REFLECTION ON MY PEOPLE
I was reading From Time Immemorial (Joan Peters) and I got so taken by it, by what I read that I stopped , picked up pen and paper and jotted the following.
Again, I warn you, it was under the shock of the moment. I first write all in French.
« The more I read about the suffering that my people have endured over the ages, by all the communities of the world and in execrable ways, the less I want to live, because I will live to read about more of this suffering and feel tortured for what my ancestors and correligionists have endured. »
In Time Immemorial, we tell what the Jews experienced in each of the Arab countries where they lived. How we survived it all is almost unimaginable. The fact that the world is witnessing these acts and doing nothing makes the acceptance of such a situation even more sickening.
What can I do?
How can I make up for all that has been done?
All these dead people who had no guilt other than the fact that they were Jews.
History is repeating itself. Will it happen again?
I am too bitter. I won't let myself be done, as so many have done, withdrawing into their religion.
It may have its advantages, but it has not saved millions of men, women and children throughout history.
Both Christians and Arabs are guilty.
Do they know it? I doubt it.
We forget. Everything is forgotten.
There are still books that tell of the past without erasing or repairing it.
Should I rejoice in the death of my enemy?
What will it bring me? Nothing. Satisfaction? Not even.
How to explain it to them. Still, they must want to listen.
This subject troubles me to the core. It takes away my taste for life.
How to live and learn all this, feeling powerless. You can't change the past.
Should we change the future? How can we change it?
Men of good will exist, but where are they? Misunderstood, probably like so many others.
There was a time when it was fashionable to execute the enemy, the Jew, the scapegoat of so many generations. Societies were encouraged, armies enjoyed it and our nation suffered without being able to defend itself. And if it did defend itself, it was worse.
Where are we going?
When I think that religions have often been at the origin of all these massacres, I wonder what they are for. Why not renounce any religion that advocates hate and violence? Yes, men are weak. Yes, men need leaders, but these leaders let themselves be fooled by the promises made by their religion and by their desire for power. This famous desire that ruins civilizations in the name of an individual whether he is Jesus, Mohammed, Attila, Hitler or Khomeini. When will we learn? When will the cult of the individual collapse? When will the human race resign itself to living and conceive that harmony and equality rather than permanent competition are the symbols of a life. The present is hardly a guarantee when we see that anti-Semitism is still spreading. The governments, with their famous freedom of expression, lack recourse, pass by, hoping that it will pass, but it does not. I can't wait to stop hearing these libels, these defamations that are constantly promulgated against us. I fear, however, that in my lifetime I will not cease to witness and that is why, no longer living, I will have the privilege of no longer suffering from all this."
Here ends my thoughts that long half hour.
I hope you were able to catch my opinion, dear reader.
I know you'll tell me : Hey this is something worth sending to a newspaper or God knows. I dont care. I go through more than this in my everyday life. It is disturbing.
