Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced German poet and Nobel Prize laureate Guenter Grass on Thursday for writing that Israel is a threat to world peace and for calling for international oversight of both Israeli and Iranian nuclear facilities.
The 84-year-old Grass published a poem in a German newspaper on Wednesday in which he said “the nuclear power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace” and called for “unhindered and permanent control of Israel’s nuclear capability and Iran’s atomic facilities through an international body.”
Israel has for decades refused to even admit it has vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons, even as it hypes a threat from weak, isolated Iran. The fact that Iran has no nuclear weapons program has not stopped Israel’s leadership from hyping that threat and issuing threats of preemptive military strike.
Grass said he wrote the poem, titled “What Must Be Said,” after news that Berlin sold Israel submarines that could launch nuclear warheads and that could potentially be used in an attack on Iran, which Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened. Grass also noted that for years he refrained from criticizing Israel for fear of being labeled an anti-Semite.
Netanyahu angrily responded: “Guenter Grass’ shameful moral equivalence between Israel and Iran, a regime that denies the Holocaust and threatens to annihilate Israel, says little about Israel and much about Mr. Grass.” He also noted that Grass, late in his career, admitted to serving in the Nazi paramilitary unit the Waffen SS. “So for him to cast the one and only Jewish state as the greatest threat to world peace and to oppose giving Israel the means to defend itself is perhaps not surprising,” the Israeli leader added.
But Grass’s poem seems only to be controversial because of German history, as opposed to any objection to the substance of his arguments. Indeed, leading figures in the U.S. military establishment have recently made similar arguments as well as some in the Obama administration itself.
Ah jeez, the Bibi pitches a fit. Figures. The murderous maniac doesn't like being called out for his apartheid crap-o-la and assorted war crimes and crimes against humanity. Poor Bibi, poor poor Bibi.
Somebody said, "He rose to the bait."
I agree . I've met smarter carp.
Put me down as agreeing with Gunter Grass. Maybe i will finally read that book of his I have collecting dust in my basement.
We know who the liars and murders are and grass is not 1 of them….. Maybe he was inducted into the Reich death machine as a young man…. So he has seen the horror that racial supremacist thought can inflict…. AND he has looked the face of fascism right in the eye….., EVERY day Israel takes Palestinian land, kills their children and inflicts a cruel apartheid more murderous than the one that ravaged South Africa… The unaccountable nuclear rogue state WELFARE CLIENT, [America's No.1 Welfare Queen….. ] has become a murderous reckless nuclear MONSTER, that as Grass wrote, is more likely to trigger WWIII than ANY other State in the world…!!!!! End all nuclear impunity, especially an aggressor and war state such as Israel…
Grass was born in October 1927, and was 17 years old when he was drawn to the SS end of 1944! I'm not sure what Netanjahu would have done on his place!
Today I have been writing a letter congratulating Grass!!
For me that was something like the Prague Spring or Solidarnosz, that somebody with a large reputation to loose, would take such an incredibly courageous stand!
Certainly this will a problem for Grass in the near future as it was with Alexander Solshenitsyn when he crtisied the thord wave of emigration from Russia, as the special treatment of Jewish people hurt his work for human rights in Russia. The Breshnew government then was loking better for giving special conditions for small group of people and could get away on discriminating against all others. But Grass said it was wiritten with "his last ink"
He is now being crucified as the "intelectual antisemit" by Henryk Broder and all his buddies.
.
W9
Well done Gunter Grass. The more prominent people point out the hypocrisy and downright lying and tell the simple truth that Israel is a racist expansionist rogue state that endangers us all, the safer we will all be. Israel as it stands has no place in the modern world. If Palestinian Jews want to remain in Palestine it looks to me like they have three choices: be nice to their fellow-countrymen and stop the "chosen people" claptrap, face continued hostility from without and gradual disintegration from within, or go back to where thy came from in Eastern Europe, the US and Canada. As usual the demented Netantahu rushes out a load of bilge jumbling up all the usual junk words "holocaust", "anti-semitism" yah, yah, LOL
Bibi is being rather naive pulling up Grass' service in WW2. Serving in the Waffen SS wasn't that big a deal- the organization was not a political arm of the Nazi regime, it was a pure military force, and one of the most able and competent forces the world has ever seen. It recruited from all over Europe- and even included a Muslim unit from Croatia among its ranks. There were French units, Latvian units- I believe even a small British contingent was in the ranks at one time. In those days, the Waffen SS was a cut above the rank-and-file of the Wehrmacht, but still it was a soldier's unit, not a political weapon like the regular SS.
In a turn of events, though, if it weren't for Grass' personal history his poem might not even be news, considering the rising tide of anti-Israeli feeling around the world.
For the most part apocryphally, if not in fact, true.
But there was a dimension of political indoctrination that was applied to its activities particularly in Russia. It developed an early reputation fo being 'above the rules' when it came to mistreating prisoners. And a whole aspect of the SS administration (Allegemeine and Totenkopf) was devoted toward the operation of extermination camps and the elimination of 'unwanted populations'..
The SS probably well-deserved its conviction at Nuremburg as a 'criiminal organization'.
Agreed- as a part of the SS organization, most definitely a certain amount of politicizing would have taken place, especially in the early years of the Waffen-SS. In the later years, though, although it retained it's 'elite' status it was reduced to taking in troops from pretty much any source, giving them a rousing 'for the Fatherland' speech, and sending them on their way to whatever front was in most need. As we have seen with our own US troops recently, even the most civilized of nations will produce monsters in wartime, and the Waffen-SS was no different.
The "Totenkopf" part of the SS most definitely was guilty of criminal acts, no doubt, but characterizing the whole of the SS as such was not warranted, in my personal opinion. There is simply no way to equate the work of an SS archaeologist working in the Himalayas with that of a concentration camp guard at Auschwitz.
Call a spade a spade. For all its protestations, Israel remains the last bastion of apartheid. And a nuclear powered rogue regime that has the US taxpayers bankrolling its usurping of other people's hearth and home in Palestine. So, where exactly did Grass go wrong? Yes, he shouldn't have equated Israel with Iran: it's patently unfair – on the Iranians.
As everyone knows, the sole purpose of Germans nowadays is to engage in self-criticism and pay billions annually to Israel. I guess Grass has grown tired of being a self-abusing cash cow supporting, however indirectly, the despicable Zionists. Good for him!
We must realize that it takes great courage nowadays to say what Gunter Gras has said. He will likely suffer persecution for it. May God protect him.
The charge "anti-semitism" and "hater" have been leveled falsely for so long that people are starting to see through them. More often than not, today they're leveled to silence honest criticism of Israel. Crying "anti-semitism" flasely for too long has effected people in the same way crying "wolf!" dishonestly would.
It will not surprise me in the least if we hear of "Iranian agents" attempting to assassinate him with magnetic car bombs.
Iranian, or…. ?
I have written my congress people…about israels threat….they wouldnt even respond
what on earth has do the zionists have on the US congress and all western governments…
that they are such cowards on israel
jinx –
Can we guess how many toe-tapping Republican closet queens only have a career as a "straight family values man" because the Mossad allows it?
TPTB have the dirt on everyone who matters. They get all-expenses paid trips to Israel when elected – and do you think it's just to take in the sights?? They go for their Israel First Last and Always marching orders that make worrying about the nation you were elected to run irrelevant.
9/11 was the announcement of who was in charge.
Why else afterwards go after countries who had nothing to do with it?
They were all perceived as challenging Israel's regional hegemony. Israel could never take them all on by themselves. So they get their tentacles in Congress, fearmongering in the press, and shrill cries of "antisemitism" if the US dares questions why it should sacrifice its blood and treasure preemptively attacking nations that never did it any harm.
ML3
Your comments can only be deleted in corporate media. That's a good answer to the wise.
By the way, I love your comment here.
Who's shameful? Gunter Glass for all his intrinsic nazism who has never killed anybody even hen he had the chance as a member of the 'outlawed' Waffen SS? Or Bibi Netanyahu who brags about getting shot by his own side while 'killing terrorists' and wh ha's unleashed his latter-day wehrmacht on numerous occasions to bomb and gun down women and children 'by accident'?
If it wasn't such a total flatulence I'd be laughing.
The new HITLER is mentioning the crimes of WWII.
For the sake of humanity , he should be locked and executed in Hague.
It is especially sad that the US congress is always in complete agreement with the tribe leadership
Not 'agreement". Subservience.
What's most interesting about this is that there has been so little uproar. Similarly, when SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel used the word "apartheid" while on a visit to Israel, the criticism was mainly ritualistic. A few years earlier, such a remark would have ended his career. And the shooting of an orthodox rabbi in Toulouse recently very quickly turned into a PR disaster fro the French Jews and was rapidly swept under the carpet. Essentially, Israel and its supporters are losing their grip. As the Holocaust generation dies of old age, the "you owe us" discourse is falling increasingly on deaf ears. People who've never done any harm to a Jew in their entire lives do not see why Jews to whom no one has ever done any harm should be allowed to claim privileged status.
We're at the point, thankfully, when we can't be guilt-tripped over invisible Cossacks…
As more of the public becomes aware of the tens of millions who died in the Ukraine and in Stalin's death camps, of the tens of millions who died at the hands of Mao and the huge % of the Cambodian population killed by the Khmer Rouge, the Holocaust, which will always be tragic, becomes suddenly no longer unique and no longer the central event of the 20th century.
Bravo Gunter Grass. His poetry speaks an obvious truth. Netanyahu….speaks as the murderous racist apartheid war criminal he is. Ditto for the enabling American Jews who support leibenstrom murderous Israel.
The usual tirade-smear of someone who dares to tell the truth about Israel in the MSM. They are now claiming that Grass was a secret Nazi for the last 67 years after Germany's defeat. Well, if that's the case he did a great job hiding it since from his many literary works he seems to be the opposite of a Nazi. Like many Germans he suppressed his horror at Israel's criminal behaviour because of the burden of Germany's past. But in the end people of conscience have no choice but to speak up to defend the victims of tyranny.
This brave , very brave man facing danger from Zionist supporter and Zionist, colonial enterprice speeks truth. If there were "pools" on Danger from Israel ,I believe ,He would be supported by 90% of Humanity. Zionism is most Satanic ideology on this planet. Zionists over centuries made life into missery for millions, they are responsible for major wars and those they are planing for future. Zionism makes the greatest harm to Truth Judaism. Its absolutely right that Real Jews distance themself from this Evil Idelogy and blashemy….
Planet without Zionism would be planet with "Universal peace".
Israel should be state of its citizens and not rasist , fanatical colonist enterprice….al this Colosal teft of land will end up with war anyway. Zionist are "Chosen people", but chosen by Devil their father to wage endless horrrors of wars for profit and control" …
Judaism is almost pillar of all other religions, while Zionism hiding behind Judaism destroys everything…
Peter czech
This brave , very brave man facing danger from Zionist supporter and Zionist, colonial enterprice speeks truth. If there were "pools" on Danger from Israel ,I believe ,He would be supported by 90% of Humanity. Zionism is most Satanic ideology on this planet. Zionists over centuries made life into missery for millions, they are responsible for major wars and those they are planing for future. Zionism makes the greatest harm to Truth Judaism. Its absolutely right that Real Jews distance themself from this Evil Idelogy and blashemy….
Bravo, Bravo Gunter. Maybe some other Germans will finally tell Israel enough of your blackmail and look at your own conduct. Germany, by arming Israel is conplisit in its crimes.
Who gives a crap about what the Zionist moron Nutwityahu says about anything. As Dr Ahmadinejad has said the Zionists will not refrain from even destroy the whole world.
The blood of the Palestinian holocaust victims is on Zionists hands. When the time comes the Zionist leaders will be hunted down individually by the Palestinians and pay for their crimes.
"international oversight of both Israeli and Iranian nuclear facilities"
problem solved. It's sad to think that Netanyahoo doesn't know what "shameful" is, heaven knows this Israeli piece of garbage is King and Captain Shameful Douche of the Early 21st century and really needs someone he trusts to tell him this. He is an Orwellian fountain of double-talking, tone-deaf BS gaffes, one right after another; the jewish people should cover their ears in shame everytime this little tin-pot Nazi opens his noisehole…with every threat and dead Palestinian, he throws another shovelful of feces on the grave of the Israeli colonialist project.
Actually, I'm shocked he didn't call him "anti-semitic™" – dude is lucky.
He was called so (antisemitic) many times now by his smaller dwarfs,
W9
The anti-missile missiles in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria have nothing to do with Iran. Der Spiegel 49/2011.
"Grass also noted that for years he refrained from criticizing Israel for fear of being labeled an anti-Semite."____Many have, Mr. Grass. That's how Israel became a monster.____
Unruly children, undisciplined and indulging in narcisstic behaviour, are destine to grow up and indulge in immoral and criminal actions.
"Shameful moral equivalence between Israel and Iran"? No, I don't think that is what Grass was saying. Because once the bombs start to go off, everyone is an S.O.B. Once there is WWIII (and Grass went through WWII as a youth), you might as well forget about such fine distinctions, such delicate attempts at political correctness. No, you are simply dealing with the whole Western world sinking into barbarism.
He is merely asking for honesty from Israel and he is challenging them to submit to the same inspections they think are appropriate for Iran. But like some kid who won't let the dentist look at his tooth, Israel is claiming special sensitivity.
Good going Gunter, someone needs to tell these thieving criminals off.
We would be far better off if our congress critters had the gonads of Günter Grass,