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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

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