VOA慢速英语20060722a

IN THE NEWS - Hezbollah in Lebanon: A Group With a History of Social Services and Deadly Attacks By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Saturday, July 22, 2006

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim organization formed in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in nineteen eighty-two. The name means Party of God.


Hezbollah militants² during a parade last year

Hezbollah calls itself a resistance group. It took credit when Israel ended the occupation of southern Lebanon in two thousand. The United States, among others, considers it a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah's history of attacks includes the bombing that killed two hundred forty-one Americans in Beirut in nineteen eighty-three. Most of the dead were Marines. That attack led to the withdrawal³ of American peacekeepers from Lebanon. This week Marines were back in Beirut to help Americans leave the country.

Most Western experts believe Hezbollah gets much financial and military support from the Iranian government. Iran says it gives only moral support.

An Iranian spokesman this week denied an Israeli charge that Iranian forces were in Lebanon helping⁴ Hezbollah fire rockets into Israel. He also said Israel would face great losses if it attacked Syria, which withdrew troops from Lebanon last year.

Hezbollah is organized into political and military parts. It has thousands of rockets, which the group has used to kill Israelis. But Hezbollah also provides social services, including schools and hospitals, in Lebanon. And it has entered Lebanese politics. It holds seats in Parliament and, after elections last year, has two members in the government.

Hezbollah operates from mainly Shiite areas of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. American intelligence experts say some members are active in Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is the secretary-general of Hezbollah. He says Israel is the aggressor. He says Muslims have a duty to fight Israeli occupation of their lands. But critics says the group's actions are hurting Lebanon at a time when its economy was beginning to recover from years of civil war.

On Thursday, at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an immediate⁵ end to the hostilities⁶ of the past week. He said Hezbollah started the crisis and is holding the nation of Lebanon hostage. On July twelfth Hezbollah members kidnapped two Israeli soldiers inside Israel. But Mister Annan also condemned⁷ the Israeli military actions that have followed as excessive.

Israel says its goal is to end the threat of attacks from Hezbollah. It also wants the kidnapped soldiers back. Hezbollah's leader demanded a prisoner exchange.

Kofi Annan called for an international conference on putting Security Council guidelines into effect. Israel has said it would welcome any effort on Resolution Fifteen Fifty-Nine. That resolution calls for the deployment⁸ of Lebanese troops along the border, and the disarming⁹ of militant¹ groups including Hezbollah.

And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

7 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

8 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

9 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句