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Israelis, Palestinians Face Sharp Challenges in 2013
Residents of Gaza have yet to recover from the exchange of aerial bombardments with Israel in late November and face rebuilding in the coming year. Six Israelis and more than 170 Palestinians were killed in the eight-day conflict.
Some buildings in Israel were damaged. But in Gaza more than 200 buildings were destroyed and several thousand damaged. It will cost an estimated $300 million to rebuild.
Israel reduced the threat of rockets fired from Gaza by Palestinian militants1. But Gaza-based analyst2 Mkhaimar Abusada says the conflict boosted Islamist Hamas and weakened Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen.
"It's Hamas who is calling the shots. It's Hamas who decides if there is a cease-fire or there isn't going to be a cease-fire. It's not Abu Mazen or the PLO or the secular3 camp in the Palestinian society," Abusada stated.
The Gaza conflict eased the international isolation4 of Hamas as more than half-a-dozen foreign ministers from the region visited for the first time since the Hamas takeover five years ago.
A week after the cease-fire, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution elevating the Palestinians to a non-member observer state.
"Now we have a Palestinian state," Abbas said.
Abbas returned home in triumph but analysts5 say the boost was symbolic6, and temporary.
Israeli analyst Shlomo Brom notes that most of Israel's allies either voted for the Palestinian resolution or abstained7. "The important ramification8 is the strategic ramification, the fact that Israel is becoming isolated9 more and more from even those that traditionally are considered its allies."
Israelis also are worried about efforts in the West to impose boycotts10 and sanctions, and by the rising power of Islamists from popular uprisings in neighboring states.
Palestinian analyst Rami Nasrallah says the real problem is Israel refuses to stop building settlements in the West Bank even though it can never hope to dominate the Palestinians there. "That's the challenge when it comes to the Israeli public. They know how to face a security threat but they don't know how to face peace," noted11 Nasrallah.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been stalled for years. And there is little expectation on either side that they will resume in the coming year.
1 militants | |
激进分子,好斗分子( militant的名词复数 ) | |
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2 analyst | |
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家 | |
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3 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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4 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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5 analysts | |
分析家,化验员( analyst的名词复数 ) | |
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6 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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7 abstained | |
v.戒(尤指酒),戒除( abstain的过去式和过去分词 );弃权(不投票) | |
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8 ramification | |
n.分枝,分派,衍生物 | |
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9 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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10 boycotts | |
(对某事物的)抵制( boycott的名词复数 ) | |
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11 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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