Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Gunter Grass: Israel Is the Problem

German Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass published a poem Wednesday in which he said that Israel’s nuclear program 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.

The poem, entitled “What must be said,” will be published on Wednesday in the New York Times, the Deutsche Zeitung, and La Republica. In the poem, Grass writes that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a “big mouth,” and that the intentions of the Iranian nuclear program are not proven.

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.

“Germany could be responsible for a crime that can be foreseen,” Grass said.

Grass achieved fame with his first novel “The Tin Drum.” Many of his stories have been translated into Hebrew and English. In 2006, Grass admitted for the first time to serving in Hitler’s Waffen SS during the Second World War. Today, Grass is an active member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.