Sometimes the truth hurts

[malaise]

I support Mr. Grass 100% - we must speak out.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/world/europe/storm-continues-after-gunter-grass-poem-against-israel.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
<snip>
Günter Grass, Germany’s most famous living writer, tried Friday to quell the growing controversy over a poem critical of Israel that he published this week, saying that he did not mean to attack the country wholesale but only the policies of the current government.

The nine-stanza, 69-line poem, “What Must Be Said,” appeared Wednesday on the front of the culture section of the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Mixing lyrical turns of phrase with discussions of the need for international supervision of both Israel’s and Iran’s nuclear programs, it bluntly called Israel a threat to world peace for its warnings that it might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. By supplying weapons to Israel, including submarines, Germany risked being complicit in “a foreseeable crime,” Mr. Grass wrote.

“Why do I say only now, aged and with my last drop of ink, that the nuclear power Israel endangers an already fragile world peace?” his poem asks. “Because that must be said which may already be too late to say tomorrow.”

In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung published Friday, Mr. Grass said he did not mean to attack Israel, but Mr. Netanyahu’s policies. “I should have also brought that into the poem,” he said.

[pipoman]

1. Seems to me German's and Germany as a whole

really already used up most of their cred when it comes to criticism of Jews or the Jewish state...maybe they should leave that to those with a bit less of a history of bias?

[peacebird]

3. Seems to me that white Americans in the south have used up most of their cred when it comes to

Criticism of blacks....

[malaise]

4. I had the identical thought

And we could add that the US government is in no position to discuss war crimes.

[pipoman]

6. I don't disagree with that either

[HiPointDem]

5. bet no one commenting on this thread has read the poem.

WHAT MUST BE SAID

Why am I silent, silent too long,
About what is obvious and has been rehearsed In war games,
at whose conclusion we as survivors Are footnotes at best.

It is the claimed right of a first strike
That could annihilate the Iranian people,
Subjugated by a loudmouth
And herded by organized jubilation,
Because in this sphere of control, the construction
Of an atom bomb is suspected.

Yet why do I forbid myself
To name the other nation In which for years -- although kept secret --
A growing nuclear potential is on hand
But out of control, because no inspection
May be made?

The general silence on the evidence at hand,
To which my silence owes obedience,
I feel to be an incriminating lie,
Coercion, where the penalty is announced
The moment one missteps;
The verdict "Antisemitism" is familiar.

But now, because from my own land,
Whose own crimes, fundamental
And beyond compare,
Time after time catch up with her and take her to task,
On the other hand and purely businesslike, if also
Declared with facile lips to be a reparation,
Yet another submarine shall be furnished To Israel, whose specialty consists
Of guiding all-annihilating warheads
To that place, where the existence
Of one single atom bomb remains unproven,
Yet where suspicion becomes evidence,
I'll say what must be said.

But why have I been silent up to now?
Because I thought my origin,
That bears a stigma, never to be redeemed,
Forbade me to regard this fact as spoken truth
About the land of Israel, to which I'm bound
And will remain so.

Why do I say now for the first time,
Aged and with my last ink:
The atomic might of Israel endangers
The already fragile peace of the world?
Because it must be said,
What may be too late tomorrow;
And because we -- as Germans incriminated enough --
Could become suppliers to a crime,
That is foreseeable, which is why our complicity
Were to be effaced by none of the usual
Making of excuses.

And let me say:
I'll be silent no more,
Because the hypocrisy of the West
Disgusts me; besides it is to be hoped
That many others may be freed from silence,
May ask those responsible for the evident danger
To renounce the use of force and
Likewise insist,
That an unhindered and permanent control
Of Israeli atomic potentials
And Iranian nuclear compounds
By an international authority
Be allowed by the governments of both nations.

Only so may all be helped,
Israelis and Palestinians,
And what is more, all people who live In this region occupied by delusion,
Side by side yet hostile,
And finally ourselves may be helped as well.

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/gunter-grass-and-his-poem#ixzz1rRrbfGDQ


And just as he predicted, he is called anti-semite -- "penalty" also banned from entering israel, and vilified in the press.

[peacebird]

7. It was a thoughtful and brilliant poem.

And yes, I read it before my earlier post.

[malaise]

8. I read the poem

and it is profound. How else could I agree with him?