It's that claim of a right to first strike
against those who under a loudmouth's thumb
are pushed into organized cheering --
a strike to snuff out the Iranian people
on suspicion that under his influence
an atom bomb's being built.But why do I forbid myself
to name that other land in which
for years -- although kept secret --
a usable nuclear capability has grown
beyond all control, because
no scrutiny is allowed.The universal silence around this fact,
under which my own silence lay,
I feel now as a heavy lie,
a strong constraint, which to dismiss
courts forceful punishment:
the verdict of "Antisemitism" is well known.But now, when my own country,
guilty of primal and unequalled crimes
for which time and again it must be tasked--
once again, in pure commerce,
though with quick lips we declare it
reparations, wants to send
Israel yet another submarine--
one whose specialty is to deliver
warheads capable of ending all life
where the existence of even one
nuclear weapon remains unproven,
but where suspicion serves for proof--
now I say what must be said.But why was I silent for so long?
Because I thought my origin,
marked with an ineradicable stain,
forbade mention of this fact
as definite truth about Israel, a country
to which I am and will remain attached.Why is it only now I say,
in old age, with my last drop of ink,
that Israel's nuclear power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what by tomorrow might be
too late, must be spoken now,
and because we--as Germans, already
burdened enough--could become
enablers of a crime, foreseeable and therefore
not to be eradicated
with any of the usual excuses.And admittedly: I'm silent no more
because I've had it with the West's hypocrisy
--and one can hope that many others too
may free themselves from silence,
challenge the instigator of known danger
to abstain from violence,
and at the same time demand
a permanent and unrestrained control
of Israel's atomic power
and Iranian nuclear plants
by an international authority
accepted by both governments.Only thus can one give help
to Israelis and Palestinians--still more,
all the peoples, neighbour-enemies
living in this region occupied by madness
--and finally, to ourselves as well.
In the poem, Grass writes that the country with a nuclear arsenal that "has grown beyond all control, because no scrutiny is allowed," is the modern state of Israel.
That lack of scrutiny of Israel's nuclear arsenal has provided Israel with carte blanc to occupy Palestinian land, and to literally imprison the Palestinian people, all under the pretense of a need for the "security" of a nuclear armed Israel.
This same lack of scrutiny has also given Israel the freedom to function "behind the scenes" to shape the foreign policy of the West, a policy implemented by successive American governments trapped in the vise-like control of Israel's two sacrosanct iron fists: The Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
How has Israel responded to Grass' poem? It has followed their usual pattern, reacting with classic Israeli paranoid rhetoric.
First out of the box was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel will not tolerate anyone with credibility and a public platform, who exposes the truth of Israel's nuclear arsenal. Only he does not say it that way, for that would be an admission of the unsayable, that Israel does indeed have such an arsenal.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass for his "shameful moral equivalence."
"Gunter Grass's shameful moral equivalence between Israel and Iran, a regime that denies the Holocaust and threatens to annihilate Israel, says little about Israel and much about Mr. Grass," Netanyahu said.
This reaction is the classic Israeli response when a cover story is exposed as false: Never deny, always attack and divert.
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