Netanyahu Slams Gunter Grass for Poem
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday harshly condemned the poem published by German Nobel laureate Guenter Grass in which he said that Israel’s nuclear program, not Iran’s, is a threat to world peace.
“His declarations are ignorant and shameful and every honest person in this world must condemn them,” Netanyahu said.
In his poem, which was published in several European newspapers on Wednesday, 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.
Netanyahu said he is sure that Grass’ motives are anti-Semitic. “For six decades he hid his past as a member in the Waffen SS,” Netanyahu said. “So it is no surprise that he defines the only Jewish state as the greatest threat to world peace and opposes it equipping itself with means of self defense.”
Netanyahu said that Grass’ comparison between Iran and Israel was shameful.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
