紐時賞析／歐巴馬籲看清加薩衝突全貌：我們或多或少都是共犯

Obama Urges Americans to Take in ‘Whole Truth’ of Israel-Gaza War

歐巴馬籲全美看清加薩衝突全貌

Barack Obama offered a complex analysis of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, telling thousands of former aides that they were all “complicit to some degree” in the current bloodshed.

美國前總統歐巴馬針對以色列和加薩的衝突，提供了繁複的分析，並向數千名過去的幕僚表示，他們每個人在當前的流血衝突中「或多或少都是共犯」。

“I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward, as hard as I tried?’” he said in an interview conducted by his former staffers for their podcast, Pod Save America. “But there’s a part of me that’s still saying, ‘Well, was there something else I could have done?’”

「我看到這件事，就回想著：『我擔任總統時，可以竭盡所能做出何種努力，來讓事態有所進展？』」，歐巴馬在前幕僚經營的Podcast節目「Pod佑美國」接受訪談時表示，「但在我內心的一隅，有個聲音依然說著：『唉呀，我當時又能多做什麼？』」

Obama entered the White House convinced he could be the president who would resolve the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He left office after years of friction and mistrust with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was frustrated by Obama’s masterminding of the Iran nuclear deal and by his demands that Israel suspend new settlements.

歐巴馬踏進白宮之際，深信他會是解決以色列和巴勒斯坦數十年來衝突的總統。他卸任時，和以總理內唐亞胡已有數年齟齬和不信任；內唐亞胡不滿歐巴馬一手主導伊朗核協議，以及他要求以色列暫緩建立新屯墾區。

In his comments Friday, delivered at a gathering of his former staff in Chicago, Obama acknowledged the strong emotions the war had raised, saying that “this is century-old stuff that’s coming to the fore.” He blamed social media for amplifying the divisions and reducing a thorny international dispute to what he viewed as sloganeering.

歐巴馬周五向聚首於芝加哥的前幕僚們發表談話，承認這場戰爭激起強烈情緒，他稱：「這是一場浮上檯面的百年事件」。他譴責社群媒體放大分歧，把一項棘手國際爭端簡化為口號混戰。

Yet he urged his former aides to “take in the whole truth,” seemingly attempting to strike a balance between the killings on both sides.

但他呼籲前幕僚們要「理解真相的全貌」，似力圖在雙方承受的殺戮間求平衡。

“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” Obama said. “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.”

「哈瑪斯行徑駭人聽聞，無從以正當藉口開脫」，歐巴馬說，「但（以色列）占領和巴人正遭受的一切令人無法容忍，這也是事實」。

He continued: “And what is also true is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents or your great-grandparents, or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism. And what is true is that there are people right now who are dying, who have nothing to do with what Hamas did.”

他繼續說道：「同為事實的還有：有一段猶太人歷史可能會被抹滅，除非你的祖父母、曾祖父母，或你的叔叔、阿姨向你講述有關反猶太主義的瘋狂故事。同為事實的還有：有些與哈瑪斯的作為毫無瓜葛的人們，此時正在死去。」

Still, Obama appeared to acknowledge the limits of his musings about bridging divides and embracing complexity.

但歐巴馬似乎也承認，自己對於化解對立及擁抱複雜性有其限制。

“Even what I just said, which sounds very persuasive, still doesn’t answer the fact of, all right, how do we prevent kids from being killed today?” he said. “But the problem is that if you are dug in on that, well, the other side is dug in remembering the videos that Hamas took or what they did on the 7th, and they’re dug in, too, which means we will not stop those kids from dying.”

「雖然我剛才說的一切，聽起來非常有說服力，但仍無法回答一事實：那麼，我們今日要如何阻止孩童遭到殺害？」他說，「但問題是，如果你執著於那個問題，那麼，另外一方就會執著在記得哈瑪斯拍攝的影片或他們在10月7日的行徑，而他們確實也執著於此，這也意味我們無法阻止那些孩童死去」。

文／ Lisa Lerer 譯／高詣軒

說文解字看新聞

【高詣軒】

巴勒斯坦武裝團體哈瑪斯10月7日對以色列的突襲殺戮，和以色列長年壓迫巴人及對加薩的報復襲擊，都很惡劣。紐時報導藉歐巴馬之口，道出以巴衝突的道德兩難，要探求whole truth更是談何容易。

文中用aide/staff/staffer描述歐巴馬昔日的幕僚，aide是「助理」，staff是「僚屬」，軍職為「參謀」，為集合名詞：美軍參謀首長聯席會議是Joint Chiefs of Staff，南韓也有類似編制，中文名「合同參謀本部」，英文簡稱均為JCS，美國設主席（chairman），南韓稱「議長」。中華民國國防部參謀本部，英文是General Staff HQ，參謀總長Chief of General Staff（CGS）。Chief of staff中文是「幕僚長」或「參謀長」，可數名詞staffer。

Sloganeering是利用口號而非說理來說服他人，含有貶低義：Politics should be about ideas, rather than sloganeering.

Dig in當不及物動詞片語時，可指處理某一棘手問題或耐心等候：There is nothing we can do except dig in and wait.另一個口語意思是「用餐開動」。