VOA英语2010年-Writer Explores Complexity of Middle East Co

The Middle East Conflict has raged for generations, frustrating¹ mediators and diplomats³. How could one person make a positive difference? Gregory Levey tried, and titled the book about his effort, "How To Make Peace In The Middle East In Six Months Or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment."

Gregory Levey is an unlikely peace-maker. The Canadian Jew - now a professor of communication at Toronto's Ryerson University - was a law student with no experience in diplomacy⁴ when he was hired in 2005 to write speeches for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He says the year he spent in the Middle East was a transforming experience.

 

"When I got to Israel I thought it was an optimistic time. By the time I left, I became way more pessimistic," Levey says. "As I learned more and more about the conflict, I realized it's not just black and white. There are millions of shades of gray. As result, I became a lot more cynical⁵ about looking forward for peace, unfortunately. I also grew tired of the extremists on the right and the left, Israelis and Palestinians, everyone just yelling at each other."

 
www.gregorylevey.com
'How To Make Peace In The Middle East In Six Months Or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment' is a humorous attempt to explore the possibilities of finding a lasting⁶ solution to the Middle East conflict.
At that point, he says, he decided⁷ to stop the yelling by acting⁸ as a "freelance diplomat²" resolving the problem himself.

"I spoke⁹ to people from all over the political spectrum¹⁰, from really the right wing to pretty far left wing, Jewish paramilitary extremists, former advisor¹¹ to Yaser Arafat, and a former advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu - on the same day, actually," he says. "I spoke to former Mossad officers. I spoke to lobbyists, politicians, journalists. Beside them, I also spoke to a guy who thinks he's a superhero, named 'Peaceman.' He wears a cape¹² with a peace sign on it, and has a castle. He spends a lot of money, trying to help the Middle East conflict. He's well intentioned, just a little strange."

Levey discussed the issue with Jewish grandmothers and Palestinian shopkeepers. Levey chronicles these experiences and conversations in "How To Make Peace In The Middle East In Six Months Or Less Without Leaving Your Apartment." In the course of his research, Levey found it was possible to at least work for peace without leaving his apartment- by negotiating through the virtual reality of cyberspace¹³, where the Middle East conflict seems to be alive and well.

"I spoke to people who claimed to have witnessed an on-line suicide bombing, which doesn't even make sense to me because there is a second life, which is a virtual life where there is now a virtual Israel and virtual Palestinians," he adds. "They've sort of taken the conflict on-line, which is a bit bizarre to me because in real life, land is limited. The conflict is about land. In the second life, land is unlimited¹⁴, yet they are still fighting. So they managed to find a way to pull the conflict even there."

He says almost all his conversations about ending the conflict ended the same way.

"A lot of people said they've given up on it. That's very sad. Eighty percent of the people I interviewed just don't want to talk about it anymore," he says. "Those are the people who are engaged in it. Yaser Arafat's former advisor said he was moving to Amsterdam. So to me, to see this sheer pessimism¹⁵ across the spectrum is eye-opening because what hope do we have?"

Levey remains¹⁶ a skeptic¹⁷, but says it's important to cling to optimism, and try to find a path to peace before it's too late.

"I'm definitely not an expert," Levey says. "If anything, I feel I know less now than when I started because you see more complexity¹⁸ to the situation, the more you delve¹⁹ into it. So I certainly don't have a plan, but the best case scenario²⁰ is that we can get is a two-state solution where both nations have rights and responsibilities before it's too late. In other words, before, say, there is a huge regional war, which changes everything, before the demographic situation makes it impossible for there to be a Jewish State in the Middle East or before the facts on the ground from the Israeli settlers in the West Bank make it impossible to have a Palestinian State. We need to get there. How to get there? I have no idea."

Although he could not make peace in the Middle East in six months without leaving his apartment, Gregory Levey is satisfied with his attempt. At least he tried, he says, and his voice was heard above all the yelling.

1 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

3 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

5 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

6 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

11 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

12 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

13 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

14 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

15 pessimism   

n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者

参考例句：

• He displayed his usual pessimism.他流露出惯有的悲观。
• There is the note of pessimism in his writings.他的著作带有悲观色彩。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

17 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

18 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

19 delve   

v.深入探究，钻研

参考例句：

• We should not delve too deeply into this painful matter.我们不应该过分深究这件痛苦的事。
• We need to delve more deeply into these questions.这些是我们想进一步了解的。

20 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。