| | Words in the News |
INTRO | | Diplomatic efforts aimed at ending months of violence between Israelis and Palestinians are continuing. Both sides seem as far apart as ever on the question of how the crisis can be resolved. Simon Ingram reports from Jerusalem. |
IN FULL | |  | Listen to the report in full |
 |  | 23rd May 2001 Middle East diplomacy |
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NEWS 1 | | | Listen to the first part of the report |
| | | Two days after the international Mitchell commission seemed to offer a way out of the cycle of violencegripping Israelis and Palestinians, a breakthrough looks more unlikely than ever. Palestinian officials have reacted angrily to last night's call by Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, for an immediate unconditional ceasefire, and to the Israeli army's promise of a more restrained posture by its troops. The Palestinian cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdul Rahman, said the promise that Israeli troops would now only open fire in cases of life-threatening danger was a trick. Talk of a ceasefire was misleading too, Mr Adbul Rahman said, because what was really needed was an end to aggression by the Israeli army and armed settlers against the Palestinian people. |
| | | | Listen to the words |
WORDS | | a way out of the cycle of violence - an opportunity to stop repeated acts of violence
gripping - affecting strongly
a breakthrough - an important development or achievement
unconditional ceasefire - an agreement to stop fighting which has no limits or conditions applied to it; an absolute cease-fire
restrained posture - a less aggressive attitude
life-threatening danger - the troops will only shoot if they think they are going to be killed themselves |
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| NEWS 2 | | | Listen to the second part of the report |
| | | Clashes last night between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen near Jerusalem underlined the difficulty of making new military strategies stick on the ground. In this climate of mistrust and recrimination, efforts by the United States and the European Union to coax the protagonists back from the brink of all-out conflict are an uphill struggle. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, is to meet Mr Sharon later today, but he's unlikely to get much mileage out of the Israeli premier on the critical issue of Jewish settlements. Mr Solana has publicly supported the Palestinian view that a freeze in settlement building is crucial to a resolution of the crisis. Mr Sharon has emphasised that such a move is out of the question. The farthest he's prepared to go is to reiterate his government's promise that no new settlements will be established on occupied land, while insisting that what Israel terms the natural growth of existing settlements will proceed unhindered. |
| | | | Listen to the words |
| WORDS | | stick on the ground - be agreed upon
in this climate of mistrust - in an atmosphere where both sides do not trust each other
to coax the protagonists - to persuade the key people involved
the brink of all-out conflict - the point at which full conflict cannot be avoided
an uphill struggle - if something is an uphill struggle, it is very difficult to achieve
to get much mileage - to get much support for
to reiterate - if you reiterate a statement, you say it again in order to emphasise it |
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| | | Read about the background in BBC News Online |
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