 | | | | | | | |
| Words in the News
Monday 08 April 2002
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
| |
|
| |  | | |
Israel opinion poll
Summary: Many places across the world have criticised Israeli attacks on the occupied territories. But according to an opinion poll commissioned by the BBC, eighty-six percent of Israelis agree with the military action. This report from Michael Williams:
| | |
|
| | The News | |
| | | Death in Israel and the occupied territories seems to be followed almost inevitably by retaliation. One funeral begets the next, and the disputed cycle of cause and effect goes back for decades, some would say millennia. In recent weeks, that's happened on a terrible scale. The spate of suicide bombings has provoked a massive military reaction from the Israeli government, a government which is confident of public backing.
An opinion poll for the BBC found that eighty-six percent of Israelis supported the attacks on Palestinian targets; three quarters of them said their support was strong. Many world leaders have warned Israel and the Palestinians that there can be no military solution to their problems. In our test of public opinion, only four out of ten Israelis agreed.
Support for the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is nowhere near as strong as support for his actions. Just under a third said they would vote for him if there were an election tomorrow. But the same number said they would vote for his rival, Binyamin Netanyahu, also on the right of Israeli politics. The left-wing here has been almost silenced by the fighting, and by the obvious public desire to see violence met with violence.
Michael Williams, BBC, Jerusalem
| | |
|
| | The Words
| |
| | | inevitably
certainly will happen
| | |
| | | retaliation
something you do to others which will cause them harm or damage because they have done something similar to you
| | |
| | | begets
an old fashioned word which means to cause or create
| | |
| | | on a terrible scale
to a large and violent degree or amount
| | |
| | | spate
a large number of the same thing happening in a short period of time
| | |
| | | public backing
support and agreement of people in the country
| | |
| | | An opinion poll
a survey in which people are asked what they think about a subject
| | |
| | | targets
towns or buildings which are attacked in a military operation
| | |
| | | nowhere near as strong
much weaker
| | |
| | | rival
a person who you are in competition with, in the same area of work or activity
| | |
|
|
| | Read more about this story | |
| | Other Words in the News archives | |
|
