Thursday, April 12, 2012

Günter Comes Full Circle

Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.)

Nobel prize winning writer, Günter Grass, was a Nazi.

As a member of the Waffen SS, he was a soldier and a fighter for Nazi beliefs, values, and ideals. If he was a "good" Nazi he believed that Jews are responsible for much, if not most, of the world's misery and therefore needed to be stomped like a cockroach.

The Germans didn't slaughter the Jews because they were mean, they did it because they believed that the Jewish people were a disease on German culture and society, if not cultures and societies throughout the world. In particular, the Nazis accused its population of Jews (which amounted to about 1 percent of the whole) of being responsible for World War II, itself. They considered the Jewish people a menace who needed to be crushed. Whatever else Günter Grass thought that he was doing as a young Nazi, he promoted this bloody defamation of the Jewish people. It was a view that led to the slaughter of two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, including much of my own family.

Since that time, of course, Grass has redeemed himself... or so we all thought. The writer of The Tin Drum was widely believed within liberal Jewish circles to be a Nazi who reclaimed his humanity. In all fairness, I have not closely followed this man's career, but he is someone that I was aware of growing up. I read The Tin Drum as a kid and I saw the movie. My recollection, faulty as it may be, was that this was an artist of sensitivity and intelligence.

That's what I thought.

Every once in awhile... however... unfortunately... to my never-ending horror and disgust... an artist or thinker that I admired comes busting out with malicious anti-Semitic nonsense of the type that historically has gotten us killed. When I first heard Helen Thomas yammering about the need for Jews to "get the hell out of Palestine" and to move back to Poland and Russia and Alpha Centauri Seven, I practically fell out of my chair. I just couldn't believe it.

And now we discover that the great, world-renowned writer, Günter Grass, still believes that the Jews are a menace to the world who want nothing more than genocide for another people, for no other reason than shear malice. He wrote:

It is the alleged right to the first strike / That could annihilate the Iranian people/ Subjugated by a loud-mouth / And guided to organized jubilation / Because in their sphere of power / It is suspected, a nuclear bomb is being built.

Annihilate the Iranian people? Really? Merely because we "suspect" a bomb is being built?

Over at Bloomberg News, Jeffrey Goldberg has some words:

Perhaps it reads better in the German, or perhaps Grass is simply T.S. Eliot’s inferior in anti-Semitic poetry, but put aside the poem’s aesthetic shortcomings and consider the idea advanced in the first two lines: That Israel, which in reality is contemplating targeting six to eight nuclear sites in Iran for conventional aerial bombardment, in fact wants to annihilate the Iranian people in a “first strike.”

This is, of course, delusional. Not even the Iranian regime seems to believe this. To make yourself believe that Israel is seeking to murder the 74 million people of Iran, you must make yourself believe that the leaders of the Jewish state outstrip Adolf Hitler in genocidal intent.

In this way the former Nazi, Günter Grass, much like his former compatriots, the original Nazis, is again telling the world that the Jews are a menace that must be stopped at all costs. The hideous irony is that the Israelis are not calling for the genocide of anyone.  All they want is to be left alone so that they can build computer doodads and send Natalie Portmans out into the world.

The fact is, however, that many of the surrounding 200 to 300 million Arabs (and Persians) are calling for the slaughter of the Jews. We are 1/50th of the region's population, yet western European's often tell one another that the Jews are menacing the Arabs and Muslims, even as so many Arabs and Muslims scream to the hillside about their genocidal desire to murder us.

How's that for twisted and sick?

And, so, Günter Grass comes full circle. He started out supporting a political movement that defamed the Jewish people, leading to our slaughter, and now he intends to go out defaming us again.

Good-bye, Günter.

You're done for the day.

14 comments:

  1. btw, I can't help but notice that Daily Kos "progressives" are arguing that Israel is trying to stifle Grass's "free speech" by disallowing him entry into the country.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/09/1081814/-Why-I-Disagree-with-Israel-s-Decision-to-Label-Gunter-Grass-as-Persona-Non-Grata-

    This is precisely the kind of thing that is wrong with the progressive-left in terms of the Jewish people.

    They believe that we need to perpetually be in the docket. Someone even suggested that Israel should invite Grass to come and debate the question.

    Really?

    We need to debate whether or not the Jewish state is a menace to the world?

    The insensitivity and pure stupidity never ceases to astound and the reason that the Jewish progressive response almost always tends to be so feeble is because they honestly believe that the real problem is with Jewish conservatives, rather than actual Jihadis.

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    Replies
    1. I liked what Dershowitz had to say.

      http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3004/guenter-grass-israel

      And Greenfield's piece is stellar.

      http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/04/red-lorelei-of-gunter-grass.html

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    2. Greenfield.

      I have to tell ya, School, it took me a little while to come around to him but, man, can that guy write.

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    3. He can get over the top, but then again, it's what we have come to expect from many regarding these subjects.

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    4. "...over the top..."

      That's "funny".

      "Over the top": just like all the few sane Jewish people warning of real extreme existing danger have been "thought" of, and labeled as, by most other Jewish people at those times.

      The factors of the mindset of Jewish people in general:

      O Intransigent myopic fear-driven Polyannaism
      O Pathological (congenital and unhealthy) overwhelming extreme empathy for others
      O A type of low-level "high-functioning" Asperger's syndrome
      O Culturally engrained several-thousand-year-old deep profound form of Stockholm syndrome

      Producing, and caused by:

      O Extreme lack of mindfulness

      Jewish people, in general, are the stupidest so-called "smart" people who have ever lived.

      Several thousand years of repeatedly enabling, and allowing, and furthering, repeated PREVENTABLE genocide against one's own people (AND EVEN BOASTING ABOUT IT AS IF IT WERE A "BLESSING" -- AN AUSPICIOUS PHENOMENON -- AND AS IF IT WERE A VIRTUOUS ACCOMPLISHMENT: "We've survived! We are survivors!") doesn't lie.

      I wonder if Jewish people will start to be mindful, and will, therein, "grow up", and will, as a result, protect themselves from harm.

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    5. Over the top in the way he speaks about others. That is different than speaking about the threat.

      I don't like demonization from anyone, and I find there is too much of it.

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    6. Point taken. And I apologize for my harsh speech. I felt badly and uneasy about speaking/writing it, but I'm very distressed and frustrated, and I wrote it anyway.

      The situation is very stressful and distressing -- it is so, at least, to me -- and it "brings out the worst in" -- at least -- me.

      I just wish that Jewish people would listen to what I am trying to communicate. I wish that Jewish people would be mindful and would realize what is happening, and would tell the factual history, and current reality, of the situation, and would, thereby, protect themselves from harm.

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    7. Dan,

      I am with you, if not 100% then maybe around 87.3%.

      ;O)

      Here is part of the problem.

      You write:

      I wish that Jewish people would be mindful and would realize what is happening, and would tell the factual history...

      The problem is that on any given historical issue there are untold numbers of facts to choose from.

      History is always interpretive and therefore the facts chosen, and the facts ignored, always betray the scholars bias.

      I tend to agree with you that what we need to do is a better job of discussing the history. I very much agree with that.

      What I would tend to emphasize, however, is historical context.

      The Jewish people have lived in the land of Israel for over 4,000 years.

      This is a fact, but it is the first fact necessary to establish the larger context.

      Another fact is that since Muhammad's armies grabbed Jewish land in the 7th century, Jews have lived as second and third class citizens under Muslim imperial rule until the British defeated the Ottomans in WWI.

      Yet another fact is that when the Jews of the Middle East were freed from Muslim domination the Arab-Muslim world has waged a non-stop war against those people that continues to this day.

      That is a fact.

      So, what we need to do is discuss the history of the conflict in a manner that relies on the larger historical context of Jewish persecution in the Middle East.

      Just as you cannot discuss African-American history without reference to slavery, so you cannot discuss Jewish history in the Middle East without reference to dhimmitude.

      My point being that it is not just a matter of historical facts, but of a larger historical context.

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    8. The basic essential facts of the situation are the basic essential facts of the situation. It is precisely the basic essential facts of the situation that are the facts that those -- the members of Western governments as a whole, and the members of the Western mass media as a whole, and Western academics, and the leaders of the Muslim and Arab world -- who are engaging in a racist, and, in many cases, consciously intendedly genocidal, war against the nation of the Jewish people are obfuscating and are inventing and propagating lies about, which are lies that present a perverse inversion of the reality that those basic essential facts of the situation constitute.

      Most people don't know the basic essential facts of the situation.

      Most people, if they would know the basic essential facts of the situation, would understand the fact that Israel is, and has been, since it was officially re-founded, under a racist intendedly genocidal siege, and they would understand that, as part of that, Israel is being libeled, and they would understand the fact that Israel is a liberal democratic very beneficial very small imperiled nation, and they would understand that it is right and just to protect Israel from genocide -- and they would protect Israel from genocide.

      ----

      Why Are These Facts Not Well-Known?
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2012/04/why-are-these-facts-not-well-known_04.html

      How did the Holocaust happen? Just look around.
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-did-holocaust-happen-just-look.html

      Israel - A Brief Summary of the History of the Situation
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2011/03/israel-brief-summary-of-history-of_17.html

      Fatah-PLO-PA in their own words (Video)
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2011/09/fatah-central-committee-member-abbas.html

      Haj Amin al-Husseini - The founder of the 'Palestinian movement' (Text and Video)
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2011/09/haj-amin-al-husseini-founder-of.html

      Jewish Stockholm Syndrome
      http://danielbielak.blogspot.com/2012/03/jewish-stockholm-syndrome.html

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  2. Every generation, my dear Doodad, they find us guilty as hell.

    Every generation, including this one.

    The difference is that now the Jewish people can defend ourselves.

    When Laurie and I arrived at Ben Gurion the very first thing that stood out for me was the young people with weaponry.

    So many soldiers. It made me sad.

    And then it pissed me off that young Jewish kids need to protect themselves and their families so strongly.

    I just hope that they understand why it is necessary.

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  3. From antisemite to Zionist, by Kasim Hafeez

    http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/56021/from-antisemite-zionist

    "In 2003, Pakistan's then President Pervez Musharaff sought to re-examine his country's relationship, or lack thereof, with Israel. He asked: 'Do we have to be more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves?'

    "With their new 'Liberation' campaign, it seems that the Union Of Jewish Students has decided to answer that question with a resounding 'yes'.

    "Rather than being a brave move forwards for UJS, it is a hollow and cynical campaign that smacks of extreme cowardice.

    "The reality is that there is real anti-Israel and antisemitic feeling on British university campuses. How do I know this? Because until recently I was antisemitic and anti-Israel. Until recently, I was the one doing the hating.

    "Growing up in a Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers. My views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies where speakers predicted Israel's demise.

    "My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

    "There was also constant, casual antisemitism around me. My father would boast of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified.

    "What changed? In Waterstones one day I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section. To this day I don't know why I actually pulled it off the shelf, but I picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel.

    "In my world view the Jews and the Americans controlled the media, so after a brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking 'vile Zionist propaganda'.

    "But I decided to buy it, eagerly awaiting the chance to deconstruct it so I could show why Israel had no case and claim my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.

    (continued)

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  4. (from continued)

    "As I read Dershowitz's systematic deconstruction of the lies I had been told, I felt a real crisis of conscience. I couldn't disprove his arguments or find facts to respond to them with. I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong?

    "I decided to visit Israel to find the truth. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.

    "After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.

    "As an outsider, I ask why so many in the Jewish community are closing their eyes to the constant stream of anti-Israel hated spewed out from all facets of British society.

    "And while pro-Palestinian organisations burn Israeli flags, urge boycotts of Israel and protest against appearances by Israeli politicians or artists, UJS's response is shameful. It is not the time for UJS or any other group to engage in hollow flag-waving to show their 'progressiveness'. Let Israel's democratic history speak for itself.

    "Instead of meekly trying to avoid coming across as too pro-Israeli or too Zionist, it is time to make the facts known, to defend Israel against delegitimisation. It is time to stem the tide of Israel bashing before it becomes even more mainstream and consumes even more people like me."

    "Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and the founder of the website theisraelcampaign.org"

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  5. He's done for good now.

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4646671,00.html

    "German Nobel laureate Guenter Grass dies at age 87

    Nobel-winning German writer who ran into controversy over past as SS officer passes away; Grass was declared a persona non grata in Israel in 2012 over prose poem. ..."

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