Sentence from VOA: to empower the modern and moderate voices and to disable...

[aleaf]

In my view there is nothing more important to empower the modern and moderate voices and to disable the extremes than if we get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy," he said

is the sentence = to empower the modern and moderate voices and to disable the extremes there is nothing more important than if we get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy?

or the proper oder of the sentence should be "there is nothing more important than to empower the modern and moderate voices and to disable the extremes if we get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy...?

Thanks a lot:))
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[Jamie (K)]

No, the sentence is okay the way he said it. Maybe it will be clearer to you if "empower" is in the gerund form:

"In my view there is nothing more important to empowering the modern and moderate voices and to disabling the extremes than if we get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy," he said

[aleaf]

to empowering the modern and moderate voices and to disabling the extremes
to empowering....to disabling?
shouldn't we say "to do something?"
Thanks again.
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[aleaf]

do you mean "to" here functions as "than", just like in the sentence "I prefer staying at home to going out." ?
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

The expression to pay attention to here is "important to". That is an adjective followed by a the preposition "to". The base form does not follow prepositions; the gerund does. So it should be "important to empowering" and "important to disabling". Some people get mixed up and use an infinitive where they should use "to" and a gerund. That's why the original sentence is slightly incorrect grammatically, but not too unusual.

[aleaf]

you really confused me....Don't we say"It is important to take an immeidiate action to combat the slowing housing market." ?

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[Jamie (K)]

"It is important to do this." In that sentence, the word "it" has no meaning. It is what is called a dummy subject. The sentence means, "People should do this, because it is very important."

"It is important [to disinfect] a wound." ("important" + infinitive)
"It is important [to use] antibiotic ointment [to disinfect] a wound."

BUT:

When you have a sentence with a meaningful subject, the structure changes.

"Antibiotic ointment is [important to] [disinfecting] a wound." (subject + is + "important" + preposition + gerund as object of preposition)

[aleaf]

so the sentence means" if we get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy" is more important than any thing else including "to empowering the modern and moderate voices and to disabling the extremes "
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

No. It means that we want to empower the modern and moderate voices, and we want to disable the extremes. If we want to do that, the most important thing to do is to get peace between Israel and Palestine based on justice and fairness and democracy. That peace is the most important thing.

[aleaf]

oh i got it now thanks a lot
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