“What must be said about Gunter Grass”

05 April 2012
The abhorrent poem which German Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass published at the Suddeutsch Zeitung is definitely not going to win him prizes nor plaudits. The former Waffen SS man accused Israel of plotting to ‘wipe out’ the Iranian people, and that Israel poses a danger to global security.  He claims that he is sick of the ‘hypocrisy of the West’ and that Germany would ‘take part’ in a crime, by providing Israel with a sixth Dolphin submarine. The submarine is able to carry nuclear missiles however there is no evidence that Israel armed it with such weapons or that Israel has such weapons at her disposal.

It’s ironic that Mr. Grass complains about the sale of submarines, because it was he who volunteered in the 2nd world war to serve in a Kriegsmarine submarine though in the end was taken to be in the 10th SS Panzer division in Dresden. In his book published in 2006 ‘peeling the onion’ he mourns the deaths of the Nazi German soldiers during the 2nd world war much more than those millions of Jews who were murdered. The same Mr. Grass 10 years ago condemned the Bundestag for trying to outlaw Neo-Nazi parties and also called to cancel the ban on the publishing of ‘Mein Kampf’. According to him, it would be good for readers to understand what ‘nonsense’ was written by Hitler.

There is nothing but classic anti-Semitism behind the poem of Mr. Grass . It is Iran’s president who declared his country will wipe Israel off the map, it is Iran who refused the ‘freeze for freeze’ offer by the P5+1 and the same Iran that wasted time in the negotiations with the West .It is also the same Iran which funds Terror organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah and who send terrorists to attack Israeli diplomats Jewish communities across the world.

According to Mr. Grass fears of Nuclear Iran are very much exaggerated, but that’s not what most of the world thinks, certainly not Iran’s neighbours. It is Iran which threatens the global security and the existence of Israel with its pursuit for nuclear weapons and with the possibility that such weapons can make their way into the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah. But let us not speak of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. What must be said is that the outrageous comments by Mr. Grass have no place in the European public discourse and that we have to strongly condemn it.

By Tal Ofer -  Member of the European Jewish Parliament.