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Christian charity funds Muslim state, aids persecution


On Dec. 17, the international Paris Donors Conference promised $7.4 billion to the Palestinian Authority for creating a viable economy and a future independent state. Led by the European Union and the United States, each of whom offered initial sums of more than a half-a-billion dollars, Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah/PLO regime could smile wryly at the generosity of the Christian West supporting the Arab Muslims in the East.

Based on political developments in the Palestinian community, any Palestinian state (if ever established) would be based on Islamic law and culture at the heart of its national ethos. This is blatantly obvious in light of the social reality characterizing the autonomous areas transferred by Israel to Palestinian rule since the Oslo Accord in 1993.

In Gaza, Rami Ayyad, a man who ran the only Christian bookstore in the city, was recently murdered; the end of the small Christian community numbering 3,000 living alongside Hamas militants is inevitable. In Bethlehem, from which a Christian majority has shrunk to a 12 percent Christian minority presence, 1,000 Christians are leaving each year. Investigative studies by Justus Weiner from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and reports from the Palestinian Media Watch, illustrate the grave situation of Christians undergoing persecution and intimidation within Islamic Palestinian society.

Christian charity for a future Muslim state in Palestine carries historical significance for the Middle East region. Islam's appearance in the 7th century led to widespread jihad that transformed a primarily Christian region, as in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, into Muslim territory that has remained its religious hallmark until today. Christian decline in Iraq and Syria, persecution of Copts in Egypt and the danger of Lebanon losing its Christian character, touch the core of the aggressive expansion of Islam at the expense of Oriental Christianity.

With the holiday season in the air, it is worth pondering the meaning and ramifications of the Paris Donors' largesse. The West is promoting the establishment of another Muslim state, which will now number 58 in the world, constituting a grave threat, not only but especially, to the single Jewish state in the world. Christian-Muslim collaboration, a strategic alliance covering oil, commerce and political cooperation, has been defined as the emerging reality of "Eurabia" by author Bat Ye'or. In Paris, following traditions based in EU headquarters in Brussels and in State Department circles in Washington, the West ignored the woes of Christian plight and Jewish anxiety in the Middle East.

Would the Muslims support the establishment of a Christian state in Egypt? The answer is a resounding No! The bonds of Muslim solidarity and profound animosity toward Christians would never tolerate support for dhimmis at the expense of Muslim domination and expansion.

But the Christian West operates on a different political trajectory. Christian charity does not begin at home. Western funds do not flow in the billions to support Christian institutions in Lebanon, creating industrial opportunities, purchasing properties for Christian residents, and providing all needs, including military ones, to assure the viability and strength of Lebanon struggling to survive in the stormy Muslim sea of the Middle East.

This is a sad time for the Christian East and a shameful time for the Christian West.