While German Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass's poem about Israel has caused controversy in the West, it only expresses what everybody already knows, says Stuart Littlewood While I can't say that I'm crazy about the poetry of German Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass, with much being lost in translation, the sentiment expressed in Grass's poem "What Must Be Said" is spot-on. Now that the dust has settled, we can marvel at how the avalanche of outraged squawks has sent the needle clean off the Richter Scale of Zionist paranoia. Gunter Grass should wear the insults like a badge of honour. The UK newspaper The Jewish Chronicle reported Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as saying that "his [Grass's] declarations are ignorant and shameful, and every honest person in this world must condemn them." What constitutes an "honest person" in Netanyahu's eyes? Does he know any? Would Eli Yishai, Israel's interior minister, be one of them? Yishai lost no time in blacklisting Grass and said he could no longer enter Israel. "If Grass wants to spread his twisted and lying works, I suggest he does this from Iran, where he can find a supportive audience," Yishai said. But Grass already has a huge and appreciative audience in the West. Yishai is the head of Israel's Shas Party, which opposes any freeze in Israel's illegal settlement activity on the West Bank. In other words, Yishai is all for land theft and ethnic cleansing. Not surprisingly, the Shas Party is also a magnet for crooks. Several of the party's MPs have in the past been convicted of offences like fraud and forgery. Its former leader was indicted on corruption charges. The party's founder called Palestinians "evil" and said that "God should strike them with a plague." As for Arabs generally, "it is forbidden to be merciful to them," he said. "You must send missiles against them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable." The Party is against dividing Jerusalem and wants the Temple Mount to be for Israelis only, regardless of irrefutable Muslim claims. As if that weren't enough, The Zionism and Israel Encyclopedic Dictionary tells its readers of "unscrupulous election practices that include distributing amulets against the evil eye and rabbinical blessings in return for promises to vote for Shas, and, apparently, voting by deceased persons. In several Shas districts in 1999, over 100% of those registered participated in the elections." It turns out that the Shas Party is not that honest. But has Yishai done a good job as a minister? "Yishai is a bad interior minister," according to one Israeli newspaper. "It seems the job simply doesn't interest him. Perhaps even worse, this hasn't hurt his political reputation, because the people of Israel don't realise it." In his poem, Grass only expresses what truly honest men have been saying for decades: "Yet why do I forbid myself To name that other country In which, for years, even if secretly, There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand But beyond control, because no inspection is available?" Actually, inspection is available but Israel claims exemption from it, something dutifully granted by an international elite that is subservient to its wishes. He continues: "The nuclear power of Israel endangers An already fragile world peace. Because what must be said May even tomorrow be too late to say." Israel has been frantically pointing the finger at Iran, but what for? To distract attention from the fact that Israel itself is the country that has a run-away nuclear weapons programme that menaces the region and beyond. UN Security Council Resolution 487 of 1981 called on Israel "urgently to place its nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] safeguards." Israel hasn't done so. Its huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear, chemical and biological -- is what is undermining the "fragile world peace." In 2009, the IAEA again called on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, open its nuclear facilities to inspection and place them under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. Again, Israel did not comply. Everyone now knows that Israel is the problem. It is the only state in the region that is not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran is. Israel has signed, but not ratified, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As regards biological and chemical weapons, Israel has not signed the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. It has signed, but not ratified, the Chemical Weapons Convention. Netanyahu needs to explain all this before attacking others. Grass's poem continues: "But now that my own country... Has delivered yet another submarine [to Israel]... Whose specialty consists in its ability To direct nuclear warheads towards An area where the existence Of a single atomic bomb has not been proven, Its feared existence proof enough, I say what must be said." Two months ago, the industry publication Defence Industry Daily reported how Christian Schmidt, Germany's secretary-of-state for defence, had signed a contract with Israel to supply a sixth Dolphin-class submarine, with the German taxpayer chipping in a huge subsidy. This latest U-boat will be fitted with a new type of propulsion system. Schmidt reportedly said that Germany was looking to increase its defense cooperation with Israel and was "specifically interested in learning from the Israeli Defense Force about training and military doctrine." The German government should not have provided any submarines, let alone half a dozen. Dolphin-class submarines are attack vehicles that can fire torpedoes and missiles and carry out underwater surveillance. Germany gave two to the Israeli navy in the early 1990s. Israel then bought a third for $350 million, half price, with the German taxpayer paying for the other half. In 2006, a deal was done for a further two submarines at a cost of more than $1.27 billion, with the Germans picking up 1/3 of the tab. The submarines have 10 bow torpedo tubes, four of which can launch larger cruise missiles. Rumour has it that Israel has tested a nuclear-capable version of its medium-range Popeye Turbo cruise missile from these tubes. This is the stuff of nightmares. Grass's poem ends: "It is to be hoped That this will free many from silence, That they may prompt the perpetrators of the danger we face To renounce the use of violence and Likewise insist that unhindered and permanent control Of the Israeli nuclear potential And the Iranian nuclear sites Be given to an international agency By the governments of both countries." * The writer is author of Radio Free Palestine.
