Thursday, April 12, 2012
The Left’s Defense of Nazi Günter Grass
The Left's Defense of Nazi Günter Grass
(open web page for links)
Posted By Steven Plaut On April 12, 2012
Günter Grass has been transformed overnight into the poster boy of
Neo-Nazis, leftist anti-Semites, and jihadists from all around the
world. This is of course thanks to his "poem," in which he proclaims
Israel a far worse danger to world peace than Iran is. (Grass's
original poem is in the language of Himmler but an English translation
can be read here.) Grass insists that an Iran openly building nukes
and threatening to use them against Israel and the West is far less of
a global threat than an Israel that dares to defend its civilians from
terrorist attacks.
While the condemnation of Grass from most corners of civilization has
been massive and dramatic, Grass is also attracting a considerable
following and outpouring of support from the Axis of Evil, the one
that allies the radical Left to the genocidal Islamofascists.
Statements endorsing the Teuton and his "poem" have come from the
radical Left, all the way from Noam Chomsky to the Israel-hating
Israeli professor of German history, Moshe Zimmerman from the Hebrew
University. No relation to the shooter in Florida.
Grass has quite a bit of a track record when it comes to Jew bashing
(but is hardly the only anti-Semite literary figure). Best recognized
for his Hitler moustache, Grass had served in the Waffen SS as a
Panzer soldier. He is putting his SS experiences to good use these
days in his lobbying for Israel's destruction. His poem, expressing
clearly his underlying desire to see Israel exterminated, triggered
Israel's Minister of the Interior to declare him persona non grata, in
effect banned from Israel. Even leftist "post-Zionist" Tom Segev,
writing in Israel's radical leftist daily Haaretz, denounced Grass in
these words:
Grass' comparison of Israel and Iran is unfair, because unlike Iran,
Israel has never threatened to wipe another country off the map. And
contrary to Grass' sanctimonious verses, under no circumstances would
a military action against Iran lead to the extermination of the
Iranian people, because as far as we know, it would exclusively target
the country's nuclear facilities.
Few could dispute that the world will be a better place without an
Iranian nuclear weapon. And not only in Israel – also the northern
German town of Lubeck, the capital of marzipan, where Grass writes,
paints and sculpts, will be a better place if Iran doesn't get the
bomb. Grass basks in hypocritical moralism and agonizes over not
having condemned Israel's nuclear capacity earlier. … One gets the
impression Grass' act of "breaking the silence" is more a
self-contained personal experience than anything else. Neither can one
escape the notion that he seeks to recreate the shock waves of his
confession six years ago about his service in the Waffen SS during
World War II.
But alongside the condemnations have come large numbers of expressions
of support for Herr Grass and his opinions. Take for example the
shrill cheers for Grass from the pro-jihad Neo-Stalinist web magazine
"Counterpunch." It ran a piece by Tariq Ali, a communist extremist
from Lahore who lives in Britain. A fanatical anti-Semite and hater
of America, Ali (no relation to Ali G) defends Grass by attacking Jews
for blaming Germans for the Holocaust, and then turns around and
trivializes the Holocaust itself in these words: "Behind this thinking
is the Zionist and Zionophile argument that the crime against the Jews
of Europe was unique in the annals of history. This was true as far as
the method of extermination was concerned, but not in any other way.
The Belgians massacred the Congolese in greater numbers." Ali
condemns Germany for sending aid and reparations to Israel, not for
its anti-Semitism and history of genocide. It is interesting to note
that while Ali himself trivializes the Holocaust as just one set of
killings among so many others, Counterpunch these days is chock full
of actual Holocaust Denier columnists, including the deranged "Israel
Shamir," Gilad Atzmon, and others, alongside such anti-Semitic
critters as Norman Finkelstein. Stalinist Alexander Cockburn, who runs
the site, seems never to have met a Jew he does not think deserves to
be murdered.
Meanwhile, Grass became overnight the darling of Neo-Nazis all over
the world. A cabinet minister from Iran just loves the Grass poem.
Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari wrote in a sycophantic letter
to Grass: "I read your literary work of human and historical
responsibility, and it warns beautifully…Telling the truth in this way
may awake the silent and dormant conscience of the West. Writers are
able single-handedly to prevent human tragedies, in a way that armies
cannot." Leftists and Neo-Nazis of various stripes took to the
streets of Germany in rallies of support for Grass. The brownshirts
were joined by the "World Socialist Web Site" and the pro-terror
"Electronic Intifada" and Al Jazeera. They were also joined by
Neo-Nazi "anarchist" Stephen Lendman, who posts daily anti-Semitic
spam on the "Indymedia" anarchist sites.
Another supporter of Grass, in fact his sidekick in trying to prevent
an Israeli theater company from performing in Britain, has been Emma
Thompson, a leftist British actress who claims to be an anarchist.
You may recall her recent bon mot on American television in which she
claimed that British residents of the Isle of Man stone homosexuals to
death. She signed a letter that asserted that the Habimah Theater had
oppressed Palestinians, perhaps by requiring that they buy tickets to
attend its shows. The letter said, inter alia: "Habimah has a
shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in
Occupied Palestinian Territory." The Harry Potter witch has a rich
track record of bashing Israel.
While criticizing Grass, others have been denouncing Israel for its
travel ban against him. A German cabinet minister criticized Israel
for the ban on Grass, while also denouncing as bigoted both Grass and
his "poem." Salman Rushdie, Alan Dershowitz and Jeffrey Goldberg all
oppose the ban. The British Telegraph denounced Israel's decision as
"bullying censorship," forgetting to mention the long list of people,
from Michael Savage to Israeli opposition politicians to critics of
homosexuality, banned from Britain because some official considers
them to be "intolerant" people. Countries routinely ban entrance to
hostile foreigners or those who demonize the people of those
countries. Israel has banned only a few notorious rogues, including
Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, and Norman Finkelstein, all anti-Israel
propagandists with close associations with terrorist groups..
Anti-Semites around the world celebrating Grass were even joined by
some Jewish anti-Semites, always happy to "Tom" it up for Neo-Nazis
and jihadists. A small group of pro-jihad Jewish leftist anti-Semites
in the US calling themselves the "Jews for Justice for Palestinians"
endorsed Grass. Also joining were sundry Holocaust Denial web sites
and the deranged Israel-born British Holocaust Denier Gilad Atzmon.
(You may recall that the anti-Semitic conspiracist duo Stephen Walt
and John Mearsheimer have been endorsing and hosting the very same
Atzmon.)
Israel's own radical leftists have been crawling out of their holes to
express support for Grass and to denounce the Israeli ban against him
entering the country. Basically they endorse anyone who despises their
own country. The tiny Israeli leftist "972 magazine" web site, funded
by anti-Israel Europeans, issued a call for support of Grass.
Ironically, these leftists, who suddenly pretend to be free speech
absolutists when it comes to Grass, have a long track record of
OPPOSING freedom of speech in Israel. Gideon Levy, the most openly
treasonous columnist at Haaretz, adores Grass's dreams of a world in
which there is no Israel, while opposing freedom of speech for
"Rightists" or for settlers. Haaretz in its official editorial
denounced the declaration of Grass as persona non grata as a policy
non grata. The herd of leftist sheep from Israeli academia and
elsewhere are chiming in their agreement.
After all, what did Grass really do that was so awful, asks Haaretz.
All he did was write a poem! Freedom of expression! Academic freedom!
Sure. All this coming from exactly the same Israeli leftists (and the
newspaper promoting them) who just petitioned the court to order the
arrest of two rabbis who wrote a controversial book about some matters
in Rabbinic law, a book the Left regards as "racist." The Israeli
Left wants the book banned and burned. They have even been joined by
the Israeli branch of the Reform synagogue movement, a movement that
has never seen a leftist bandwagon upon which it does not wish to
leap. These leftist book-burners are demanding not only that the two
authors be imprisoned for "racism," but also that anyone even
recommending that other people read that book be similarly arrested.
This is just the latest anti-democratic "cause" of Israeli leftists,
who generally oppose freedom of speech for non-leftists. These people
regard any criticism of radical leftism to be "McCarthyism."
But those two rabbis who wrote the controversial book, just what did
THEY do that was so awful? They wrote a book. Many people do not like
the opinions in that book. So what? Books by leftist anti-Semites and
Arab fascist jihadists can be bought and read freely in Israel.
These are the very same people rushing out to "defend" Günter Grass
from bully Israel. Just what does he need defending from? Did Israel
arrest him? Burn his books? No, grasshopper, book burning is
something that leftists do.
2. http://frontpagemag.com/2012/04/12/thomas-friedman-praises-palestinian-jew-murderer/
Thomas Friedman Praises Palestinian Jew Murderer
3. http://frontpagemag.com/2012/04/12/jerusalem-and-jews-under-attack/
Jerusalem and Jews Under Attack
4. Those inhumane Zionists! Now they are vacuuming the cars of
suspected terrorists!
Israelis detailing the cars of Palestinisn:
http://www.righttoenter.ps/etemplate.php?id=197
Leftist web site: NEWS RELEASE: Israel Using Unknown Hosing Procedure
to Spray/Vacuum inside of Cars at Crossing Checkpoints in West Bank
January 26, 2012
(Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine) - The Campaign for the Right to Enter
the Occupied Palestinian Territory (RTE) has been notified by a
foreign national—a development worker—that when she recently drove
through the Bethlehem 300 Checkpoint, also known as the 'Gilo 300
checkpoint,' Israeli police were randomly pulling over cars at the
military checkpoint and asking those in the vehicles to exit after
closing all the car's windows, except for leaving the driver's side
window which was to be left open 5 cm. The Israeli policemen then
inserted a hose inside each car, and at the cue of one of the officers
with a stopwatch, the reporting driver was under the impression that a
gas was sprayed inside the vehicle's interior for ten minutes. Upon
some preliminary research, which is still ongoing, it seems the hose
may have been a vacuum to suck the air out of the car's interior.
Afterwards, the driver and passengers of the cars were told to enter
the vehicles and leave. When the policemen were asked what they were
doing, their response was: "It is for security and it is fine."
The foreign national who reported this incident noted that an
immediate feeling of nausea and headache were felt after entering the
vehicle.
The Campaign calls on all media outlets and human right organizations,
especially international ones, to immediately make this case known and
advise the Campaign of any other cases reported at any Israeli
checkpoint. Likewise, we call on all responsible parties to
immediately investigate this dangerous violation of human rights.
