For the past year, the Biden administration has struggled to prevent a regional war in the Middle East, fearing that it might draw in the US or wreak havoc on the world economy.
在过去的一年里，拜登政府一直很难阻止中东地区爆发战争，担心这可能会牵扯到美国或对世界经济造成严重破坏。
This policy is now very close to failing. For the second time this year, Iran has fired missiles at Israel, and the US has helped Israel to shoot the missiles down. Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, has promised that there will be “severe consequences” for Iran and has said that the US will “work with Israel” to ensure that this is the case. That sounds ominously like a threat of joint US-Israeli military action against Iran.
这项政策现在非常接近失败。伊朗今年已经第二次向以色列发射导弹，美国帮助以色列击落了这些导弹。美国国家安全顾问杰克•沙利文(Jake Sullivan)承诺伊朗将面临“严重后果”，并表示美国将“与以色列合作”确保这一点。这听起来像是对伊朗进行联合美以军事行动的威胁。
In April, Israel was persuaded to limit its retaliation to a level that the Iranians could tacitly accept — and the tit-for-tat exchange stopped. This time around, it seems much less likely that the exchange of blows between Iran and Israel can be prevented from escalating further.
今年4月，以色列被说服将其报复行动限制在伊朗人可以默许的范围内，于是针锋相对的交火停止了。而这一次，伊朗和以色列之间的冲突似乎很难避免进一步升级。
Israel has just launched a second front in its war with its regional enemies, with a ground incursion into Lebanon that follows up on the devastating blows it has already landed on Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militant force. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu clearly feels that it has its enemies on the run. It may want to hit back hard at Iran, hoping to do lasting damage to the Islamic republic and perhaps to its feared nuclear programme.
以色列刚刚在与地区敌人的战争中开辟了第二战线，对黎巴嫩进行了地面入侵，这是对伊朗支持的激进武装力量黎巴嫩真主党(Hizbollah)已经遭受的毁灭性打击的继续。本雅明•内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)政府显然认为敌人已经溃不成军。它可能希望对伊朗进行强烈反击，希望对这个伊斯兰共和国以及其可怕的核计划造成持久的损害。