Gunter Grass has written a poem in which he argues that a nuclear-armed Israel is a threat to world peace. Translation is by Norbert Jost for Mondoweiss.
Why am I silent, conceal already too long a time,
What is apparent and has been simulated
in exercises, at the end of which we the survivors
may at best be footnotes.
It is the alleged entitlement for a first strike,
which could extinguish the Iranian people,
- subjugated by a big mouth and
directed to organized jubilations-
because one assumes
the making of a nuclear bomb.
Alas, why do i restrain myself
to name the name of the other country,
where since years - although kept secret -
a growing nuclear potential (is) available,
albeit beyond control, because inaccessible
for any examination?
The general silence of this fact,
which my silence has subordinated itself to,
i feel to be a burdensome lie
and as coercion, which promises punishment,
soon as it is not complied with;
the verdict "antisemitism" is ready at hand.
However, now, that my country,
which is confronted with its very own crimes
which are unique without comparison,
again and again and made to answer for,
is about to deliver, routinely and businesslike,
even though with a nimble tongue declared as reparation,
is to supply Israel another submarine, the speciality of which
is to deliver all-destructive warheads
to where the existence
of a single nuclear bomb is unproven,
only "proven" by the strength of fear,
I say, what must be said.
But why did i remain silent so far?
Because I was of the opinion, that where i am from,
which is stained with a never removable stain,
forbids me, to dare confronting Israel,
the country I am attached to and want to remain so,
with this fact as an outright spoken truth.
Why do I speak now only,
aged and with the last ink:
The nuclear power Israel endangers
the world's peace, ever so delicate anyhow ?
Because it must be said,
what already tomorrow could be too late;
also because we - as Germans burdened enough -
could become suppliers of a crime,
which can be foreseen, and why our complicity
could not be made undone by any of the usual evasions.
And admitted: i do not remain silent anymore,
because i am weary of the hypocrisy of the West;
moreover, it is hoped,
may many free themselves of the bondage of silence,
demand from the originators of the discernible danger
the renunciation of all violence and
simultaneously insist,
that an unhindered and permanent control
of Israeli nuclear potential
and of Iranian nuclear facilities
through an international entity
will be permitted by the governments of both countries.
Only this way, everybody, Israelis and Palestinians,
even more, all human beings, who live as enemies
next to each other in this region, occupied by madness,
can be helped - ultimately us, too.
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Gunter Grass’ poem, ‘What must be said’, is an absurd and morally indefensible attack on Israel. The poem states that the Jewish state endangers world peace because of its threat to attack Iran, which has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. Instead of engaging with the complex debate over whether Israel has the right to defend itself against an aggressor, Grass singles out the Jewish state for criticism and makes no reference to Iran’s genocidal intentions. The poem also states that Israel intends to annihilate the Iranian people – a gross error, as any attack on Iran would be on nuclear facilities and not the entire populace. What Grass fails to mention is that it would be the Israeli Jews and Arabs who would be annihilated if Iran dropped a nuclear bomb. The fact that Gunter, a former member of the Wassen-SS, published the poem just before Passover recalls the European tradition of accusing Jews of ritual murder just before the annual Jewish festival.
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