Israel Outlaws German Author Gunter Grass For Writing A Poem

By on April 9, 2012 in News 43

Günter GrassOne feels that Herr Grass’s poem must have struck a raw nerve for the Israelis to freak out to this extent. Via Al-Jazeera:

Israel has declared Nobel Prize-winning German author Guenter Grass “persona non grata” over a poem that deeply criticises the Jewish state and suggests it is as much a danger as Iran.

In a poem called “What Must Be Said” published last Wednesday, Grass, 84, criticised what he described as Western hypocrisy over Israel’s nuclear programme and labeled the country a threat to “already fragile world peace” over its belligerent stance on Iran.

On Sunday, Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, announced that Grass would be barred from Israel for his attempt “to fan the flames of hate against the state of Israel and the Israeli people”.

The poem sparked outrage in Israel, with officials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on down criticising Grass.

Netanyahu on Thursday called Grass’s poem “shameful”, while his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused the author of anti-Semitism.

“If Gunter wants to continue disseminating his distorted and mendacious works I advise him to do it from Iran where he will find a supportive audience,” Yishai said on Sunday…

[continues at Al-Jazeera]

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  • Persianstorm

    The truth hurts ! he aimed that poem to corrupted evil minded Zionist Gov. not Israeli people ! Of course they have to come up with their bullshit Anti-Semitic protection – they are not even Semitic people !

  • D351

    So, where’s this poem?

  • perma

    Gunter G. was a member of the SS during the war. He kept this a secret for many years. He should not critizie Israel.    

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1067356059 Dave James

       fuck the terrorist nation of Israel

      • perma

        You made me laugh. Why this anger towards a country? Are you palestinian or what? Or just a sissy? There are not “good guys” in the middle east. Let the jews and the arabs setlte this conflict their way. They are passionate in their hate towards another. There’s no way there’s gonna be a peaceful solution to this conflict. In the land of Canaan there’s no room for human rigths you cunt.

        • Eric_D_Read

          I’d be happy to let the Jews and Arabs settle it between themselves. They can wipe each other off the face of the Earth for all I care.
          The problem is that Israel and their agents in the U.S. insist on making it my business.

          • perma

            Good point. but I’m not sure who is using who. Maybe the ruling classes in USA is using the state of israel as their tool in the middle east? As a european I always advocate that the european states and organizaions should stay away from this conflict, but nobody seems to listen.

      • orest goyan

        What’s wrong Dave; can’t you find a girl to do it with !

    • ZIONOFF

      IZRAEL IZ UNCRITIZZABLE!!!

    • Frfr

      Worst thing to happen to the US is the jewish take over of the media.  Such a shame. I applaud Gunter G. because he spoke the truth. Israel is the worst human rights abuser in the world.  Go to Palestine where food is rationed and you won’t any overweight people there. Just a fact.

      • orest goyan

        If you believe that Jews control the MSM, then how can you explain that everyone in the MSM did nothing but bash the faith of the jew, Christians, and the Jewish Bible – over the Easter & Passover season ? And YES they ALL did !

        • Andrew

          I didn’t notice anyone doing that.  Could you link to evidence that most of them did, and that they didn’t do much else?  (I won’t ask you to prove every one of them did nothing else, as you stated.)

          • orest goyan

            Did you read the post that appeared on this web-page (ON EASTER SUNDAY) entitled;
            “Thank you God for killing the children of our Enemies” ?
            So I will throw your question back at you, because I don’t have the time to find all the articles in ‘Time’, ‘Newsweek’; etc.,
            And when I said they did nothing else; I was only referring to the articles that were written during the Easter & Passover season.
            I meant there was nothing  “good” said about the Easter and Passover.

  • Vittu

    What must be said
    Why have I kept silent, held back so long,
    on something openly practiced in
    war games, at the end of which those of us
    who survive will at best be footnotes?
    It’s the alleged right to a first strike
    that could destroy an Iranian people
    subjugated by a loudmouth
    and gathered in organized rallies,
    because an atom bomb may be being
    developed within his arc of power.
    Yet why do I hesitate to name
    that other land in which
    for years—although kept secret—
    a growing nuclear power has existed
    beyond supervision or verification,
    subject to no inspection of any kind?
    This general silence on the facts,
    before which my own silence has bowed,
    seems to me a troubling lie, and compels
    me toward a likely punishment
    the moment it’s flouted:
    the verdict “Anti-semitism” falls easily.
    But now that my own country,
    brought in time after time
    for questioning about its own crimes,
    profound and beyond compare,
    is said to be the departure point,
    (on what is merely business,
    though easily declared an act of reparation)
    for yet another submarine equipped
    to transport nuclear warheads
    to Israel, where not a single atom bomb
    has yet been proved to exist, with fear alone
    the only evidence, I’ll say what must be said.
    But why have I kept silent till now?
    Because I thought my own origins,
    Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
    meant I could not expect Israel, a land
    to which I am, and always will be, attached,
    to accept this open declaration of the truth.
    Why only now, grown old,
    and with what ink remains, do I say:
    Israel’s atomic power endangers
    an already fragile world peace?
    Because what must be said
    may be too late tomorrow;
    and because—burdend enough as Germans—
    we may be providing material for a crime
    that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
    wil not be expunged by any
    of the usual excuses.
    And granted: I’ve broken my silence
    because I’m sick of the West’s hypocrisy;
    and I hope too that many may be freed
    from their silence, may demand
    that those responsible for the open danger
    we face renounce the use of force,
    may insist that the governments of
    both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
    free and open inspection of
    the nuclear potential and capability of both.
    No other course offers help
    to Israelis and Palestinians alike,
    to all those living side by side in emnity
    in this region occupied by illusions,
    and ultimately, to all of us.

     

    • Jesus Borg

       tl/dr

  • Hadrian999

    it’s quite funny that the Israeli  armed forces have killed more Americans than the Iranian armed forces have yet we side with israel on everything

  • Max3992009

    that poem is the truth…..nuff said

  • Liam_McGonagle

    This took some guts for Grass to publish.  The fallout from his own “Nazi youth scandal” still hasn’t settled, and then he went THERE.

    He’s basically correct in this poem, but in this context and given the mainstream media’s unquestioning right-wing bias, he had to know someone’d lay down the boom big time.  And you don’t have to believe in a world-wide Zionist conspiracy to see that.

  • Thomas Tovey

    Yet instead of proving Mr. Grass wrong with his allegations of Israel already in possession of nukes, they decide to label him an anti-semite…This reaction is growing old for Israel and the more they use this the more they look culpable in the lunacy that is the Middle -East. Prove to us (the free-thinking world) that you are not in possession of nukes and sign the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, otherwise you are what Mr Grass says you are, war mongering, wasteful, egomaniacal and a true danger to world peace. 

    • Redacted

      We know Israel has nukes. We have the receipt.

    • orest goyan

      Have you recently tried to find Israel on a World Map, it is hardly visible amongst the Arab States that hate Israel, and are planning for its destruction !
      There are over a hundred million Arabs, in States that surround Israel, that are bent on its destruction ! How could Israel possibly defend itself against such a flood of enemies – without Nuclear arms; with a population of barely eight million; the population of a small 21-Century city !?
      If God was NOT protecting Israel; then He would have let Arabs have Nuclear Arms first, and NOT Israel !

      • Redacted

        Can’t tell if trolling or retarded.

        • Guest

          Sorry you don’t know the difference; but neither do my patients !

        • Jin The Ninja

          both seem probable.

      • Peter
        • Monkey See Monkey Do

          Thanks for the graph. Interesting.

      • Thomas Tovey

        It doesn’t matter who your enemies are….if you have nuclear weapons then the playing field is in your favour….do you think for one minute if you knew your neighbour had a gun and was coming over the fence to whack you, wouldn’t you want to defend yourself with a gun….the same with Iran…you have that weapon,ergo, they will get that weapon, and there is nothing you can do about it…Israel can try to bomb there facilities but eventually Iran will get the bomb (because military secrets are the most fleeting of all)…Israel will assure destruction or a major attack in the years to come if they proceed with this….Israel’s PM is nothing more then a terrorist himself and as far as the free thinking world considers, he is a war-monger and has no use for persuing peaceful co-existance with his Arab neighbours….Furthermore, it is in Israels best interest to seek peace for surely they will be excised if they at least not attempt it, as well as the Palestinians….mutually assured destruction.. Armeggeddon !!

        • orest goyan

          There is a BIG difference between a policeman having a gun; and a crimminal having a gun.
          There is a big difference between a Demoncratic nation, ruled by law; and one ruled by the whims of some fanatical iman who issues an order to kill Rusdie; or that is controlled by someone like A am madijan; who says “if I get the bomb, I will annilate you !

          And yes; you are right: If I knew my neighbour had a gun and was planning to kill me, I would want to defend myself.
          And that is why Israel has the bomb; because A am mad ijan said that when he got the bomb he was going to kill them.
          So I ask you the same question, you asked me; “wouldn’t you want to defend yourself with a gun” ?

          • Eric_D_Read

            “There is a BIG difference between a policeman having a gun; and a crimminal having a gun.”Not when the policeman is also a criminal.

          • orest goyan

            That’s your opinion ! Not mine !
            We all form our opinions on the basis of the information we have; unfortunately we don’t all have the same information.
            Thank You for your opinion !

      • http://www.facebook.com/cheryl.baldwin.7 Cheryl Baldwin

        Israel constantly seeks to poke the eye of the Arab nations and then runs to the US for protection.  Maybe such a small country shouldn’t be so loud and overbearing? 

      • http://www.facebook.com/cheryl.baldwin.7 Cheryl Baldwin

        Israel constantly seeks to poke the eye of the Arab nations and then runs to the US for protection.  Maybe such a small country shouldn’t be so loud and overbearing? 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Stan-Zorin/100002884755445 Stan Zorin

      An antisemite is somebody whom Jews hate because he does not swallow their lies.

  • Jesus Borg

    who knew back in the thirties that the Jews would be goose stepping in their own police state within a generation?

  • orest goyan

    Which of you would invite a man over to your house; who would provoke the world to hate your daughter ?

  • orest goyan

    Disinfo; continuing to keep up its reputation as the Disinformation web-site on the Internet !

  • 3L4D2

    I wish to offer an opinion to this continues thread of pro Palestine (or anti Israel, whatever semantics you are using) theme.

    I’ve been residing in Israel for the past 30yr and what I goatherd while observing the local legislation and politics over those years is a theory that I wish to share with you. 

    It appears that both sides of this story are actually just pawns to a grater fight that accrues in this region. By examining the causes that promoted both sides systematic failure to achieve peace, patterns that clearly demonstrate this larger intervention emerge.

    It seems that without the direct interventions of the USSR, the USA and Islamic functionalist groups  (which, starting at Yom Kippur War and continuing today via straw companies, armed the fights with know-how, money, weapons and hatred by disinformation) both sides could easily reach a common ground for peaceful existence. 

    Whenever a local leader (on both sides) starts to achieve any tangible progress in the political arena towards peace he is swiftly decommissioned and removed from office either by assassination (Rabin/Arafat), mysterious illness (Sharon), political overthrow or any other means of stopping the peace process.

    Working with both Israelis and Palestinians I have goatherd that on both sides the majority of people wish for peaceful coexist yet for some reason, those wishes are not reflected in the political agenda of both parties.

    Thanks for reading.
    3L4D2

  • smooth_operator

    Gunter Grass is a hero.

  • aorpheous

    The Gunter  Grass poem
    is a feeling that  millions, perhaps
    billions of people share around the world,  But do not  openly express  them, from fear of being characterized as
    anti-Semitic.  After all we’ve been
    bombarded ad nauseum   practically ever y
    other day on US  TV, about  the holocaust, that’s 72 years ago, enough is
    enough.  

    But Gunder’s  poem
    implies a lot more than you can put in a few lines in a poem. If I could write prose
    it would have to include the following facts.

    The world’s problems today, are primarily due to the
    Geopolitical aspirations of the US-Israeli alliance.

    Israeli is a rogue state that has taken over the Palestinian
    Land and persecutes and prosecutes its people.

    The philosophy of most Israelis is reflected in the poem of
    the Israeli  Itamar Yaoz-Kost “the
    Sampson option (“We go down, Everyone Goes”) http://globalresearch.ca/

    After  the collapse of
    the Soviet Union,  which Vladmir Putin
    correctly characterized as “The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 21st
    century” The US adopted the proposed policy of the now defunct far-right wing “think-tank”
    PNAC (project for New American Century).

    Web : http://www.newamericancentury.org

    In a letter sent to then president Clinton, on Jan 26, 1998
    by Donald Rumsfeld and  Paul  Wolfowitz : http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
     they urge Clinton to remove Sadam from
    power and take military action to “protect our vital interests” in the Gulf.

    When the letter was rebuffed by Clinton,  they sent a second letter  on May 29, 1998 to Newt Gingrich then Speaker
    of the House and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lot, reiterating what was said in
    the Clinton letter only this time in a much more forceful  way, and one additional author William
    Kristol: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqletter1998.htm

    Fast forward in George W Bush presidency, all the members of   PNAC,
    received top positions in the Bush government. 
    T he Iraqi war had be planned therefore tree years before the events of
    9/11, and all the hoopla about weapons 
    of mass distraction to justify the attack on Iraq was a LIE ! and the
    war against Iraq was criminal and the perpetrators of the crime are war
    criminals according to Geneva Convention. One thing I forgot to mention was
    that both Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz were American Jews.

    In fact Richard Perle was investigated several times by the
    FBI as an Israeli agent, and also for ethics violations.

    On September 2000 PNAC issued a 90 page report with the
    title “Rebuilding America’s Resourses”

    In which,  they talk
    about concerted efforts to preserve American global military superiority and to
    thwart the emergence of  a rival
    superpower, in Europe, Asia, or the former  Soviet Union, imposing a Pax Americana through
    military means. (download pdf manual from their website)

    Another  far-right  “think-tank” 
    IASPS (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies”

    Some members of which are the same as in the PNAC, notably
    Richard Perle,  prepared a study  for Netanyahu  with the name “ Study Group on a New Israeli
    Strategy toward 2000”:

    http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm

    In which he accuses the Israeli labor party for complacency,
    and vehemently opposes the peace process in the “Middle East” as “obscuring the
    evidence of eroding national critical mass, and forfeiting strategic initiative.
    And further down continues “..Benjamin 
    Netanyahu’s government comes in with a new set of ideas. While there are
    those who will counsel continuity, Israel has the opportunity to make  a clean
    break; it can forge a peace process and strategy based on an entirely new intellectual foundation, one that
    restores strategic initiative and provides the nation the room to engage every
    possible energy on rebuilding Zionism,
    the starting point of which must be economic reform “.  And continues,” how Israel should  work closely with Turkey,  and Jordan, to contain, destabilize and roll-back
    some of its  most dangerous threats.
    Change the nature of its relations with Palestinians including the right of hot pursuit.”

    And further down” .. achieve “peace through strength” and “embrace
    negotiations, but as means not ends.  “

    Then concerning securing the Northern Border:  Seize strategic initiative by engaging  Hizballah, Syria, and Iran.

    Then about Balance of Power Strategy: “ Israel can shape its
    strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey, and Jordan, by weakening,
    containining, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Sadam Hussein from power in Iraq.-An
    important  Israeli strategic objective in
    its own right.”

    “…through  the
    influence in the US business community-investment in Jordan to structurally
    shift Jordan’s economy away from dependence on Iraq, and diverging Syria’s
    attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to destabilize Syrian control
    of Lebanon”.

    There are six pages of mind blowing  Machiavellian  scenarios  written ten  years  ago
    by Zionists and unraveling  today.

    When Richard Perle chaired the Defense Policy Board (a
    Pentagon Advisory group),  envisaged that
    Iraq should be fragmented along religious and ethnic fault lines, in order to
    facilitate control of oil reserves and population control by  the Anglo-American  military occupation .

    Al-Qaeda affiliated networks, financed by Saudi Arabia and
    Pakistan, and directly supported by covert CIA operations, were used to
    initiate the dynamic of sectarian conflict according to the carved-up plan of divide
    et impera. The war in Iraq killed more than 800,000 civilians, and created more
    than 5 million refuges, and brought the most prosperous nation in the Middle
    East back to stone age.  With an enormous
    rate of infant mortality, from malnutrition,   and
    disease. 

     

    This “New World Order” Is designed to convince potential
    competitors  they do not need to aspire
    or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. To
    further consolidate their presence in other parts of the world an In addition
    to the use of direct military confrontation, the US utilizes UW (unconventional
    warfare).  These are mercenary networks
    of Al-Qaeda affiliates, sponsored covertly 
    by western secret agencies (CIA, MI6, Mossad), financed by several
    Muslim States in the Middle East and Central Asia, such as Saudi  Arabia, the Gulf states, Pakistan,
    Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Turkey. Together with paramilitary forces,
    contractors, individuals, businesses, foreign political organizations (NGO’s)
    expatriates, and other social and political “undesirables”, commit violent
    crimes against the civilian population of a sovereign nation: The Balkans,
    Libya, Afghanistan , Syria,  The
    Caucasus, Central Asia, and Asia Pacific. 
    The main purpose  is to destabilize,
    the sovereign government, by provoking 
    the legitimate government’s forceful response via police or the armed forces.  Then invoking  a “humanitarian war” under the logo of “responsibility
    to protect” (R2P). (Serbia,  Libya,
    Syria).

    In Kosovo the KLA
    (the Kosovo Liberation Army) a Network of  Al-Qaeda mercenaries,  covertly supported by the CIA, financed by the
    Saudis and trained in Afghanistan , started indiscriminate shooting of security
    forces civilians and policemen, when the State used force to remove them NATO invoked
    R2P

    And started an aerial bombing campaign that lasted 78 days,
    at the completion of which Kosovo was forced to capitulation under pressure by
    the Russians, while the bombings had proven totally ineffective, to great embarrassment
    of the NATO forces.  This was another
    crime committed in the name of “humanitarian aid”.  Today Kosovo is a place of terror:  A training camp for future mercenaries.  For example the “Free Syrian Army “ is
    trained by KLA forces. It is also the gate of narco-trafficking , as well as
    human trafficking  in Europe. (“beautiful
     world  moral  Angel
    like”).

    In Libya the “pro-democracy”
    rebels were led by Al-Qaeda affiliated paramilitary brigades under the supervision
    of NATO  Special Forces. having their Headquarters
    in Darna a small city between  Benghazi
    and Tobruk , with commanding officer a man named  Al-Hasidi, an Al-Qaeda terrorist, who trained
    with Osama bin Laden,  and was a US
    prisoner of war. At his side is Sufian bin Kumu, Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur,
    also a terrorist who was an inmate at Guantanamo Bay for six years.  Another fruit is Al-Barani, a devoted member
    of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),  who’s  clan
    is credited with the “Liberation of Tripoli”.  So we see the oxymoron here while, these
    criminals are classified as terrorists  under international law, all of a sudden  they are absolved from their sins and become  “Liberators”. This the upside-down justice of
    USA.

    In Syria Deja-vous
    like Kosovo, and Libya.  Again Al-Qaeda
    affiliated networks of death squads, most of them who participated in the
    previous attacks against Serbia, and Libya, but also with new additions  under the guidance of CIA, MI6, Mossad, and
    the French secret agency, and financed by Saudi Arabia Qatar,  and Jordan, and trained in Kosovo, Riyadh, and
    Turkey. The death squads are patterned after the death squads of El Salvador (created
    by  US ambassador to Central and Latin America)
    John Negroponte   and approved by Roberd Ford US (ambassador to
    Damascus) .  This was a very dumb move indeed.

    In my country they say if you repeat the same mistake  twice you are not very wise.  Here we have the same mistake three times. The
    US and its allies have lost their credibility internationally, no matter how
    they lie to people, no matter how they try to fabricate “evidence” it does not
    work.  The US has always been reckless,  counting  too much  on  her
    military might. However there is a line and when you cross it, hell  may break  loose.  Syria,
    Lebanon and Iran are allies, and Russia and Iran are historic allies.

    Iran provides logistic support to Hezbollah in Lebanon,
    using as a conduit Syria, the “crescent”. It is therefore in the interest of
    Israel to destabilize (“regime change”) Syria, as we have already shown above
    by their own (Jews) admission. Once this objective would be achieved , the next
    step would be Iran. Aerial bombing of  Iran by NATO forces  with the ultimate goal to change the regime
    in Iran and replace it with a friendly regime towards the US, it ain’t  gonna happen, for the following reasons:

    The  Russians have a
    naval base in Syria, so they are not going to let Syria to capitulate to NATO,
    by even if that was going to happen, 
    they are going to move their formidable forces through the  US client state of Georgia with lightning
    speed across the Iranian border, then don’t forget the Chinese they also have a
    huge stake at this. So most likely the Americans and their allies are going to
    suck an egg this time.

    I hope I answered most of your questions.

    Was gesagt warden muss

     

     

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