Art of Resistance – Günter Grass
by Gilad Atzmon
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Outrage in Germany, Nobel Laureate Günter Grass has, once again told the truth about Israel being the greatest threat to world peace.
Günter Grass, Germany’s most famous living author and the 1999 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparked outrage in Germany on Wednesday with the publication of a poem, “What must be said,” in which he sharply criticizes Israel’s offensive approach towards Iran.
Once again, it is the artist rather than the politician, who tells the truth as it is. Once again it is the Artist rather than the academic who speaks out.
Why did I wait until now at this advanced age and with the last bit of ink to say: The nuclear power Israel is endangering a world peace that is already fragile?” Wrote Grass.
In the poem, published by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and other European dailies on Wednesday, Grass also calls for an
unhindered and permanent monitoring of Israel’s nuclear potential and Iran’s nuclear facility through an international entity that the government of both countries would approve.”
Israel and some German Jewish prominent voices were quick to react. The Israeli Embassy in Berlin issued a statement offering its own version of ‘What must be said.’
What must be said is that it is a European tradition to accuse the Jews before the Passover festival of ritual murder,” the statements reads.
Pretty outrageous, don’t you think? In the open Israel together with its supportive Jewish lobbies (AIPAC, AJC) are pushing for a new global conflict. Yet, shamelessly the embassy defies criticism tossing in the air the old blood libel. The appropriate timely question here is why Israel and AIPAC are pushing for a world war and a potential nuclear conflict just before Passover? Can they just wait for another Yom Kippur (atonement day)?
The Israeli Embassy continues,
in the past, 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.”
Isn’t it really the case? Every military expert suggests that Israeli pre-emptive attack on Iran could escalate into a nuclear conflict. If anything Grass tries like others, including your truly, to prevent Israel from celebrating its lethal symptoms once again.
The Israeli embassy noticed though that
Israel is the only state in the world whose right to exist is openly doubted.”
Correct, and so it should be. Israel is a racist, expansionist state, it doesn’t have room amongst nations.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany also called the poem an “aggressive pamphlet of agitation.”. I wonder, is it really aggressive to try and restrain an aggressor?
The German newspaper Die Welt, which apparently obtained an advance copy of Grass’ poem, published a response by rabid Zionist Henryk Broder, the country’s most prominent Jewish writer. “Grass always had a problem with Jews, but it has never articulated it as clearly as he has in this poem.” Broder said “Grass has always had a tendency toward megalomania, but this time he is completely nuts.” I would expect Germany’s leading Jewish writer to come with something slightly more astute.
Border however may be correct when he notes that Grass is
haunted by guilt and shame and also driven by the desire to settle history, he is now attempting to disarm the ’cause of the recognizable threat.’”
Wednesday’s poem is not the first time Grass has come out with critical views of Israel. In a 2001 interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, he offered his own solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel doesn’t just need to clear out of the occupied areas,” he said at the time. “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.”
Broder contends that such a statement is “no less than a demand for Israel to not just cede Nablus and Hebron, but also Tel Aviv and Haifa. ” he continues, “Grass does not differentiated between the ‘occupied areas’ of 1948 and 1967.” Needless to say that from an ethical perspective Grass is correct-there is no difference between 1948 and 1967. The Jewish State located itself on historic Palestine on the expense of the Palestinian people. I guess that Grass understood already in 2001 that the Jews only State must be transformed into a ‘State of its Citizens’. Israel should embrace the true notion of peace, universalism and inclusiveness. But I guess that we shouldn’t hold our breath for it is not going to happen soon.
Posted by Gilad Atzmon
on April 5, 2012. Filed under Politics.
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42 Responses to Art of Resistance – Günter Grass
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who_me
April 5, 2012 at 6:06 pm
grass is correct. each time these zionists do one of their smear campaigns, they show more people what they are made of inside.
Eldon
April 5, 2012 at 7:50 pm
Grass has long since ceased to be a moral authority in Germany. Ever since his slogan of ‘two states one nation’ after the fall of the Berlin Wall, his pathetic effort to salvage something of the bankrupt and moribund GDR that he admired but didn’t have the guts to live in. As a member of the Waffen SS, this episode was the final straw.
‘Günter Grass had not spoken out previously, because his voluntary membership of the Waffen SS means he was an enthusiastic hate for the Jews. Now some 65 years later he feels he can share his views of Jews, he can freely express them again”
The Waffen SS was formed with an ideological HATRED of Jews at its heart.
aemathisphd
April 5, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Grass did not volunteer for the Waffen SS. He was drafted into it in 1944, at which point draftees could be taken for either the Wehrmacht or the Waffen SS. And while it’s true that the Allgemeine SS was formed with hatred of Jews as a central plank of its ideology and that the Waffen SS was a natural outgrowth of the Allgemeine SS, by 1944, when Grass was drafted into it, the Waffen SS was almost entirely separate from the Allgemeine SS — in fact, it was more, at that point, like the Green Berets or Navy SEALS, although certainly they were not immune from committing war crimes.
ariadna
April 5, 2012 at 11:53 pm
The uniforms of the WSS were also different from those of the ASS, weren’t they? (You need a little more DETAIL to make your pathetic demonstration of utter objectivity more plausible. For yourself, that is.)
So Grass would not have been “immune from committing war crimes”… then it is clear why he presents Israel in a negative light: “an ideologic hatred of Jews in [his] heart.”
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 12:36 am
Yes, the Waffen-SS tended to have the same uniforms no matter what unit, except that the insignia would vary from unit to unit. Allgemeine SS was large larger, so the uniforms varied greatly.
As for my “pathetic demonstration of utter objectivity,” please ponder this:
That I do not find Grass to be anti-Semitic does not mean that you aren’t.
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 2:53 am
NJo, of course not I am not Grass. Nobody else is.
As for your opinions about who is and is not anti-semitic I value them highly, as you may have guessed by now.
who_me
April 6, 2012 at 3:24 am
“That I do not find Grass to be anti-Semitic does not mean that you aren’t.”
one can take a used car salesman off the car lot and put a cardigan sweater with leather elbow patches on it, but it’s still a used car salesman. and that is all it ever will be.
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 4:17 am
Not a successful one though–his clunkers never leave the lot
Jay Knott
April 6, 2012 at 2:11 pm
You-all are misreading ‘aemathisphd’. He’s defending Günter Grass against Zionist lies. Just about all German and Austrian men over the age of 80 were conscripted, and it gets used against them by their opponents. ‘Not immune from committing war crimes’ is just right – ‘aemathisphd’ only needs add that this is equally true of both sides.
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Well, that depends on the matter of scale. In WWII, the most significant war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the Nazis, with the Soviets and us probably tied for second, although with the Soviets it was more crimes against humanity (systematic rape of German women) and with us it was more war crimes (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden). The Japanese were pretty culpable also. It was a dirty war.
The Nazis were the only combatant that systematically targeted whole populations for extermination with no feasible link to the war effort. That’s what distinguishes them among other WWII criminals.
All that being said, Grass was not involved in those crimes. He fought on the Western Front, where little was done by the Nazis that everyone else wasn’t doing.
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 3:23 pm
“Well, that depends on the matter of scale.”
I think it only depends on whether you buy propaganda on either side.
Both find “feasible links” between their own targeting civilians and the “war effort.”
Jay Knott
April 6, 2012 at 4:01 pm
It’s worth adding that we know that the rulers of the Western countries tell lies about their opponents – look at what they said about Iraq. So it’s reasonable to question the victors’ version of WW II. This leads, as night follows day, to taking ‘holocaust deniers’ seriously. But organizing meetings with them is a career-threatening move, even in America, and worse in Europe. To me, this obliges one to put ones efforts into enabling open discussion of WW II, rather than adding to the official story, which already gets enough airtime.
Jay Knott
April 6, 2012 at 3:30 pm
I don’t see the distinction between crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Each murder in Dresden or at Belsen was just that – a murder. There is to be a Guantánamo ‘war crimes’ tribunal, but it should be a normal murder trial, with the presumption of innocence. Kill one New Yorker, that’s murder. Kill 3,000, that’s 3,000 murders.
It’s true that the Nazis tried to wipe out whole populations – I’m glad you pluralized the word. And the USA and Australia are products of British genocide. I maintain my neutrality between the great powers.
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 6:23 pm
We’ve discussed this before, Jay, but it has to do with intent and victims. As heinous as all war crimes are, their targets are other soldiers and military installations and they are committed, in most cases, with the intent of winning a war. Shooting POWs because you don’t want to or can’t feed them would be an example. Crimes against humanity target civilians and most often have nothing to do with war goals. E.g., the Holocaust.
There are mixed examples, of course: Hiroshima, Dresden, Rape of Nanjing, etc. But these are better considered crimes against humanity because of who the victims were.
Paul Eisen
April 6, 2012 at 6:30 pm
More pernicious rubbish from this man.
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Would you like to express a counter-opinion, Paul, or will you just continue to sit there and spew out your typical rot?
Here’s a free clue: Merely labeling what I write as “pernicious rubbish” and not explaining why does nothing to advance your cause. I know how freaking precious your cause (hatred of your own people) is to you.
Don’t you have a seder to be at? Or didn’t any of the Jews in England feel it was appropriate to invite you?
Jay Knott
April 7, 2012 at 1:16 am
For ‘aemathisphd’, ‘war crimes’ are committed against combatants, and ‘crimes against humanity’, against civilians. War crimes are to do with the rules of war. Shooting POWs because it gives you a military advantage is a war crime. Soldiers have an interest in observing the rules of war, because if they break them, the other side will too.
I can see that distinction, but not the distinction between crimes against humanity and crimes in general. And he makes a big mistake when he describes the Allied terror bombings as ‘mixed examples’. They were particularly sadistic mass murders. The Nazis couldn’t do worse. In your terminology, they were crimes against humanity.
Paul Eisen
April 6, 2012 at 5:28 pm
This last comment by Dr Mathis is pretty much wall-to-wall nonsense. Disregard it.
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Really, Paul? Would you care to explain why?
Of course you wouldn’t. Because you’re a miserable coward.
Paul Eisen
April 6, 2012 at 6:51 pm
The spectacle of this Talmudic babbler dealing out the atrocities like a pack of cards.
Oh, and which rather special group somehowm always ends up on top?
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Jesus H. Christ, Paul: It’s relevant. The only reason anyone cares that Günther Grass was in the Waffen SS is that the Waffen SS was also very strongly implicated in some of the worse war crimes and crimes against humanity of the entire war, as well as being employed as concentration camps to a very great extent (other than combat and a personal detachment that personally guarded Hitler, the Waffen SS’s third main purpose was the supplying of KZ guards).
Which group somehow always ends up on top? In this case, the Jews, I suppose do, because — again, try to keep up, Paul — we’re talking about the worst crime of the war. I know that you don’t like to admit it happened or, if you do, that the Jews were anything other than sincerely deserving of their fate, but the truth is the truth. Sorry you don’t like it.
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Say ‘Thank you’ as I taught you, Nemo.
Especially when you get such a rare gift. Usually Paul’s responses to you are so civil an kind that they drive you insane.
Now he used a few words you can chew on and whip up some saliva.
You don’t want to become a solar or an eldon that people just scroll over, do you?
Imagine being left to babble all by yourself about your doctorate, the relatives of famous people you once met, who had a half-Jewish grandmother, and the sartorial distinctions among the German uniforms of various army branches?
Say it!
fool me once...
April 6, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Mathis wrote:
“It was a dirty war.”
Oh yeah, is that right? Care to mention a “clean” war. Are you thinking of that War of the Soap Suds in 1920, when Granpappy Mathis had to wrestle two old ladies for the last packet of Gold Dust washing powder, down at the local laundrette?
When you make statements like “It was a dirty war.” it shows your total and utter disrespect for life. Too much book reading Mathis, all safe and sound in your supremacy fantasy world.
Name a “clean” or “non dirty war” and we’ll discuss the corpses and compare them. Maybe we can also discuss the feelings of relief, that the surviving relatives hold, that at least their loved ones weren’t slain in a “dirty war”.
Mathis, you’re passed your best, time for a tablet and a lay down.
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Perhaps you’d prefer “it was a dirtier war than usual”?
Whether you like it or not, intent matters, which is why we punish first-degree murder differently from manslaughter. Further, in a war in particular, the identity and disposition (where that person is) at the time of death are also relevant.
Ergo, the Holocaust is a worse crime than Dresden, which is worse than shooting POWs, which is worse than shooting someone on the battlefield.
By the same token, Soviet rape of civilian women is worse than shelling Berlin openly, which is worse than Katyn, which is worse that, again, shooting someone on the battlefield
I don’t really care whether you understand the distinction: I don’t imagine that you can anyway.
fool me once...
April 6, 2012 at 8:11 pm
“…which is why we punish…”
What’s with the “we”? If you’re referring to the Americans, well you’re talking bollocks. Dubbya and Daddy sent out their murdering hordes, and murdered thousands – whens the court date Mathis?
“Ergo………….battlefield” May your god forgive you.
“I don’t imagine that you can anyway.”
Is this one of your alters talking now, I thought I’d told you to take a tablet and have a lay down. Here, watch this, as it gives a good impression of how you’re now been viewed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2pt2-F2j2g
aemathisphd
April 6, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Is it true or not that first-degree murder and manslaughter are punished different?
And if yes, then why?
fool me once...
April 6, 2012 at 11:07 pm
“Is it true or not that first-degree murder and manslaughter are punished different?
And if yes, then why?”
Good lad, I see the tablet’s taking affect.
Your leading question is not relevant or subtle.
“Perhaps you’d prefer “it was a dirtier war than usual”?”
You appear to be caught up in viewing history as a commodity, that has to be packaged and sold, and the trader with the best patter gets the sale e.g
(read this out load with your best Dick van Dyke cockney accent)
“Roll ap, roll ap ladies and gentulmen, to the Sufferin’ Sale of the Century, noo lines cammin in all the time. You’ve ‘ad yer Dresdens, yer Katyn’s and yer Berlins, bladdy rabbish, bat we all know yer larv the best seller, the good old relieable ‘olocaust, it’ll cost alittle extra, bat wurf every penny, filled with larvly terra and trauma, larst a life time it will, I’ll even fro in a capple of larvly bars o’soap an’ a lamp shaide. Look, there’s one o’ me old castomers, oi Maffis me old san, ere, ow’s yer ‘olocaust doin’? He’s ‘ad ‘is for years naa, it’s jast like new, ‘e looks arfter it like it wos a bag o’ gold”
Serious question, did you find that amusing?
If no, then why not?
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Excellent.
But to give him the benefit of the doubt he might be working out the lyrics to a song to beat George Brassens’s The War of 1418, in which GB did (with his inimitable fine irony) a brief listing of wars that all had their ‘merits’ their ‘nice points’ but insisted that he, for one, preferred the war of 1418…
http://www.lyricsty.com/georges-brassens-la-guerre-de-14-18-lyrics.html
ariadna
April 6, 2012 at 11:33 pm
I should have written it as 14-18 because GB meant WWI.
Jay Knott
April 7, 2012 at 1:19 am
Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’! Fair takes me back, so it does.
Eldon
April 6, 2012 at 9:17 am
columnist Jan Fleischhauer writes:
“GraSS once again wants to prove himself right, for deeply personal reasons. He belongs to a generation of men who have never gotten over the fact that they began their careers on the wrong side of history. It is understandable: Membership in the Waffen-SS is normally not a great beginning for a career as keeper of the global conscience. Were I to have joined the Nazi military at age 15, I too would likely be a bit wary of criticizing Holocaust survivors. But that is exactly the problem: Humility was never Grass’ thing. His expertise lies more in self-righteousness.”
“Those on the right sought moral cleansing by minimizing their own crimes. Those on the left took a different path. Instead of denying their misdeeds, they put them on full display, thus clearing their names.
Eldon
April 6, 2012 at 9:25 am
Atzmon writes, Israel (Jews only State ) must be transformed into a ‘State of its Citizens’ But I guess that we shouldn’t hold our breath for it is not going to happen soon.
Looks like Atzmon is loosing it……. his “mantra” was always, Israel is History and is doomed….. suddenly it is not going to “happen soon”….. getting realistic in his old age…. guess so.
Roy Bard
April 6, 2012 at 11:33 am
It seems to be quite conceivable that in the long term Israel is doomed, whilst in the short term its unconditional support from the USA keeps it going. You might be delighted that the Palestinians will continue to be oppressed for some time to come, but that just means you’ve lost a bit of your humanity somewhere.
Gilad Atzmon
April 6, 2012 at 3:19 pm
It is not USA support, it is actually all due to AIPAC dominating USA foreign policy. The same applies to the UK.. Israel will go down together with its lobbies… and we are pretty much there now.. the move from a promise land into a promise planet may as well be one step too far..
Jonathon Blakeley
April 6, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Yep AIPAC and BICOM got it all tied up
Gilad Atzmon
April 6, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Where is the problem Waffen Hasbara Eldon. If Israel won’t become a state of it citizens, it ll be pushed to be one.. Israel days are numbered and for many Israeli born it is already part of our past. We left and we don’t look back.,
Eldon
April 6, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Well well the old exiled Atzmon waffen pearls.
What makes you so sure….. you can’t even survive your old colleagues critic…..
as from all the directions, your days are gone, not numbered.
suddenly from “it is not going to happen soon.”
(that is for places you wish to be published), it is again “Israel days are numbered ” for your home few followers.
Good that you don’t look back, as I guess no one wants you to look back, and even if you wanted….. you will never be able to.
Eldon
April 6, 2012 at 11:55 am
Roy Bard
That’s some progress…. what happened, from Already doomed to long term…… long term can be forever.
what is it you lost your confidence….. or reality is stronger then your wish full thinking.
I wish the best for the Israelies and the Palestinians, and I am sure both sides will decide what’s the best for them….. no need for doomed thinkers.
searching
April 6, 2012 at 5:10 pm
The holy/sacred cow, self-made, self-Chosen idol (called Israel), that the whole ,wide world supposed to admire and listen to ,is angry again.
How can anybody dare to insult or criticize the holy cow?
Holy cow is beyond any critique.
The Highest Priests, placed strategically in all important places with a direct access to MSMedia make sure of it.
And little Eldon-like, oftentimes well paid “fanatics”, placed strategically all over the internet will remind us of it , in case if we forgot.
Eldon
April 7, 2012 at 9:17 am
Searching you mean
The holy/sacred cow, self-made, self-Chosen “Jew Haters” idol (called ATZMON), that the whole ,wide world supposed to admire and listen to ,is angry again.
How can anybody dare to insult or criticize the holy cow?
Holy cow is beyond any critique.
searching
April 7, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Eldon,
Gilad Atzmon is only a one person with a limited. unfortunately, influence. He is a very courageous. smart, reflective, good willed person, and those qualities are noticed by all smart and good willed people.
That’s why he is admired and supported, for who he is.
The fact that he allows, on this website, people like you to spit out onstantly poisonous invectives,insults etc. at him shows that he does not treat himself as a holy/sacred cow.
It also shows that he has a good sense of humor because ultimately, YOU are the one who makes a total fool of yourself.
who_me
April 12, 2012 at 7:27 am
i just took a look at voice of russia, russia’s state news service, similar to the voice of america, and they had a commentary there on grass. usually they don’t cover things like this and avoid criticism of israel. this time they are. the commentary is neutral, they don’t claim a side, but they present some pretty damaging comments about zionist slander:
“His poem What Must Be Said was interpreted as anti-Semitic and ideologically biased. People have just put a label on it, Professor of Political Science Peter Schultze from Goettingen University believes.
“This is a crushing argument which is always used when one has to respond to sound criticism of Israel’s policy. This weapon is much more effective in Germany than in other countries. This situation can be explained by our country’s history but this approach cannot be considered honest. Grass has touched a sore spot which has caused a public outcry. The media have been preparing us for an armed conflict between Israel and Iran for over 18 months but neither politicians nor political scientists have openly expressed their opinions. Grass was the first to break the silence.”
Grass has accused Israel, which has nuclear potential, of planning to deliver a blow on Iran and disturb the unsteady peace in the region. He also criticised Germany for supplying Israel with weapons.”
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_04_11/71384636/
perhaps the israeli smear tactics are having more negative effects on israel than i previously thought.