And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
(Genesis 12:2-3)
The aeroplane screen
On a flight through the Middle East, I consulted the 3D world map on the passenger screen, which in this case was on Qatar Airline. I was curious to know how the country of Israel was named or represented on this map, assuming that the term Israel would not appear on it.
Bingo! My expectations were met… not only is ‘Israel’ absent from the map, but it says ‘Palestinian territories’ in English.
What country in the world is described in terms of ‘territories’? This expression shows that Palestine as a country does not exist either, among those who reject the existence of Israel.
A Messianic friend points out to me that the same thing can be observed in a Saudi airline.
Jerusalem omitted from the map.
Ramallah: Israel’s new capital?
Interestingly, the city of Jerusalem did not exist either, certainly too insignificant (?!), but the city of Ramallah is mentioned.
‘ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning: let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I remember thee not, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy!’ (Psalm 137:5-6)
There may still be time to remind as many people as possible who are influenced by the media of nations (see Psalm 2) that if an airline obscures Israel geographically, it is certainly not without the consent or order of its respective nation.
Everything seems to indicate that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are openly revealing their desire to physically wipe Israel off the map.
What do the Scriptures say?
In the verse quoted above (Gen 12:3), there are two different Hebrew terms translated here as the verb ‘curse’.
In ‘those who curse you’ (curse Abraham and the nation he begot), the biblical term recalls this ‘wiping off the map’. Indeed, the Hebrew term qalal (886b) is translated as follows according to the English ‘legacy standard concordance’:
(Qalal 886b); a prim. root; to be small or insignificant; be swift; to curse; treat with contempt: — am insignificant(1), are contemptible(1), are swifter(4), be thought accursed(1), became contemptible(2), be cursed(1), be easier(1), been a trivial thing(1), be swift(1), bringing a curse(1), curse(15), cursed(16), curses(8), cursing(2), ease(1), esteemed even more lightly(1), is easy(2), is but a light thing(1), is it trivial(1), is it too light a thing(1), lighten(5), make contemptuous(1), make it lighter(2), moved to and fro(1), shakes(1), sharpen(1), small a thing(1), superficially*(2), treated(1), treated father and mother with contempt(1), treat us with contempt(1), was abated(2), were swifter(1), with contempt(1).
This term therefore refers to a curse in a multitude of forms, ranging from verbal contempt to the desire to belittle or quickly sweep away.
The term qalal appears three times in Genesis 8.
And he released the dove from him, to see if the waters had receded (qalal) from the surface of the ground; (Gen 8:8)
Here, it expresses the fact that the waters dissipated, receded, fled… until they were wiped off the map of the place where the ark was to land!
The term curse in ‘I (God) will curse’ is simply translated as:
arar (76c) ; primitive root; to curse: — brings curses (5), brings a curse (1), cursed (10), cursed (43), cursed woman (1), curses (1), cursed forever (1).
This verse therefore pronounces a curse and torment upon those who wish to swiftly wipe out Israel, the land promised to the Jewish people. Blessed are those who escape all anti-Semitic traditions!
Erasing Israel and its cities from the screen is, at best, a way of rendering this country insignificant. But it reveals a more consistent desire to literally wipe Israel and its Jewish population off the map by force of arms. Qatar is financing those who put this into practice on 7 October and is hosting their leaders (Hamas).
Note: The contradictions
Even some imams declare that, according to the Qur’an, Israel belongs to the Jews. Indeed, the Qur’an mentions Israel but never mentions Palestine.