Iconography
from St. Paul Orthodox Church in Dayton, Ohio.
Abraham, Moses,
Arabs and Israel: Obama 'Imposing Palestine' is Not the Answer (L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanon)
"Dr.
Khalifé said in two consecutive sentences that the Israelis should have stayed 'at
home in Chaldea,' but that Palestine is 'Arab' in the 'middle of the Arab world.'
So he denounces an invasion that took place 1,800 years before Christ, but endorses
one that occurred 700 years after Christ. If his logic were followed, Arabs
should have 'stayed home in Arabia.' His is not even a utopia, but a dangerous
phantasmagoria that feeds into the biggest conflict in the Middle East."
The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio: According to the Old Testament, God asked Abraham, the first Jew who is also known as the founder of monotheism, to sacrifice his son, Isaac. When Abraham proved his unquestioned devotion to God, an angel is said to have stopped Abraham at the last minute.
In an article entitled President Obama: Impose
Palestine as Truman Imposed Israel, Dr. Charles Khalifé deliberately
falls into the camp of those who have struggled for decades to confine the very
just Palestinian cause to paralysis and despair. Let me explain:
1. Dr. Khalifé said in two consecutive sentences that the
Israelis should have stayed "at home in Chaldea," but that Palestine
is "Arab" in the "middle of the Arab world." So he denounces
an invasion that took place 1,800 years before Christ, but endorses one that occurred
700 years after Christ. If his logic were followed, Arabs should have
"stayed home in Arabia." His is not even a utopia, but a dangerous
phantasmagoria that feeds into the biggest conflict in the Middle East.
[Editor's Note: The first invasion the author refers to is
the arrival of the Jews in Canaan after their escape from bondage in Egypt,
detailed in the Old Testament Book of Joshua; the
second invasion he refers to is the emergence of Islam and the Muslim caliphate.]
2. Afterwards, as if by chance, the author immediately
launches a frontal assault on the founder and prophet of monotheism [Abraham].
Consequently, he strikes at the deepest beliefs of Jews, Christians and
Muslims.
How can one feel free to say "God never spoke" to
Abraham? What do Muslims and Druze celebrate on the blessed day of Eid al-Adha,
if not Abraham's sacrifice to the one true God of what was most dear to him?
[his son].
Our Prophet [Muhammad] declared proudly that Arabs are the
descendants of Ishmael, firstborn of Abraham. It doesn't matter whether this is
scientifically provable or not. It demonstrates that Muhammad felt the need to
organically link his people to the venerable patriarch Abraham, "father of
the faithful," as the Christian liturgy aptly refers to him.
From the pen of Dr. Khalifé, we learn that Moses was not
given the Ten Commandments by God - but forged them entirely himself. One need only
read these ten admonitions again to understand that they were and remain the
simplest and most effective recipe to divesting mankind of its animality. By
denying the prophecy of Moses, the author invalidates the teachings of Jesus,
who declared the same Ten Commandments as unchangeable and eternal.
Dr. Khalifé says that God "never spoke" to
Jesus." My Quran, in the fourth
sura, verse 171, tells me that Jesus is the messiah and prophet of God, and
even more: "His command ... he conveyed unto Mary." So God did more
than talk to Jesus: he communed with Jesus.
Every day for 33 years, the Word of God [Jesus] communicated
colloquially, sometimes solemnly, with men. Through the Word, people were reassured,
healed and even resurrected. He claimed Abraham as father, according to the
flesh, and Moses as the only authorized lawmaker. He continues to speak to us
every day. He urges us to treat political and territorial conflicts with common
sense, respecting and loving one another - even our enemies. Until the end of
time, he asks us not to kill, not to steal, and not to bear false witness.
