歐巴馬籲全美看清加薩衝突全貌

Barack Obama offered a complex analysis of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, telling thousands of former aides that they were all “complicit to some degree” in the current bloodshed.

美國前總統歐巴馬針對以色列和加薩的衝突，提供了繁複的分析，並向數千名過去的幕僚表示，他們每個人在當前的流血衝突中「或多或少都是共犯」。

“I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward, as hard as I tried?’” he said in an interview conducted by his former staffers for their podcast, Pod Save America. “But there’s a part of me that’s still saying, ‘Well, was there something else I could have done?’”

「我看到這件事，就回想著：『我擔任總統時，可以竭盡所能做出何種努力，來讓事態有所進展？』」，歐巴馬在前幕僚經營的Podcast節目「Pod佑美國」接受訪談時表示，「但在我內心的一隅，有個聲音依然說著：『唉呀，我當時又能多做什麼？』」

Obama entered the White House convinced he could be the president who would resolve the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He left office after years of friction and mistrust with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was frustrated by Obama’s masterminding of the Iran nuclear deal and by his demands that Israel suspend new settlements.

歐巴馬踏進白宮之際，深信他會是解決以色列和巴勒斯坦數十年來衝突的總統。他卸任時，和以總理內唐亞胡已有數年齟齬和不信任；內唐亞胡不滿歐巴馬一手主導伊朗核協議，以及他要求以色列暫緩建立新屯墾區。

In his comments Friday, delivered at a gathering of his former staff in Chicago, Obama acknowledged the strong emotions the war had raised, saying that “this is century-old stuff that’s coming to the fore.” He blamed social media for amplifying the divisions and reducing a thorny international dispute to what he viewed as sloganeering.

歐巴馬周五向聚首於芝加哥的前幕僚們發表談話，承認這場戰爭激起強烈情緒，他稱：「這是一場浮上檯面的百年事件」。他譴責社群媒體放大分歧，把一項棘手國際爭端簡化為口號混戰。

Yet he urged his former aides to “take in the whole truth,” seemingly attempting to strike a balance between the killings on both sides.

但他呼籲前幕僚們要「理解真相的全貌」，似力圖在雙方承受的殺戮間求平衡。

“What Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it,” Obama said. “And what is also true is that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable.”

「哈瑪斯行徑駭人聽聞，無從以正當藉口開脫」，歐巴馬說，「但（以色列）占領和巴人正遭受的一切令人無法容忍，這也是事實」。

He continued: “And what is also true is that there is a history of the Jewish people that may be dismissed unless your grandparents or your great-grandparents, or your uncle or your aunt tell you stories about the madness of antisemitism. And what is true is that there are people right now who are dying, who have nothing to do with what Hamas did.”

他繼續說道：「同為事實的還有：有一段猶太人歷史可能會被抹滅，除非你的祖父母、曾祖父母，或你的叔叔、阿姨向你講述有關反猶太主義的瘋狂故事。同為事實的還有：有些與哈瑪斯的作為毫無瓜葛的人們，此時正在死去。」

Still, Obama appeared to acknowledge the limits of his musings about bridging divides and embracing complexity.

但歐巴馬似乎也承認，自己對於化解對立及擁抱複雜性有其限制。

“Even what I just said, which sounds very persuasive, still doesn’t answer the fact of, all right, how do we prevent kids from being killed today?” he said. “But the problem is that if you are dug in on that, well, the other side is dug in remembering the videos that Hamas took or what they did on the 7th, and they’re dug in, too, which means we will not stop those kids from dying.”

「雖然我剛才說的一切，聽起來非常有說服力，但仍無法回答一事實：那麼，我們今日要如何阻止孩童遭到殺害？」他說，「但問題是，如果你執著於那個問題，那麼，另外一方就會執著在記得哈瑪斯拍攝的影片或他們在10月7日的行徑，而他們確實也執著於此，這也意味我們無法阻止那些孩童死去」。

氣候變遷風險升高之際 富國反削減援助

Wealthy countries have decreased the amount of money they commit for helping developing countries cope with the effects of climate change, even as the need for that spending has grown, the United Nations said in a report issued Thursday.

聯合國在周四發布的一份報告指出，富有國家已減少他們承諾幫助開發中國家處理氣候變遷影響的金錢數額，即使這方面支出需求已增加。

Aid for climate adaptation fell to $21 billion in 2021, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available, a drop of 15% from 2020, most likely the result of increased financial pressure on wealthy countries resulting from COVID-19 and other challenges, according to the authors.

報告作者們指出，在可得到全面數據最近年度的2021年，氣候調適援助跌到210億美元，較2020年下降了15%，最可能是因為新冠病毒與其他挑戰造成富國財政壓力增加。

The United States posted one of the greatest reductions in climate adaptation aid of any country between 2020 and 2021, the authors found. In 2021, the United States committed $129 million in aid for climate adaptation, compared with $245 million in 2020, a drop of 47%.

作者們發現，在2020年至2021年，美國是所有國家裡氣候調適援助削減最多者之一。美國在2021年承諾1.29億美元氣候調適援助，跟2020年的2.45億美元相比，下降了47%。

A White House spokesperson, Angelo Fernández Hernández, said the report “does not represent the full picture of what the U.S. is doing on climate adaptation.” He said the Biden administration secured about $2 billion in climate adaptation funding for the 2022 fiscal year.

白宮發言人赫南德茲表示，這篇報告「不代表美國在氣候調適作為的全貌」。他說，拜登政府為2022財政年度確保了約20億美元的氣候調適資金。

Developing nations will need between $215 billion and $387 billion annually this decade to protect against climate shocks, such as worsening storms, crop failures and loss of access to water, the report found. That’s as much as 18 times greater than the total amount that wealthy countries committed for climate adaptation in 2021.

報告發現，開發中國家在這個十年每年需要2150億至3870億美元，以防範氣候衝擊，例如日趨嚴重的風暴、作物歉收與失去用水，這是富國2021年投入氣候調適總金額的18倍。

The new data comes weeks before the start of a major United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where aid to developing countries will be a top agenda item. At a similar summit two years ago in Glasgow, Scotland, countries agreed to double their climate adaptation funding by 2025, compared with 2019 levels. Even if nations make good on that pledge, the report said, it would provide just a small share of the additional money needed.

這個新數據在阿聯杜拜舉行的重要聯合國氣候峰會開幕幾周前出現，援助開發中國家將成為此次會議的首要議題。2年前於蘇格蘭格拉斯哥舉行的類似峰會上，各國同意，到2025年將把氣候調適資金比2019年的水平翻倍。報告指出，即便各國兌現這個諾言，將只是提供所需額外資金的一小部分。

The demand for adaptation assistance has grown. The report notes that under current climate policies around the world, global average temperatures would rise at least 2.4 degrees Celsius, or 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with preindustrial levels by the end of this century. That’s far more than the 1.5 degrees Celsius that scientists have set as a target, beyond which the effects of warming threaten to become catastrophic.

對調適援助的需求已增加。報告指出，根據世界各地目前的氣候變遷政策，到了本世紀末，相較於前工業化水平，全球平均氣溫將上升至少攝氏2.4度或華氏4.3度。這遠超過科學家已設定的攝氏1.5度目標，超過這個數字，暖化的影響恐將成為災難。

“Current climate action is woefully inadequate,” the report said.

報告指出，「目前的氣候行動極度匱乏」。