Gunter Grass’ poem, ‘What must be said’, is an absurd and morally indefensible attack on Israel. The poem states that the Jewish state endangers world peace because of its threat to attack Iran, which has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. Instead of engaging with the complex debate over whether Israel has the right to defend itself against an aggressor, Grass singles out the Jewish state for criticism and makes no reference to Iran’s genocidal intentions. The poem also states that Israel intends to annihilate the Iranian people – a gross error, as any attack on Iran would be on nuclear facilities and not the entire populace. What Grass fails to mention is that it would be the Israeli Jews and Arabs who would be annihilated if Iran dropped a nuclear bomb. The fact that Gunter, a former member of the Wassen-SS, published the poem just before Passover recalls the European tradition of accusing Jews of ritual murder just before the annual Jewish festival. As such, Grass should be stripped of his Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded to him in 1999.
