Page 27
View letter from Mr. E. Raby (Issue 70)
I refer to the comments of Mr Naim Dangoor on the letter of Mr E. Raby which appeared on page 35 issue 70.
The comments were so serious, sincere and significant that they rendered the letter a piece of paper turned on the face of the sender, though publishing the letter itself was a very good act that showed a real respect to the "freedom of expression" which the writer of the letter wanted to censure on us.
I want to say in a friendly way to Mr Raby that we are tired of posing anymore, we want to be frank and sincere and act unswervingly, and that to surrender to the psychological horror of compromise and to a kind of submissive hypocrisy don't serve so much. We are at least not anymore living in those countries where might was always right and violence was law. We have turned the other cheek too long with people who took advantage of us and who oppressively obligated us to pay dearly for fabricated sins and fictitious crimes which we never committed.
The terms 'Old and New Testaments' are prejudicial, if 'New' implies a replacement of the 'Old.' Today, the serious scholars use the nomenclature 'Hebrew Bible' to refer to the so-called 'Old Testament,' and the 'Christian Scriptures' to refer to the Apocrypha and the so-called 'New Testament.'
I hope Mr Raby would completely agree that the term 'New Testament' has a built-in grievance on the Jewish Religion. In the comments of the Scribe, there was a strong suggestion that the time of compromises has gone and middle ways are not anymore good tools.
Mr Raby has lived 63 years in England as he said that is why he should realise that his country is solidly grounded in its democratic heritage. We cannot leave the world as it is. Part of human nature has a darker side that is reflected in those unreformed dictatorial rogue regimes that clung to the idea of aggression and oppression.
Frankly speaking, as soon as I finished reading the Scribe's comments, the famous and daring speech of the late Ezra Menahem Daniel in the Iraqi House of the Senate came to my mind instantly. It was a historical moment when he blamed and reproached the Government in explaining their wrongdoings towards the peaceful Iraqi Jews in his saying "Enough is enough."
Before concluding, I want to quote Albert Camus as follows: "If you keep on excusing, you eventually give your blessing to the slave camp, to cowardly force, to the cynicism of the great political monsters: you finally hand over your brother!"
Edward Yamen
Milan, Italy