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A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Israel’s media and prosecutors after he finally took the stand in his long-running corruption trial, deriding the proceedings as a dangerous distraction from the country’s wars in the Middle East.
本雅明•内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)终于在其旷日持久的腐败案审判中出庭作证,随后他蔑视地谴责了以色列的媒体和检察官,斥责诉讼程序是对该国中东战争的危险干扰。
The prime minister’s appearance, the first of what could end up being weeks of questioning, took place after repeated legal wrangling by his team designed to prevent him from being called on to testify. Proceedings began in 2020 but were long delayed by Covid, legal manoeuvring and the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
这位以色列总理此次出庭可能是持续数周的质询的第一场,此前他的团队多次进行法律缠斗以阻止他被传唤作证。诉讼程序始于2020年,但由于新冠肺炎、法律手段以及加沙和黎巴嫩战争而被长期推迟。
Netanyahu’s harshest domestic critics have accused him of extending the conflict against Hamas in Gaza to delay this day of reckoning, while his supporters have demanded that he be unencumbered in order to lead the war effort.
内塔尼亚胡在国内最严厉的批评者指责他延长了与哈马斯在加沙的冲突,以推迟清算的这一天,而他的支持者则要求他不受阻碍地领导战争。
The prime minister, who was charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three complex, overlapping criminal cases focused on his relationships with wealthy business people, attempted to establish in the courtroom what he has alleged for years: that a left-wing media and prosecutorial cabal was engaged in a “ruthless witch-hunt”.
内塔尼亚胡总理在三起复杂、重叠的刑事案件中被指控犯有贿赂、欺诈和背信罪,这些案件都集中在他与富商的关系上,他试图在法庭上确立他多年来的指控:左翼媒体和检方阴谋集团正在进行一场“无情的政治迫害”。
Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu accepted expensive presents such as champagne and cigars from wealthy friends in return for favours, and in other instances, offered regulatory advantages to media outlets to win favourable coverage. He has denied all the charges.
检察官指控内塔尼亚胡接受富商朋友赠送的香槟和雪茄等昂贵礼物以交换好处,内塔尼亚胡还向媒体提供监管方面的好处以赢得有利的报道。内塔尼亚胡否认了所有指控。
The hours of testimony on Tuesday barely touched on the facts at the heart of the case, however. Instead, Netanyahu’s attorneys led him through a line of questioning in which he presented himself as the harangued leader of an embattled state, who worked 17 hours a day to keep Israelis safe while fighting off lies and libel from journalists.
然而,周二数小时的证词几乎没有触及案件的核心事实。相反,内塔尼亚胡的律师引导他进行了一系列提问,在这些提问中,内塔尼亚胡将自己描述成一个备受指责的国家领导人,他每天工作17个小时以保证以色列人的安全,还要与记者的谎言和诽谤作斗争。
“I took criticism and attacks, insults, libel and lies, in a scope that very few people, and no one in Israel has ever faced,” he said. “There has never been such a biased media in any democracy, possibly in any country on Earth, as there is in Israel.”
他说:“我受到了批评和攻击、侮辱、诽谤和谎言,其范围之广是以色列很少有人面对过的。在任何一个民主国家,可能在地球上的任何一个国家,从来没有像以色列这样有偏见的媒体。”
His meandering testimony swung between crucial world events — from the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that partitioned the Middle East between western powers to Netanyahu’s 2015 break with then US president Barack Obama over Iran’s nuclear programme — and the mundane.
他的证词东拉西扯,在重大世界事件和世俗事件之间来回横跳,从1916年西方列强瓜分中东的《赛克斯-皮科协定》说到2015年内塔尼亚胡与时任美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马就伊朗核计划决裂。
The prime minister discussed his work habits, the number of documents he signed a day and the rare cigar he allows himself but, he said, he never has a chance to finish.
这位总理谈到了他的工作习惯、每天签署的文件数量,以及他偶尔允许自己抽雪茄,但他说,他从来没有机会抽完。
“Sometimes I sin with a cigar that I can’t even smoke in peace because of the constant interruptions,” he said. “And by the way, I hate champagne.”
他说:“有时我会心怀愧疚地抽根雪茄,但因为不停地被打断,我甚至无法安静地抽完。顺便说一句,我讨厌香槟。”
The trial has convulsed the nation’s politics, triggering multiple elections and has pitted Israel’s longest-serving premier — who began his first of several terms in 1996 — against a judicial system he has sought to tame through controversial reforms that triggered mass street protests.
这场审判震惊了以色列政坛,引发了多次选举,并使这位以色列任职时间最长的总理——1996 年开始他的第一个任期——与司法系统针锋相对,他试图通过引发大规模街头抗议的争议性改革来驯服该系统。
Netanyahu, who has become increasingly reliant on the support of far-right political parties to stay in power, suffered a dramatic drop in popularity over his failure to prevent the October 7 2023 surprise raid by Hamas, in which the Palestinian militant group killed 1,200 people.
内塔尼亚胡越来越依赖极右翼政党的支持来继续执政,2023年10月7日,哈马斯发动突然袭击,造成1200人死亡,内塔尼亚胡因未能阻止袭击而声望急剧下降。
Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and Netanyahu’s domestic approval ratings have improved as the country landed devastating military blows against Hamas, Hizbollah in Lebanon, and Iran.
据巴勒斯坦卫生官员称,以色列随后在加沙发动的攻势已造成4.4万多人死亡,而随着以色列对哈马斯、黎巴嫩真主党和伊朗发动毁灭性军事打击,内塔尼亚胡的国内支持率也有所提高。
The testimony is set to turn more confrontational in the coming days when prosecutors are finally able to question him about the evidence they have collected in multiyear probes.
未来几天,当检察官终于可以就多年调查收集到的证据向内塔尼亚胡提问时,内塔尼亚胡的证词将变得更具对抗性。
Those include allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara were plied with hundreds of thousands worth of expensive gifts, and that Netanyahu offered a trade to a newspaper publisher in which he would receive favourable coverage in exchange for helping dent a rival newspaper’s circulation.
这些证据包括内塔尼亚胡及其妻子萨拉被赠送价值数十万美元的昂贵礼物,以及内塔尼亚胡向一家报纸出版商提出交易:通过帮助削弱竞争对手报纸的发行量,以获得对他有利的报道。
But on the first day of the trial that could decide not just his political future, but also his personal freedom, Netanyahu unveiled a legal strategy that mirrors his political persona: that of a man who has sacrificed much for the nation, now the subject of a witch hunt that places Israel itself at risk.
然而,内塔尼亚胡在审判——该审判不仅可能决定他的政治未来,还可能决定他的个人自由——的第一天就公布了他的法律策略,这反映了他的政治形象:一个为国家做出巨大牺牲的人,现在却成为一场政治迫害的对象,使以色列自身面临危险。
During his short stints out of office, Netanyahu said: “I enjoyed trips, meals, even made a good living.” But then, he told the court, he was called back to serve Israel. “I went back to the coal mines.”
内塔尼亚胡说,在他短暂的卸任期间:“我享受旅行,享受美食,甚至过上了好日子。”但随后,他告诉法庭,他被召回为以色列服务。“我又回来做苦力了。”