Gunter Grass Addresses Israel Nuclear Threat

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 8 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2555


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Gunter Grass Addresses 
Israel Nuclear Threat 
By Stephen Lendman
4-5-12 


Writer, poet, playwright, sculptor, artist, and Nobel laureate Grass is
regarded as Germany's most celebrated author.

Awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy said his
"frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history."

It credited his first novel, "The Tin Drum," with restoring honor to 
German
literature "after decades of linguistic and moral destruction.

"

It "comes to grips with the enormous task of reviewing contemporary 
history
by recalling the disavowed and the forgotten: the victims, losers and 
lies
that people wanted to forget because they had once believed in them."

Published in 1959, "The Tin Drum" became one of the most admired and
revealing allegories of guilt and complicity. He once said he "believe(d)
it....a good thing that a writer does not sit on the side of the victors.
"
He also called Germany a psychologically damaged society.

His writings stirred controversy. He's done it again. On April 4, 
Haaretz
headlined, "German Nobel laureate Guenter Grass' new poem: Nuclear 
Israel
is a threat to world peace," saying:

Now age 84, his new poem "calls for Germany to cease supplying Israel 
with
submarines (able to carry nuclear-armed missiles), and warns against an
Israeli strike on Iran."

"Israel's nuclear potential has been stealthily growing for years," he
said, with no international supervision. Fearing the worst, he added 
that
"Germany could be responsible for a crime that can be foreseen."

Der Spiegel headlined, "Nobel Laureate Grass Attacks Israel in New Poem,

 "
saying:

"Germany's most famous living author....sparked outrage in Germany....
with
the publication of a poem, "What must be said," in which he sharply
criticizes Israel's policies on Iran."

In response, Israel's Berlin Embassy responded as expected, saying:

"What must be said is that it is a European tradition to accuse the Jews
before the Passover festival of ritual murder."

"Earlier, it was Christian children whose blood the Jews allegedly used 
to
make their unleavened bread, but today it is the Iranian people that the
Jewish state allegedly wants to annihilate. What also must be said is 
that
Israel is the only state in the world whose right to exist is openly
doubted."

"That was true on the day of its founding and it remains true today. We
want to live in peace with our neighbors in the region. And we are not
prepared to assume the role that Gunter Grass is trying to assign to us 
as
part of the German people's efforts to come to terms with the past."

The hypocrisy and duplicity deserve no comment. They explain plenty on
their own.

Germany's Central Council of Jews called the poem an "aggressive 
pamphlet
of agitation."

Bundestag member Ruprecht Polenz said Grass "has difficulties whenever 
he
comments on politics and is often wrong." His colleague Philipp 
Missfelder
called the poem "tasteless, ahistorical, and demonstrates a lack of
knowledge about the situation in the Middle East."

Prominent Jewish German writer Henryk Broder also attacked Grass, saying 
he
"always had a problem with Jews, but it has never articulated it as 
clearly
as he has in this 'poem,' "

He "always had a tendency toward megalomania, but this time he is
completely nuts."

Grass was critical of Israel earlier. In a 2001 SPIEGEL ONLINE interview,
he addressed the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, saying:

"Israel doesn't just need to clear out of the occupied areas. The
appropriation of Palestinian territory and its Israeli settlements are 
also
a criminal activity. That not only needs to be stopped -- it also needs 
to
be reversed. Otherwise there will be no peace."

Then and now Grass performed a valuable service. His prominence gives 
his
remarks special significance. They're featured worldwide. He touched the
right nerve, the same one media scoundrels avoid. He got it right. Why 
else
would he be assailed? He deserves praise, not condemnation.

Israel's occupation and settlements are illegal. Its open secret is it's
nuclear armed and dangerous. Not only is its arsenal and delivery 
systems
formidable, it threatens to use them preemptively against perceived 
threats.

In 1986, whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu exposed it. The London Times
published dozens of photos and scientific documents he provided. A
long-time Dimona nuclear technician, he had access to secret information.

The Times' article headlined, 

"Revealed - the secrets of Israel's 
nuclear
arsenal/Atomic technician Mordechai Vanunu reveals secret weapons
production," saying:

"Hidden beneath the Negev desert, the factory has been producing nuclear
atomic warheads for the last 20 years. Now it has almost certainly begun
manufacturing thermo-nuclear weapons," with yields great enough to 
destroy
entire cities.

Vanunu's documents were genuine. They proved conclusively that Israel
possessed sophisticated technology enabling it "to build up a formidable
nuclear arsenal."

According to Theodore Taylor, a world expert at the time:

"There should no longer be any doubt that Israel is, and for at least a
decade has been, a fully-fledged nuclear weapons state....considerably 
more
advanced than (earlier) indicated...."

Other top nuclear scientists agreed. Israel then and now is a world 
nuclear
power. It has sophisticated technology and weapons. Estimates of its
arsenal range from 200 - 400 warheads able to destroy entire cities.

For his courageous whistleblowing, Israel abducted him in Rome, secretly
tried him, sentenced him to 18 years in prison, held him for years in
punishing isolation, harasses him to this day, refuses him permission to
leave the country, and denies him all rights.

That's the price of truth-telling in Israel. That's how rogue states
operate, especially belligerent nuclear powered ones.

"What Must Be Said"

Translated, Grass wrote:

"Why I am silent, silent for too much time, how much is clear and we 
made
it in war games, where, as survivors, we are just the footnotes."

"That is the claimed right to the formal preventive aggression which 
could
erase the Iranian people dominated by a bouncer and moved to an 
organized
jubilation, because in the area of his competence there is the 
construction
of the atomic bomb."

"And then why do I avoid myself to call the other country with its name,
where since years ­ even if secretly covered - there is an increasing
nuclear power, without control, because unreachable by every inspection?
"

"I feel the everybody silence on this state of affairs, which my silence 
is
slave to, as an oppressive lie and an inhibition that presents 
punishment
we don’t pay attention to; the verdict "anti-Semitism" is common."

"Now, since my country, from time to time touched by unique and 
exclusive
crimes, obliged to justify itself, again for pure business aims - even 
if
with fast tongue we call it 'reparation' - should deliver another 
submarine
to Israel, with the specialty of addressing annihilating warheads where 
the
existence of one atomic bomb is not proved but it wants evidence as a
scarecrow, I say what must be said."

"Why did I stay silent until now? Because the thought about my origin,
burdened by an unclearing stain, had avoiding to wait this fact like a
truth declared by the State of Israel that I want to be connected to."

 "Why did I say it only now, old and with the last ink: the nuclear power 
of
Israel threat the world peace? Because it must be said what tomorrow 
will
be too late; because - as Germans and with enough faults on the back - 
we
might also become deliverers of a predictable crime, and no excuse would
erase our complicity."

"And I admit: I won’t be silent because I had enough of the Western
hypocrisy; Because I wish that many will want to get rid of the silence,
exhorting the cause of a recognizable risk to the abdication, asking 
that a
free and permanent control of the Israel atomic power and the Iran 
nuclear
bases will be made by both the governments with an international
supervision."

"Only in this way, Israelis, Palestinians, and everybody, all people 
living
hostile face to face in that country occupied by the craziness, will 
have a
way out, so us too."

A Final Comment

Nuclear armed and dangerous, Israel, like its Washington paymaster/
partner,
is a world menace. Others need to spread Grass' words before it's too 
late
to matter.

He's a hero for explaining what everyone needs to know. There ought to 
be a
Nobel award for that!

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive 
Radio
News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for 
easy
listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/





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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to
believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when
I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic,
anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group
or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I
support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings
to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our
readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent
articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it
clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support
decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad
people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin
their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is
any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any
drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of
expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course
that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or
anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your
values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect
of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher
Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it".