German Nobel laureate labels Israel a threat to "world peace" in his poem

[moderate libertarian]

Unlike the nobel peace prize winner in the WH, this German nobel prize winner sees things very differently. Would be interesting to see how Obama'a handlers and neocon media would respond to this:

Guenter Grass, German Nobel Winner, Criticizes Israel Over Iran Tensions
By JUERGEN BAETZ 04/ 4/12 01:25 PM ET

BERLIN — German Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass labeled Israel a threat to "already fragile world peace" in a poem published Wednesday that drew sharp rebukes at home and from Israel.

In the poem titled "What must be said," published in German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Italy's La Repubblica among others, Grass criticized what he described as Western hypocrisy over Israel's own suspected nuclear program amid speculation that it might engage in military action against Iran to stop it building a suspected atomic bomb.

The 84-year-old Grass said he had been prompted to put pen to paper by Berlin's recent decision to sell Israel a submarine able to "send all-destroying warheads where the existence of a single nuclear bomb is unproven."

"The nuclear power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace," he wrote. His poem specifically criticized Israel's "claim to the right of a first strike" against Iran.

Grass also called for "unhindered and permanent control of Israel's nuclear capability and Iran's atomic facilities through an international body."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1402208.html

[Aurave]

I have read Grass extensively, so this is interesting to see. But I always avoid his poems, just dislike such things in general.

[furface]

Does anybody speak German who could translate it or know of a decent English translation? Google translate doesn't do it justice.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/ge...muss-1.1325809

[Seraphim]

Queue the NAZI accusations.

[The Other Andy]

Don't worry, the Mossad will get him.

[eduardo89]

Queue the NAZI accusations.

He was drafted into the Waffen-SS when he was 17. But he's quite a leftie/democratic socialist.

It's surprising to see a German with balls to say this though. 60+ years of reeducation have seriously castrated German men from speaking up about anything. Make sense, when you're taught from the moment you go to school that you have to feel guilty about things you had no hand in and that Germany must always feel shame for being Germany, it destroys a nation.

[eduardo89]

Does anybody speak German who could translate it or know of a decent English translation? Google translate doesn't do it justice.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/ge...muss-1.1325809

One sec, I'll give it a try.

[awake]

He'll get the Anti-semite consolation prize ...

If by Isreal he means the criminal gang the heads it up, I would say he is correct. Otherwise, the people of that country are probably pretty good people like you and I.

[eduardo89]

I'm totally butchering it, I'm translating word for word, but trying to give the general theme of each paragraph, but here's my attempt at translating:



Why am I silent, delaying so much,
what's obvious and in simulations
already played out, even if we survive
we'll just end up being footnotes.

It's this alleged right to a preemptive strike
by the organized bullies
to wipe out the Iranian people
all just to prevent a supposed nuclear bomb

But why do I stop myself
from naming another country
which in the past years has -in secret-
grown it's nuclear potential free from controls
because it has not openly tested its weapons?

The concealment of this fact,
which my silence has helped,
I feel as a burdensome, forced lie.
But when it's ignored, we're branded with
the condemnation of being an "anti-Semite"

But now because my country
has it's own incomparable crime,
which from time to time will be brought up for economic gain,
as lip service to our past and as restitution,
we will give Israel another submarine,
capable of delivering nuclear warheads,
although not a single nuclear weapon in their possession is acknowledged,
I say what needs to be said.

But why have I kept silent so long?
As I said,my background,
Which is afflicted by this irreparable stain,
forbids me from acknowledging this truth
About the land of Israel to whom I am bound

So why do I speak up now, older and this time in ink,
that a nuclear-armed Israel is a threat to an already fragile peace?
It has to be said, what tomorrow might be to late to say,
as a German burdened enough, we might as well be considered
complicit as suppliers, but we excuse it as part of our debt (to Israel)

...

[The Other Andy]

If by Isreal he means the criminal gang the heads it up, I would say he is correct. Otherwise, the people of that country are probably pretty good people like you and I.

That's true of most countries. Actually this campaign has been getting a lot of attention lately:


Though Israel certainly has a large population hell-bent on destroying the Arab-Persian world. We do too, unfortunately.