Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass: Nuclear Israel a Threat to World Peace

Published on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 by Common Dreams

In poem published today Gunter Grass writes Israel threatening "already fragile world peace," Iranian people

- Common Dreams staff

German poet and Nobel literature winner Gunter Grass has published a poem today in which he writes that Israel is a danger to world peace.

(photo: Pedro Armestre, AFP/Getty Images) In the poem, "What must be said," he also criticizes Germany's deal to sell Israel submarines that are capable of carrying nuclear-armed missiles, slams the West's hypocrisy, and writes that Israel "could wipe out the Iranian people."

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Agence France-Presse: Gunter Grass says Israel plotting to 'wipe out' Iran

German Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass published a poem Wednesday in which he accused Israel of plotting Iran's annihilation and threatening global security.
"I admit: I will be silent no longer, because I am sick of the hypocrisy of the West"The 84-year-old longtime leftist activist wrote in "What must be said" that he worried Israel "could wipe out the Iranian people" with a "first strike" due to the threat it sees in Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
"Why do I only say now, aged and with my last ink: the atomic power Israel is endangering the already fragile world peace?" reads the poem, which was published in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Grass answers that Nazi Germany's "incomparable" crimes against Jews and fears of accusations of anti-Semitism kept him from openly criticizing Israel.
But now, "tomorrow could already be too late" and Germany could become a "supplier to a crime", referring to a deal sealed last month for Berlin to sell Israel a sixth nuclear-capable Dolphin-class submarine.
"I admit: I will be silent no longer, because I am sick of the hypocrisy of the West".

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Haaretz: German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass' new poem: Nuclear Israel is a threat to world peace

In his poem, the 85-year-old author claims that Israel’s nuclear reactor – and not Iran’s – presents a threat to world peace. Grass’ poem calls for Germany to cease supplying Israel with submarines, and warns against an Israeli strike on Iran. [...]
Grass also claims that “Israel’s nuclear potential has been stealthily growing for years,” without being under any kind of international supervision. Grass believes that Israel is planning to arm submarines recently purchased from Germany with nuclear warheads.

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