No daylight

ケリー国務長官が先週の日曜日の政治番組でThere is no daylight between us(イスラエルと米国)という発言をしたようですね。



Sec. John Kerry: ‘No Daylight’ Between Israel, U.S. on Goal for Iran Nuclear Program
By MaryAlice Parks
Nov 24, 2013 9:00am

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu call it a bad deal. Are you confident that you can convince him to respect it and that Israel will not take unilateral military action against the Iranian nuclear program?


KERRY: Well, actually, Israel and the United States absolutely share the same goal here. There is no daylight between us with respect to what we want to achieve at this point. We both want to make it certain Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and Iran cannot be in place where they can break out and suddenly get that nuclear weapon.


STEPHANOPOULOS: But the prime minister says this deal won't do that?


KERRY: With this -- that's not accurate. The deal is the beginning and first step. It leads us into the negotiation so that we guarantee that while we are negotiating for the dismantling, while we are negotiating for the tougher provisions, they will not grow the program and their capacity to threaten Israel.

Israel will actually gain a larger breathing space in terms of the breakout capacity of Iran. It's just clear.

なかなか今回のような意味で紹介している辞書は少ないのですが、さすが英辞郎、ピッタリのものが載っていました。

（英辞郎）
There is no daylight between A and B.
AとBの間に違い［隔たり］はない、AとBとは同じものである

（Webster）
daylight
6. a perceptible space, gap, or difference
辞書編集者で、最近はWall Street Journalで言葉の使われ方について毎週コラムを書いているBen Zimmerさんがこの表現を取り上げていました。

WORD ON THE STREET: BEN ZIMMER
'Daylight' Has Its Day in the Political Arena
Nov. 29, 2013 6:53 p.m. ET

After helping to broker an interim nuclear agreement with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry took to the airwaves to insist that the U.S. still sees eye-to-eye with Israel, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scathing dismissal of the deal.

"There is no daylight" between Israel and the U.S., "with respect to what we want to achieve at this point," Mr. Kerry told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" last Sunday. It was a familiar diplomatic refrain: In November alone, White House spokesman Jay Carney told the news media three times that "there is no daylight between the United States and Israel" in preventing Iran's nuclear ambitions.

daylightは「日の光」とか「昼の光」が原義のはず。どうして「隔たり」のような意味を持つようになったのでしょうか。その辺りをZimmerさんが歴史的な経緯とともに説明してくださっています。さまざまな例は是非リンク先の記事を参照ください。

How has "daylight" become such a popular metaphor to portray differences of political opinion? Historically, the answer lies in races—whether on horses, boats or runners' own feet.

In the early 19th century, "daylight" came to be applied to various spaces through which light might creep. That included the space between the brim of a wineglass and the wine: A toastmaster would call for "no daylights" to ensure that all glasses were filled to capacity. A good equestrian was expected to keep close to the horse's saddle, showing no "daylight" while riding.

ここでのdaylightは「光が差し込む余地＝隔たり」なんですね。確かにレースで差がついてない接戦なら光が差し込む余地はありません。このようにイメージがつかめると何てことのない表現になります（苦笑）

外交や政治の世界は直接的な表現よりも婉曲的な表現が好まれるから、このような語も定着したのでしょうか。