以色列前領導人佩雷斯逝世
Shimon Peres, the Israeli leader and Nobel Prize-winning peacemaker who coined the phrase the new Middle East, has died at the age of 93 with the region still sadly reminiscent of the old one.
以色列前領導人、曾獲諾貝爾獎(Nobel Prize)並創造新中東(the new Middle East)一詞的和平締造者希蒙•佩雷斯(Shimon Peres)逝世，享年93歲。令人遺憾的是，他身後的中東地區仍然和過去沒什麼兩樣。
One of Israel’s longest-serving public officials, he was prime minister, foreign minister and president at different times and played a role in the country’s history from before its founding.
佩雷斯是以色列供職時間最長的政府官員之一，他曾在不同時期擔任過總理、外交部長和總統，在以色列建國過程中和建國以來的歷史上發揮過重要作用。
He will be best remembered as a father of the Oslo accords, the blueprint that was meant to create a Palestinian state.
他最爲人銘記的身份將是《奧斯陸協議》(Oslo Accords)的締造者之一，該協議是一份旨在建立一個巴勒斯坦國的藍圖。
Peres’ vision of a brighter future for the region was shattered during his later years, when the Israeli-Palestinian peace process floundered amid the violence of the second Palestinian intifada; hopes for a two-state solution all but vanished.
在協議簽署後的若干年裏，佩雷斯對該地區更光明前景的設想被擊得粉碎，巴以和平進程因第二次巴勒斯坦大起義(the second Palestinian intifada)的暴力衝突而擱淺；達成兩國方案(two-state solution)的希望幾近破滅。
He grew increasingly disillusioned that the prospects for peace had slipped away under successive hardline governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the rightwing prime minister who defeated him and his Labour party at the polls in 1996 and went on to serve four terms in office.
令佩雷斯愈發失望的是，在本雅明•內塔尼亞胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)領導的連續幾屆強硬派政府的執政下，實現和平的可能性已經消失。來自右翼陣營的內塔尼亞胡在1996年的選舉中擊敗了佩雷斯及其所在的工黨(Labour)，並出任了四屆總理。
While remaining a voice for peace as Israel’s ninth president in 2007-14, his interventions on matters of war and peace in that ceremonial role were largely symbolic.
儘管在2007年到2014年期間，作爲以色列第九任總統的佩雷斯依然是和平的一大呼籲者，但在這一禮儀性的職位上，他對戰爭與和平事務的干預基本上只具象徵性意義。
As an elder of Israel’s postwar Ashkenazi liberal elite, he often seemed out of step with a demographically changing Israel as it came to display a right-leaning political plurality and a citizenry sceptical about ever reaching a negotiated peace deal with the Palestinians.
作爲以色列戰後阿什肯納茲猶太人自由派精英中的一位長者，他常常顯得與人口構成正在變化的以色列不太合拍。在以色列政壇，右傾人士開始佔相對多數，公民們對能否通過談判與巴勒斯坦人達成和平協議開始持懷疑態度。
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski on August 2 1923 in what was Wieniawa in Poland (today Vishniev, Belarus) and sailed with his parents, a wealthy timber merchant and a volunteer librarian, at the age of 11 to British Mandate Palestine.
希蒙•佩雷斯1923年8月2日生於波蘭的維涅瓦（Wieniawa，即今白俄羅斯的維什涅瓦(Vishniev)），出生時的名字叫希蒙•佩爾斯基(Szymon Perski)。11歲那年，他隨父母坐船來到英國託管的巴勒斯坦。他的父親是一位富有的木材商人，母親是一位志願圖書管理員。
