America and the Middle East 美国与中东
How to learn from history
如何以史为鉴
Dec 30th 2008
From The Economist print edition
What Barack Obama can learn from Bill Clinton’s failed peacemaking
巴拉克•奥巴马能够从比尔•克林顿失败的和平行动中学到什么
AP
IF ONLY men could learn from history. Alas, experience is a “lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us”. It is fitting that Martin Indyk, one of America’s most seasoned diplomats in the Middle East, starts his insider’s account of peacemaking under Bill Clinton with this famous passage by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. For if Barack Obama intends to make peace between Israel and the Arabs, his first job is to understand why Mr Clinton, the last president to make a real effort to do so, discovered that he could not.
要是人们都能以史为鉴就好了。唉,经验就是“一盏船尾的灯,它只在我们身后的波涛上放光”。马丁•因迪克是美国在中东最老练的外交官之一,他作为知情人士,使用塞缪尔•泰勒•科尔里奇的一段著名文章来开始解释克林顿领导下的和平行动,是很适合的。因为巴拉克•奥巴马如果要想创造以色列与阿拉伯国家之间的和平,他的第一个工作就是理解为什么上面提到的这位总统克林顿先生,为这个和平做出了实际的努力,却发现他不可能做到。
Mr Clinton faced far riper circumstances in the 1990s than Mr Obama inherits today. He had in Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s prime minister, a visionary leader willing to return the Golan Heights to Syria and negotiate directly with Yasser Arafat, whom previous Israeli leaders considered an incorrigible terrorist. America wielded vast regional influence following its routing of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Arafat himself, having alienated many Arab leaders by supporting Saddam, was short of friends, cash and alternatives; the “freedom fighter” seemed anxious to give diplomacy a chance.
克林顿先生在上个世纪九十年代面对的是较奥巴马先生继承的现在这个时代远为成熟的环境。克林顿把依扎克•拉宾请了过来,拉宾是以色列总理,他是一位充满幻想的领导者,愿意归还戈兰高地给叙利亚并直接与亚西尔•阿拉法特谈判,阿拉法特被以前的以色列的领导者们视为无可救药的恐怖分子。美国在继针对萨达姆•侯赛因行使的在科威特的政治路线和苏联解体后,发挥了巨大的地区性影响。阿拉法特自己因为支持萨达姆而疏远了很多阿拉伯国家领导人,他少钱寡友,没有选择的余地;这位“自由斗士”似乎渴望在外交上能给予一个机会。
Mr Indyk claims that the Clinton administration invested more time and prestige on this than on any other area of foreign policy. It is certainly the case that most of the Americans and Israelis who took part in the Camp David summit of 2000, and who have subsequently written accounts of what went wrong, blame Arafat rather than themselves for its collapse.
因迪克先生声称,克林顿政府在和平行动上比在其它任何外交领域都投入了更多的时间和影响力。大部分参加了2000年戴维营最高级会议的美国和以色列成员,都因为这次会议的失败而指责阿拉法特而不是他们自己,他们还在会议后写了一份解释出错事情的文件,当时情形就是这样。
Since the members of Mr Clinton’s peace team were Jewish (Mr Indyk says one Arab journalist called them “the five rabbis”), their neutrality is sometimes questioned. Mr Indyk himself, originally an Australian, once worked for the chief Israeli lobby in America, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, before becoming a diplomat and serving twice as America’s ambassador to Israel. Yet he admits mistakes and avoids blaming Arafat alone, confessing that the “dark side” of the “innocent optimism” with which America tackled diplomacy in the Middle East was a naivety bred of arrogance. The main impression his book leaves is of the unforgiving complexity of this conflict, in a region where many conflicts connect together, and where the interplay of personality and politics can so often trip up history.
因为克林顿先生的和平小组成员都是犹太人(因迪克先生说一位阿拉伯记者称这个小组为“五拉比”),他们的中立性常常被质疑。因迪克先生本人原先是澳大利亚人,在成为一名外交官并充当美国对以色列的双重大使之前,曾供职于以色列在美国的重要的游说团——美以公共事务委员会。然而他承认了一些错误,并避免单独指责阿拉法特,他坦白承认了美国在处理中东问题所带有的“天真的乐观主义”的“灰暗面”,就是被惯养出来的傲慢自大的天真。他的书留给人的重要印象就是这一灰暗面的影响造成的某一地区的不可原谅的复杂性,在这一地区,很多冲突交织在一起,并且个人和政策的影响相互作用,可能经常因此使历史走错了方向。
One problem, for example, was that Rabin was in a hurry. Mr Clinton was thrilled to hear in 1993 that the former general was willing to cede the Golan Heights for peace with Syria. But Rabin did not reveal that he was also negotiating secretly in Oslo with Arafat. So while Mr Clinton focused merrily on squeezing a Syrian deal out of the late Hafez al-Assad, Rabin was in the end more enticed by the cheaper (since it pushed Palestinian statehood into the future) and quicker bargain he thought he could strike with Arafat. In the event, the Syrian track failed. The deal with Arafat, which was consummated with pomp and sentiment in the Rose Garden handshake of September 1993, was deeply flawed.
例如,一个问题就是,拉宾在位时间极短,便匆匆离开人世。在1993年,克林顿害怕听到拉宾这位前将军愿意为了与叙利亚的和平放弃戈兰高地。然而拉宾没有透露,他正在奥斯陆与阿拉法特秘密谈判。因此当克林顿兴冲冲地集中精力在叙利亚的一份由已故总统哈菲兹•阿萨德签署的协定上施加压力的时候,拉宾更被他认为他可以和阿拉法特达成的一份更容易和更快速的协议所吸引(因为它将巴勒斯坦建国向未来推进)。在这件事情上,叙利亚路线失败了。与阿拉法特的这份协议,于1993年在玫瑰园以同步交换方式达成,带有虚饰和情绪化的成分,是有严重缺陷的。
Mr Indyk believes the failure of a second stab at a Syrian deal by Ehud Barak, another Israeli prime minister in a hurry, severely weakened Mr Clinton’s hand. With the Syrian track dead, Arafat knew as he set off reluctantly for the Camp David summit in 2000 that the hopes of Mr Clinton and Mr Barak now depended on him. Arafat feared being caught in a pincer and dared not make too big a compromise just as Palestinians were starting to admire Hizbullah’s success in ousting Israel from Lebanon by force and not diplomacy.
因迪克先生认为,第二次在一份由另一位在位时间极短的前以色列总理胡德•巴拉克做出的叙利亚协定上的尝试的失败,严重的削弱了克林顿先生的作用。由于叙利亚路线的失败,阿拉法特知道,当他不情愿的前往戴维营参加2000年的最高级会议时,克林顿先生和拉宾先生的希望这时都寄托在了他的身上。这时正当巴勒斯坦人开始赞叹黎巴嫩真主党成功地从黎巴嫩用武力而不是外交驱逐了以色列人,阿拉法特担心陷入一个钳制,不敢做出太大的妥协。
So Mr Indyk thinks that Arafat arrived at Camp David determined to avoid being cornered. And when Mr Barak’s otherwise big concessions stopped short of yielding Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif, where the great mosques stand, Arafat got the pretext he needed. He could walk away as an Arab hero and await a better offer. A better offer, including sovereignty over the Haram, duly came in “the Clinton parameters”. But by then a new intifada had caught fire, Arafat could not bring himself to answer with a clear yes and the moment passed. The Palestinian leaders, says Mr Indyk, later misled their people into believing that Mr Clinton had offered only three disconnected cantons on the West Bank. In fact he had offered the whole of Gaza, 94-96% of the West Bank, 1-3% compensation for the rest, the Arab parts of Jerusalem and sovereignty over the Haram.
因此因迪克先生认为,来到戴维营的阿拉法特决定避免被逼入绝境。而且当巴拉克先生的另外的大的妥协没有能导致产生巴勒斯坦人对耶路撒冷的高尚避难所(大清真寺座落在那里)的主权时,阿拉法特得到了他需要的借口。他可以作为一个阿拉伯英雄走开,并等待更好的提议。一个更好的提议适时地进入了“克林顿参数”中,包括对高尚避难所的主权。但是这时一场新的暴动已经发生,阿拉法特没有能够使自己做出肯定的回答,而且时机已经过去。因迪克先生说,巴勒斯坦的领导者们后来误导他们的人民相信,克林顿先生仅仅提议了约旦河西岸三个不相连的州。实际上,克林顿先生提议的是整个加沙,约旦河西岸94-96%的部分,对于其余地方是1-3%的补偿,耶路撒冷的阿拉伯部分和对高尚避难所的主权。
By pushing Oslo even though America had wanted Syria first, says Mr Indyk, Israel showed that the Israeli tail could wag the American dog. But he does not say as much as he is supremely qualified to about the Israel lobby’s influence on diplomacy, beyond debunking the idea that this is the main thing that makes presidents go easy on Israel. He says shared values and interests, and long experience of co-operation, not least in intelligence, matter more. Allied to this is a tendency in peacemaking for America to defer to Israel’s ideas “because its ally is the one that has to make the tangible concessions of territory”.
因迪克先生说,尽管美国首先希望走叙利亚路线,但通过推动奥斯陆谈判,以色列表示,以色列后面的政策将完全摆向美国。但是因迪克先生并没有提到,对于以色列游说团在外交政策的影响上,他差不多是最有资格的,除了揭露了这个思想——就是美国总统温和的对待以色列是非常重要的事。他说,美以共有的价值和利益,以及在情报上并不是最少的长期的合作,是更要紧的事。与此相联系的就是美国和平行动上的一个趋向,即遵从以色列的想法“因为它的盟友必须是切实地做出领土上的让步的那个才是”。
Should the next president pile greater pressure on Israel? For all Rabin’s courage, notes Mr Indyk, he was “deeply cautious” towards the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories because he wanted to preserve his domestic political capital. Mr Indyk now thinks America should stand up to Israeli leaders when they plead political trouble at home to fend off pressure to curb settlements. He admits that Mr Clinton went easy not only because he sympathised with the predicament of his Israeli friends but also because George Bush senior’s harsh confrontation with Israel over settlements in the 1990s was considered later to have taken a serious toll of the president’s domestic support.
下一任总统会在以色列身上施加更大的压力吗?因迪克先生指出,尽管拉宾是有勇气的,但他对待在被占领领土上的犹太移民是非常谨慎的,因为他希望保护他在国内的政治资本。当以色列在为国内的政治动乱找借口以避开限制移民引起的压力时,因迪克先生认为,现在美国应该坚决地抵制以色列的领导人。他承认,克林顿先生进行得比较温和不仅是因为他同情它的以色列朋友们的困境,而且是因为乔治•布什这位老前辈在对以色列移民问题上的严厉的抵制,后来被认为付出了总统的国内支持的沉重的代价。
If Mr Indyk is a consummate insider, Patrick Tyler is a professional outsider: a reporter who has worked for the New York Times and Washington Post and who is best known for his 1999 book, “A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China”. His new work, “A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East” uses the same format to tell America’s Middle Eastern story from General Eisenhower to George Bush.
如果因迪克先生可算得上是一位老练的内部人士,那么帕特里克•泰勒就是一位专业的局外人:他是一位曾供职于《纽约时代》周刊和《华盛顿邮报》的记者,因其1999年的《长城:六位总统与中国》一书而闻名。他的新作《纷扰的世界:白宫与中东》,使用同样的形式讲述了美国从艾森豪威尔将军到乔治•布什在中东问题上的历史。
The book has the merits and defects you might expect. It is fast-paced and well-sourced but runs right from before the six-day war of 1967 to the present, and so has often to oversimplify. Mr Tyler may also be a little too fond of glib judgments: Mr Clinton’s peacemaking failed because he lacked the necessary “unwavering principle, and political discipline”; the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was “a fraudulent act of militarism”; and so forth. Still, for anyone needing a reminder of how America got into its present pickle in the region, this is a brisk, enjoyable way to get it. At times, as befits the Middle East, it reads almost like a thriller. Mr Obama had better take a deep breath before diving in.
这本书拥有您可以预料到的优点和缺点。它是快节奏和资料来源丰富的,而且从1967年的六日战争之前一直讲到现在,因此也经常过于简单化。泰勒先生也许是太喜欢无拘束的下判断:克林顿先生的和平行动的失败是因为他缺乏必要的“坚定的原则和政治的磨练”;2003年的入侵伊拉克是“一个欺骗性的黩武主义行径”;等等。尽管如此,对于任何一个需要提醒关于美国如何处理当前在这一地区的困境的人来说,这本书是一个尖刻的、有趣的理解方式。有时,这种评论是适合中东的,它听起来几乎象一部恐怖小说。奥巴马先生在纵身跃入这一浑水之前,最好还是来一个深呼吸。
Innocent Abroad: An Intimate History of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East
By Martin Indyk 
Simon & Schuster; 512 pages; $30
Buy it at
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East—From the Cold War to the War on Terror
By Patrick Tyler 
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 640 pages; $30. To be published in Britain by Portobello Books in February
Buy it at
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
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名词释义:
1.伊扎克•拉宾(Yitzhak Rabin,1922年3月1日-1995年11月4日),以色列政治家、军事家。伊扎克•拉宾在特拉维夫长大,曾在农业学校和美国迈阿密大学受过教育。拉宾1940年底加入“帕尔马赫突击队”(犹太人秘密武装组织),第二次世界大战时参加盟军在叙利亚的敌后作战。1974年至1977年出任以色列总理;1992年起再次出任总理,直至1995年被刺身亡。他是首位出生于以色列本土的总理,首位被刺杀和第二位在任期间辭世的总理。以色列首位任內离世的总理是列维•埃什科。
2. 戈兰高地
(英文: Golan Heights,阿拉伯文: هضبة الجولان Hadhbat al-Jaulan,希伯来文: רמת הגולן Ramat HaGolan))南北长71公里,中部最宽处约43公里,面积1150平方公里(也有报道称为1176平方公里)。位于叙利亚西南部,约旦河谷地东侧。东到鲁卡德河、南到亚尔木克河、北到赫尔蒙山东坡,其西南临约旦河上游的太巴列湖,具有丰富的水资源。最高处海拔2724米。1967年中东战争期间被以色列占领至今。
戈兰高地南部为农耕区,北部的谢赫山麓为林木和灌丛所覆盖的牧场。居民约15000人,大多是德鲁兹派穆斯林,并且大部分人拒绝加入以色列国籍而保留叙利亚国籍。
戈兰高地西以色列接壤,居高临下,是叙利亚西南边陲的战略要地,从戈兰高地可以俯瞰以色列加利利谷地。高地上公路交通网密布,库奈特拉城为此地重镇,有公路直通叙利亚首都大马士革,只有60公里路程。
戈兰高地有人居住以来,就一直都是兵家必争之地。根据考古纪录,现时最早在当地居住的是亚摩利人(Amorites),从公元前3千年到前2千年就已在当地居住。之后,阿兰人(Arameans)占领了当地,并改名为巴珊地。巴珊地的南部曾是以色列王国的一部份,属于拿弗他利支族。公元前8世纪时,被阿兰王便哈达夺去。北国以色列的第四王朝君主亚哈后来打败了便哈达,并从阿兰人手上夺取戈兰高地南部(参看《圣经‧列王纪上20章)。
公元前7世纪,戈兰高地落入亚述人手上,但很也又被巴比伦人及波斯人占领。公元前5世纪,被掳走的以色列人被释放后,有部份在这里定居。
公元前4世纪,亚历山大大帝东征,占领了戈兰高地。当地从此一直受到希腊文化所薰陶,直到罗马帝国扩张至此为止。公元前2世纪中叶,当地受到塞琉西王朝袭击。这时的戈兰高地已不再属于犹太人,但当时的犹太人祭师长玛喀比仍然协助当地的犹太人去对抗塞琉西人。
戈兰这个名称是从罗马帝国才开始使用,而这个名称源自之前占领该地的希腊人。他们一直称呼该地为“高卢人的地方”。
3.亚西尔•阿拉法特(Yasser Arafat)是巴勒斯坦民族解放运动的发起者,一位出色的民族领袖,也是20世纪的一位重要历史人物。正是在他的带领之下,巴勒斯坦民族解放斗争成为国际政治中的倍受关注的重大事件之一。为了表彰阿拉法特为和平做出的贡献,1993年9月,联合国教科文组织授予他“博瓦尼和平奖”。1994年,他与以色列总理拉宾、外长佩雷斯共同获得该年的诺贝尔和平奖。
2004年11月11日11:58 巴勒斯坦民族权力机构主席阿拉法特在巴黎逝世。
4.戴维营,美国总统的别墅。在首都华盛顿西北100多公里。原是美国马里兰州卡托克廷山地三大公共游乐园之一。1939年作为罗斯福总统的避暑别墅,改名“香格里拉”,意为世外桃源。1953年艾森豪威尔总统又改名为戴维营。它包括十多幢乡村式平房,散落在143英亩丛林中。主要设施有直升飞机场、会议室、游泳池、音乐厅、球场等。
5.拉比:原意为教师,即口传律法的教师。古代原指精通经典律法的学者。2~6世纪曾作为口传律法汇编者的称呼。后在犹太教社团中,指受过正规宗教教育,熟习《圣经》和口传律法而担任犹太教会众精神领袖或宗教导师的人。自耶路撒冷圣殿被毁后,拉比遵循法利赛派著作精神,根据口传律法经典及评注文献观点,逐步演绎一整套敬神作人的准则。以此规范的犹太教亦称拉比犹太教。拉比在犹太教各派内的职责是主持礼拜,参加婚礼、受诫礼、丧礼、割礼等;讲解教义,劝导信徒,督察青少年宗教教育;出席律法裁判庭,审理私人身分法案件。现代拉比还参与社会和慈善工作。以色列设有拉比院,有两位大拉比,分别代表西班牙系和德系犹太教。
6.六日战争,第三次中东战争。1967年阿、以矛盾和美、苏对中东的争夺加剧,以色列在美国支持下进一步向外扩张,借口埃及(当时称阿拉伯联合共和国)封锁亚喀巴湾,于6月5日向阿拉伯国家发起突然袭击。以军乘埃军早饭和军官上班前戒备松懈之机,集中使用200架飞机空袭埃及各空军基地,将埃军绝大部分飞机摧毁于地面,尔后又击毁叙利亚、约旦大量飞机;并出动22个旅实施多方向快速突击,4天内占领西奈半岛和加沙地区,继而攻占耶路撒冷东城区和约旦河西岸地区,10日攻占叙利亚戈兰高地。埃及对以军突袭估计不足,损失惨重。约、埃、叙先后被迫同意停火。结果,以色列又占领6.5万多平方公里的阿拉伯领土,数十万巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人被赶出家园(表1第三次中东战争阿以双方军事实力与战争损失概略统计)。 第三次中东战争后,阿、以对抗继续发展。埃海军舰艇于1967年10月使用舰舰导弹击沉以军驱逐舰“埃拉特”号,首创导弹击沉军舰的纪录。从1968年下半年开始,埃炮兵部队向运河东岸以军实施大规模炮击。以军则从1969年下半年开始向运河西岸包括开罗周围地区实施战略空袭。双方还各派突击队偷袭对方。1970年8月停火。这两年的战斗被称为“消耗战”。阿、以双方分别从苏、美得到新式武器装备,为下次战争做准备。苏、美对中东的争夺加剧是导致第四次中东战争的重要国际原因。
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