Günther Grass and the question of Israel

Two weeks ago the literature Nobel-Prize winner Günther Grass published a 'poem' called 'was gesagt warden muss' (what has to be said), in which he accused Israel of planning a [nuclear] first strike against Iran and being responsible for endangering the 'anyway fragile world peace'. Expectatly this caused a lot of controversy, going as far as leading to a travel ban by Israel for Günther. Partly the discussion is relevant because as a former member of the Waffen-SS, which he had kept secret for 60 years, people say he should be more retrained in his opinions.

 I second the opinion, brought forward by Henryk M. Broder for example, that he tries to invert the role of the aggressor and the victim, by marginalizing the threats towards Israel from Iran, heard on an almost daily basis, and inventing an Israeli desire to do the same to Iran. By doing so and thereby accusing the Israelis to plan a crime in many scales higher than the Shoah he would wash himself of his earlier guilt.

More than being about the question whether it is legitimate to critizise Israel as a German, this affair is about a new form of latent anti-semitism in the west and Germany particular. It goes without question that Israel should stop abusing human rights, but it is also true that accusing them of being as bad or worse than the Nazis were is utter nonsense. The amount of open support for his thesis, especially during the traditional, left-wing dominated 'Ostermärsche' (Easter marches) was striking.

 It is in itself the mirror of a country which even after 70 years does still struggle with its guilt. Some say that Germany has not only the right but the duty to critique Israel, because of the mantra that Germany decided to never be culprit again, whilst the Jews and therefore Israel decided to become victims no more. In reality though this seems to fall more in line with the formally mentioned notion that once the Jews are the culprits of a bigger crime the guilt will be gone.

Alternatively and more likely if it so happened that Israel, a 'one-bomb-country', will be extinguished, we can give our support and finally rest easy as our guilt will be washed from history. 'Our guilt' being a more transcendent feeling as the question of guilt moving from one generation to the next (as in the Christian sense) is another issue altogether.



PS: Just read a "non-representative" poll that about 56% of Germans think his thesis are correct, whilst there seems to be even higher consensus to agree with him on the internet.