政府的邀请. 如果内塔尼亚胡选择公开与美国总统奥巴马唱反调,以色列政治将会很快陷入困境.不过Livni将要面对来自右翼针对其党内爱国主义的尖锐抨击.已经有右翼人士指责奥巴马试图操控以色列国内的政党轮换.  

Keeping up the pressure between the two speeches, Mr Obama’s peace envoy, George Mitchell, visited Jerusalem and Ramallah this week. Calling on Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, he said pointedly that America wanted “the prompt resumption and early conclusion” of negotiations on a two-state solution. He then spent several hours closeted with Mr Netanyahu.

奥巴马中东特使乔治.米歇尔本周访问了耶路撒冷和拉马拉,旨在强化奥巴马两次演讲的意图. 在会见以色列总统佩雷斯时,乔治.米歇尔语气尖锐地表示,美国希望快速启动两国方案的谈判并尽快达成结果.之后,乔治.米歇尔与内塔尼亚胡举行数小时的闭门磋商.

Mr Peres, perennial peacemaker, said Mr Obama’s speech had left “a feeling of elation” in the region. But has any of it rubbed off on Mr Netanyahu?

作为多年的调停者, 佩雷斯表示,奥巴马的演讲对该地区而言”令人振奋”.不过,这种乐观情绪会影响到内塔尼亚胡吗?

《经济学人》（The Economist ( http://www.economist.com ))
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