Protocols of the Elders of Goyion

by Ariadna Theokopoulos

Monday, May 7th, 2012

 

I am not one easily duped by conspiracy theories like 9/11 “Truth” or “Jews control the major world powers,” but I am not a Zionist either. I consider myself an anti-zionist and a progressive endowed with clear-eyed objectivity. This is not a statement to propitiate the audience of an anti-zionist site but to indicate that a conspiracy detected by me should be taken seriously.

I call it The Protocols of the Elders of Goyion because I like the irony of the allusion: this one is real! Here are the facts:

I did not suspect Nelson Mandela (now 93) for being an anti-semite when he accused Israel of apartheid and claimed that “the problem of Palestine” began not in 1967 but in 1948, that the right of return of Palestinian refugees is the “major component” of the problem or when he harped on so-called similarities between Israel’s [alleged] and South Africa’s apartheid.

Why did he have me fooled? Because he is the legendary leader of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and the recipient of awards for peace and justice, too many to list.

I did not suspect Desmond Tutu (now 82), another self-proclaimed apartheid connoisseur, for being an anti-semite when he also accused Israel of apartheid and went even further by attacking what he called “Jewish power” in the US (“People are scared in this country to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful.”) and used anti-semitic slurs and insults like -

Jews think they have a monopoly on God,”

Jews have cornered the market on suffering.”

Why did he have me fooled? Because he is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and the Ghandi Peace Prize and also an iconic figure in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

I merely thought that these two men had their minds enfeebled by old age and that, like all African blacks, they see apartheid everywhere. I admit I had also given them some slack, as we Americans always do when it comes to blacks—it is called PC and I deplore it although I, too, am guilty of it.

I did, however, instantly recognize virulent anti-semitism in Gunther Grass (now 85) when he published his outrageous poem that attacked Israel in what amounted to a blood libel, claiming it threatens world peace and brazenly calling upon his government to stop delivery of German submarines that can be equipped with nuclear heads to Israel.

Why did I manage to nab him? Because unlike Mandela and Tutu he has no pigmentary shield and worse: he is German, a biological fact that his Nobel Prize for Literature and his various past activities in the peace movement cannot dilute. As they say, blood does tell.


From left: Hillel Schenker, Prof. Johan Galtung,
Dr. Hassan Dweik and Ziad AbuZayyad.

I also easily identified Prof. Johan Galtung (now 82) as an anti-semite when he espoused his belief in “Jewish power” controlling the media, by resorting to the crude tactic of counting Jews (“Six Jewish companies control 96% of the media”). It stands to reason that any Goy who identifies Jews in positions of power as “Jews” and counts them is an anti-semite. If a Jew or a even a Goy has that kind of curiosity there are trustworthy Jewish sites on the internet like “Jew or not Jew?” that count Jews without bias and bigotry.

He also said about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that:

It is impossible to [read it] today without thinking of Goldman Sachs.

Most recently he went so far as to claim that the Mossad could have conceivably been connected to the Breivik attack in Norway.

He was exposed as an anti-semite by the Wiesenthal Center and even more ably by Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress and, more importantly, the mogul of the cosmetic giant Estee Lauder—who better to paint the right face on anti-semitism?

Why was it easy for me to identify Galtung? Because, despite the much-vaunted Peace Research Institute in Oslo he set up as a cover in 1964, despite his much ballyhooed theories of conflict resolution, structural violence and his various contributions in several sciences, despite the various honors he received (like The Alternative Nobel Prize, what a laugh), his anti-semitism and desire to delegitimize Israel come through loud and clear in his statements, as does his anti-Americanism (after the fall of the Soviet Union he “predicted that the US will no longer be a functioning superpower”).

Last but not least, he is a Norwegian and I read on wikipedia that Norwegian anti-semitism goes back to the Middle Ages, proven by the fact the “Jews were mentioned unfavorably in the Icelandic Sagas,” likely among his childhood readings.

What do these men have in common, other than old age? It is a multi-national, multi-racial group and all are internationally respected. Two of them are Nobel Prize laureates. They might have hoped that their reputations would immunize them against being unmasked as anti-semites.

I am not one of those people who knock the Nobel Prize indiscriminately for being politicized. After all they do get it right so often, as can be seen in a few illustrious examples of Peace Prize laureats: Kissinger, Begin, Wiesel, Peres, Obama. Nevertheless I do not allow a prize named after the inventor of dynamite to blind me.

What these men really have in common, other than advanced age, is that they are Goyim and they are anti-semites. It pains me to say it but the last two go together virtually always (with extremely few exceptions, like myself) as an innate trait.

A conspiracy is a confluence of ideology and activities even if the conspirators do not know each other, as is probably the case here, except for Mandela and Tutu to whom, again, I have to cut some slack because, being black they would tend to hang out together. The conspirators do not need written Protocols. Unless we find them, which brings me to my last point:

This is still work in progress and I need all the help I can get from like-minded anti-zionist progressives by way of providing me with what others make so much of: “proofs.” I would specifically appreciate help in dealing with an “outlier” in my theory, namely the existence of a number of internationally well-known and highly respected (most likely for the wrong reasons) people who are neither old nor Goyim and yet espouse the same pernicious views.

Among many such sad examples there is one who has been called “Israel’s enemy #1” by none other than Prof. Dershowitz, a distinguished American lawyer, expert in difficult “husband-kills-wife” celebrity defense cases.

I shall not identify Israel’s enemy by name here because I do not wish to help promoting his book:


The Wandering Who?—available from amazon.com for $10.06, Kindle edition, $7.60 plus shipping (varies by state).


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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Gilad Atzmon on Günter Grass @ Wenlock Poetry Festival (A video)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:56AM Gilad Atzmon

 

A talk about Günter Grass, art of resistance, Israel, the Lobby, Iran, antisemitism, Pre-TSD, aesthetics and the prospect of peace.


 
Gilad Atzmon on Günter Grass @ Wenlock Poetry Festival from Gilad Atzmon on Vimeo.



To listen to Grass' poem click here:

 

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Jenny Tonge’s Victory over the Lobby ~ by Ramzy Baroud

By Ramzy Baroud

Palestine Chronicle
April 18, 2012

Jenny Tonge

‘My Lords, I was in Gaza six weeks ago,’ began Baroness Tonge, when she spoke at the House of Lords in January 2009. ‘Now, as a result of the impotence of the international community, not just in Gaza, but…over 40 years of occupation of Palestine by Israel, those institutions that I visited are rubble and many of the children with whom I played are dead.’

Jenny Tonge, then a member of the UK’s Liberal Democrat party, was a dangerous British politician as far as Israel was concerned. She not only dared to use strong language while referencing Israeli actions in the occupied territories, she also demanded action from her government

For this she was subjected to the same, predictable verbal abuse by Israeli officials and media, by the pro-Israeli British lobby, and even by some of her peers. However, calling Tonge ‘anti-Semitic’ was never going to be convincing. The formidable woman has spent years of her life serving her community – as a doctor, MP and spokesperson for Health for Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords – and has amassed far too much credibility to be shaken by defamatory accusations.

Moreover, very few will agree that calling for “the immediate—and I mean immediate—establishment by the United Nations Security Council of an independent fact-finding commission to Palestine to investigate all breaches of international law” constitutes anti-Semitism in any way.

But for those who insist that Israel is above any criticism, the mere suggestion that Israel should be investigated for alleged war crimes is an unforgivable act. Any hint of criticism can easily be misrepresented to equal the questioning of the very existence of the state, and casually labeled as racism.

The Baroness is not easily intimidated, however. Speaking at Middlesex University on February 23, she stated that, “Israel is not going to be there forever in its present form,” a reference to the country’s current racially-based political identity as a ‘Jewish State,’ which leaves native Muslim and Christian Arabs vulnerable to institutional racism and discriminatory laws.

Many others have already warned from the increasingly anti-democratic nature of Israel, especially with the rise of religious and ultra-nationalist parties. Leading scholars, Noble Laureates, acclaimed anti-Apartheid figures and former US presidents have all made similar calls, targeting the skewed nature of the Israeli political establishment, which grants rights to people of Jewish lineage while denying basic civil rights to all others.

Tonge was not targeting any race, but rather the small, yet powerful cliques that have long infested both British and US politics in areas concerning Israeli and the Middle East. “One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough,” she said. “Israel will lose support and then they will reap what they have sown” (The Guardian, Feb 9).

In stating the obvious, Tonge irked British politicians, including members of her own party, who speak of ‘peace in the Middle East’ while actively undermining any real efforts to achieve such peace. Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, said there was “no place in politics for those who question the existence of Israel.” Tonge, in fact, had done no such thing. Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, stated, “I asked Baroness Tonge to withdraw her remarks and apologize for the offense she has caused. She has refused to do so and will now be leaving the party.”

Since his sudden rise to close to the top of British political hierarchy, Clegg has moved substantially from his original stance regarding Palestine and Israel. In his article in the Guardian on December 21, 2009, he had articulated a strong position against the Israeli blockade on Gaza, and asked: “And what has the British government and the international community done to lift the blockade? Next to nothing. Tough-sounding declarations are issued at regular intervals but little real pressure is applied. It is a scandal that the international community has sat on its hands in the face of this unfolding crisis.”
Once in the government, Clegg changed his position. Tonge, on the other hand, remained consistently audacious, regardless of position or perks. Her stance in 2012 mirrored other stances she has taken in the past. In 2006, she uttered what few before dared to even speak in private: “The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they’ve probably got a grip on our party,” she said (BBC, Sep 21, 2006.) Then, as in now, her comments were manipulated by the media to imply something entirely different from what she had clearly intended. Her exit from the party was a testament to the will of this strong British woman, but also to the power of the very Israeli lobby she often criticized.

It is important to remember that Tonge’s battle is not a skirmish within the ranks of the political elites. Rather, it’s a war of narratives, where Israel and its ‘friends’ insist on silencing any meaningful debate on Palestine-Israel. The other side, encompassing Tonge and numerous others, is slowly encroaching on Israel’s well-guarded discourse, and making serious inroads.

A recent episode in the war of narratives involved Gunther Grass, German author of the widely acclaimed anti-Nazi novel, The Tin Drum. Grass has now done what many others, especially in Germany, never dared to do. He criticized Israel for its aggressive posturing towards Iran. Israeli officials responded by calling the man every bad word in the book of defamation.

The typical ‘storm’ created by Israeli responses has, however, not managed to enact a typical response this time. Nicholas Kulish wrote in the New York Times that judging by the ‘outpouring’ of comments by German politicians and media, “it would appear that the public had resoundingly rejected (Gunter’s) work…But even a quick dip into the comments left by readers on various Web sites reveals quite another reality” (April 13). According to Kulish, “Mr. Grass has struck a nerve with the broader public, articulating frustrations with Israel here in Germany that are frequently expressed in private but rarely in public.” He adds that “charge of anti-Semitism aimed at Israel’s critics is widely viewed as a blunt instrument that silences debate, and in the process prevents Mr. Grass from making a point…”
While Israel does occasionally succeed in silencing critics, the tried and true tactic of the past is becoming less effective. In the final analysis, neither Tonge nor Gunter have actually lost to the lobby. In the world of ideas, only the credibility of one’s views actually makes a difference. The rest is hasbara.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Free Speech Vs. Israel

by Mahmoud El-Yousseph
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
 
On April 4, 2012, 84-year-old German writer and Nobel literature prizewinner Günter Grass published his poem: “What Must Be Said” (“Was gesagt werden muss”) in several European newspapers. In this poem Grass expressed concern that an Israeli military strike against Iran could “wipe out the people of Iran”.

In response, Israel declared him persona non grata. In fact, they went ballistic.
Why is it that a country claiming to be “the only democracy in the Middle East” cannot tolerate criticism?

Günter Grass was referred to as a “Nazi” and – surprise, surprise! – anti-Semitic.

Though the German writer had been drafted into the German army toward the end of the war, age 14, was assigned to a tank division and had not served at any prison camps. Moreover, there is nothing anti-Semitic whatsoever about his poem — unless you want to call the truth ‘anti-Semitic’.

Günter Grass is talking about Israel’s mighty nuclear arsenal and the danger it poses for world peace. He criticizes Germany for providing Israel with a submarine from which nukes can be launched. As a German, he doesn’t want to be held responsible for a nuclear war. That is perfectly legitimate.
It is quite bizarre that an Israeli group of writers should send a letter on April 11th to the Swedish Academy in charge of selecting laureates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, demanding that the earlier award given to Günter Grass be revoked. To their credit, the Academy refused.

This is by no means the first time Israel has acted with hostility towards it critics. Not so long ago, true humanists like Dr Norman Finkelstein and Professor Noam Chomsky had each received a ten year ban from entering Israel. Strong critics of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, Finkelstein and Chomsly have been vilified as “self-hating Jews.”

Keep in mind that Palestinians who live under the Occupation are often shot at or sent to jail for resisting the occupation and/or protesting the theft of their land and the separation wall erected by Israel.

When the International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the “security wall” being built around the West Bank was illegal and should be pulled down, adding that it infringed the rights of Palestinians and that Israel should pay compensation for the damage it had done in building it, Israel openly flouted the court’s ruling. Nothing new here.

Another case worth nothing is that of Mordechai Vanunu. An Israeli citizen banned from leaving the country for the last nine years, as well as prohibited from having contact with any foreign nationals or foreign media, Mr. Vanunu was kidnapped from Rome by Israeli Mossad agents in 1996 and was smuggled into Israel where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

His only crime, according to American author Eileen Fleming, was “telling the truth and providing photographic proof to the London Sunday Timesof Israel’s seven-story underground WMD facility in Negev”.

A few months after his release in 2004, Vanunu was re-arrested on Christmas Eve for attempting to celebrate his first Christmas out of prison at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

As I am writing this, up to 1,500 activists from Europe and North America who had been planning to travel to Israel have been prevented from doing so, They had planned to go straight from Ben Gurion airport to Tel Aviv, and then on to Bethlehem in Palestine, for a week-long program of educational and cultural activities under the banner of ” Welcome to Palestine”. But no, Israel regarded this as a “threat to peace” and stopped them showing their sympathy for the Palestinians.



The latest news is that the Israeli military has deployed 600 soldiers at the airport near Tel Aviv and turned it into a military compound, with one section of the airport set up as a prison camp. Israel submittted a “black list” to various airlines of 342 participants from the ages of 9 to 83 to prevent them from boarding planes, thus sparking huge protests in several international airports.

As of this hour, 50 French peace activists and 9 Israeli citizens are behind bars.

The orgainizers of the event, who are mainly French and Belgian citizens, accused Israel of high-handed and hysterical behavior — indeed of paranoia. As she has demonstared often enough before, Israel is all too willing to detain people who have committed no crime.

All that visitors to Israel need to do to end up behind bars is to declare that their object in traveling to Israel is to visit the Palestinians.

Israel is perhaps the only “democracy” in the world in which no one has any rights whatsoever except Jews.

If you are an Arab citizen of Israel, you have second-class rights and have to put up with constant discrimination.

If you are a Palestinian, you have no rights at all and you are subjected to constant harassment, persecution, and the possibility of sudden death.

Finally, if you are a visitor to Israel, you have no rights whatever if you show the slightest sympathy for the Palestinians. You will either be deported at once or thrown into prison.
So much for “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

What a farce.


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Good for Gunter!

by Stuart Littlewood
Friday, April 13th, 2012

Everyone and his dog now knows Israel is the problem

Can’t say I’m crazy about the German Nobel laureate’s poetry. Much is lost in translation, of course. But the sentiment expressed in ‘What Must Be Said’ is spot-on.

And now that the dust has settled we can marvel at how the avalanche of outraged squawks and screeches sent the needle clean off the Richter Scale of Zionist paranoia.

Brave Gunter Grass should wear the insults like a badge of honour.

The Jewish Chronicle reported http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/66360/gunter-grass-not-welcome-israel-after-iran-poem-sparks-hate-charges Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying:

His [Gunter's] declarations are ignorant and shameful and every honest person in this world must condemn them.”

What constitutes an “honest person” in Netanyahu’s eyes? Does he know any?

Would Eli Yishai, Israel’s interior minister, be one of them? Yishai lost no time blacklisting Grass and said he could no longer enter Israel. http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/66408/gunter-grass-israel-ban-burma-or-stasi .

If Gunter wants to spread his twisted and lying works, I suggest he does this from Iran, where he can find a supportive audience.”

No need, Eli. He already has a huge and appreciative audience here in the West.

Yishai is boss of Israel’s Shas party. Shas opposes any freeze in Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the West Bank. In other words, he’s all for land theft and ethnic cleansing. Not surprisingly Shas is a magnet for freaks and crooks. Several of the party’s MKs have been convicted of offences such as fraud and forgery. Its former leader was indicted on corruption charges. The party’s founder called Palestinians “evil” and said “God should strike them with a plague….”

As for Arabs generally, “it is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable.”

Shas has a real down on homosexuals too. One Shas MK accused gays of being “a plague as toxic as bird flu”. http://www.haaretz.com/news/shas-mk-gays-are-causing-israeli-society-to-self-destruct-1.238216 .

The party is also against dividing Jerusalem and wants the Temple Mount for Jews only, regardless of irrefutable Muslim claims.

As if that weren’t enough, The Zionism and Israel Encyclopedic Dictionary http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Shas.htm tells of “unscrupulous election practices that include distributing amulets against the evil eye and rabbinical blessings in return for promises to vote for Shas, and apparently, voting by deceased persons. In several Shas districts in 1999, over 100% of those registered participated in the elections.”

And is Yishai any good as a minister? “Yishai is a bad interior minister,” according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/business/the-shekel-drops-what-kind-of-minister-is-eli-yishai-1.407733 . “It seems the job simply doesn’t interest him. Perhaps even worse, that hasn’t hurt his political reputation, because the people of Israel don’t realize it.” So Gunter Grass needn’t lose any sleep over the mouthings of this third-rater.

In any case, Gunter in his poem only expresses what truly honest men have been saying for decades…

Yet why do I forbid myself

To name that other country

In which, for years, even if secretly,

There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand

But beyond control, because no inspection is available?

Actually inspection is available but Israel claims exemption, which is dutifully granted by our subservient international élite.

That the nuclear power of Israel endangers

The already fragile world peace?

Because it must be said

What even tomorrow may be too late to say…

Israel frantically points the finger at Iran… but for what? To distract attention from the fact that Israel itself is the one with the runaway nuclear weapons programme that menaces the region and beyond.

UN Security Council resolution 487, in 1981, called on Israel “urgently to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards”. Israel hasn’t done so. Its huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, chemical and biological – is obviously what’s undermining the “fragile world peace”.

In 2009 the IAEA again called on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, open its nuclear facilities to inspection and place them under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. Again Israel did not comply.

Everyone and his dog now knows that Israel is the problem. It is the only state in the region not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (Iran is). It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. As regards biological and chemical weapons, Israel has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Netanyahu needs to explain all this before getting heavy with other people.

With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares

A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,

Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence

Of a single atomic bomb is unproven,

But as a fear wishes to be conclusive,

I say what must be said.

Two months ago Defence Industry Daily reported

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/germany-may-sell-2-more-dolphin-subs-to-israel-for-117b-01528/ how Christian Schmidt, Germany’s secretary of state for defence, had signed a contract with Israel to supply a sixth Dolphin-class submarine with the German taxpayer chipping in a huge subsidy. This latest U-boat will be fitted with a new type of propulsion system. Schmidt reportedly said that Germany was looking to increase its defense co-operation with Israel and “was specifically interested in learning from the IDF about training and military doctrine”.

Ye gods!

The German government must be mental to have provided any subs, let alone half a dozen. Dolphins are diesel-electric attack subs that can fire torpedoes and missiles from their tubes and carry out underwater surveillance. Germany donated two of these killer vessels to the Israeli navy in the early 1990s. Israel then bought a third submarine for $350 million – half price – with the German taxpayer paying the other half. In 2006 a deal was done for two more at a total of $1.27 billion, with the Germans picking up 1/3 of the tab.

These Dolphins have 10 bow torpedo tubes, four of which have a 650mm diameter for launching the larger cruise missiles. Rumour has it that Israel tested a nuclear-capable version of its medium-range “Popeye Turbo” cruise missile from those tubes.

It’s the stuff of nightmares when you see the lethal idiots whose fingers are all over the buttons. Angela Merkel needs a good spanking for this lunacy. Any volunteers?

It is to be hoped

That this will free many from silence,

That they may prompt the perpetrator of the recognized danger

To renounce violence and

Likewise insist

That an unhindered and permanent control

Of the Israeli nuclear potential

And the Iranian nuclear sites

Be authorized through an international agency

By the governments of both countries.

Amen, Brother Gunter.


Stuart Littlewood’s book Radio Free Palestine can now be read on the internet by visiting www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk
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Gilad Atzmon on Gunter Grass, poetry and politics.

Friday, April 13, 2012 at 8:30AM Gilad Atzmon

 

Wenlock Poetry Festival
Saturday 14th April 1.00 p.m. The Edge Arts Centre free

On 4th April, eminent German writer and Nobel laureate, Günter Grass published a poem in the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung. The poem is called What Must Be Said, and deals with Israel's nuclear programme and the threat it poses to world security. Grass's stimulus to write the poem was Germany's recent sale to Israel of submarines that carry nuclear weapons. The poem has sparked a huge amount of media and political attention, and the Israeli government has banned Grass from entering Israel.

This weekend, musician and writer Gilad Atzmon is appearing at the Wenlock Poetry Festival to perform, and to present a composition workshop. In the light of the ongoing storm of debate around Grass's poem, he has been invited to lead a discussion on the role of the artist in contemporary political debate. Atzmon has written widely on Jewish identity politics and has first-hand experience of public reaction to critical opinion about Israel.

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Günter Grass; What Must Be Said (genius performance)

Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 11:45PM Gilad Atzmon

What must be said

Why have I been silent, silent for so long?,
Our generals have gamed it out,
Confident the west will survive.
We people have not even been considered.

What is this right to "preventive war"?
A war that could erase the Iranian people.
Dominated by it's neighbor, pulsing with righteousness
Smug in the fact that it is they, not Iran,
Who have the Bomb.

Why have I so far avoided to identify Israel by it's name?,
Israel and it's ever increasing nuclear arsenal,
Beyond reproach, Uncontrolled, uninspected.

We all know these things
Yet we all remain silent, fearful of being labeled:
anti-Semitic
hateful
worse

Considering Germany's past these labels stick
So we call is "business", "reparation" take your pick,
As we deliver yet another submarine.
As we provide to Israel the means to deliver annihilation.
I say what must be said.

Why did I stay silent until now?
Because I'm German, of course.
I'm tainted by a stain I cannot wash out
I'm silent because I want so badly to make it right
To put my sins in the past and leave them silently there.

Why did I wait to say it until now?
And write these words with the last of my ink?
Declaring that Israel threatens world peace?
Because it is true and it must be said,
Tomorrow will be too late.

We Germans now carry a new burden of sin on our shoulders
Through the weapons we have sold
We are helping to carry out this foreseeable tragedy
No excuse will remove our stain of complicity.

It must be said. I won't be silent
I've had enough of the hypocrisy;
Please shed the silence with me,
The consequences are all too predictable.
It's time to demand free and permanent control
of BOTH Israel's nuclear arsenal
AND Iran's nuclear facilities
enforced with international supervision.

It's the only way, in a land convulsed with insanity,
Israelis, Palestinians, everybody, will survive.
And we too, will survive.

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Israel Declares War on Gunter Grass

by Stephen Lendman

Grass touched the right nerves. He deserves praise, not condemnation. Nonetheless, he's vilified for discussing Israel's open secret. It's nuclear armed and dangerous.

Iran's also threatened. Millions of lives are at risk. Grass explained. Denunciation followed.

In America and Israel, whistleblowers are criminalized. Moreover, distinguished figures like Grass are maligned and declared persona non grata.

On April 8, Haaretz headlined, "Interior Minister declares Gunter Grass persona non grata in Israel," saying:

On Sunday, Eli Yishai barred Grass from entering Israel for expressing views freely in his poem, "What Must Be Said."

He's unwelcome in Israel. Citing his Nazi past (at age 17 near war's end with Germany in ruins), Yishai said:

"Grass' poems are an attempt to guide the fire of hate toward the State of Israel and the Israeli people, and to advance the ideas of which he was a public partner in the past, when he wore the uniform of the SS."

"If Gunter wants to continue publicizing his distorted and false works, I suggest he do it in Iran, where he will find a supportive audience."

If he lands at Ben-Gurion International Airport, he added, "burly policemen" will escort him on the first Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, or even better, Munich, for once following der Fuhrer's orders.

Yishai heads the extremist right-wing ultra-Orthodox Shas Party. It's part of Netanyahu's coalition government. He also wants Grass' Nobel award revoked.

Ultranationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called his poem an expression of "egotism of so-called Western intellectuals, who are willing to sacrifice the Jewish people on the altar of crazy anti-Semites for a second time, just to sell a few more books or gain recognition."

Lieberman's extremist background is notorious. Journalist Robert Fisk once called him "the worst thing that could happen to the Middle East." Other critics are as harsh. He's called an embarrassment, a disgrace to Israel, a regional threat, an abomination, a racist of the worst kind, and much more.

The same goes for Netanyahu and close Knesset allies.

In response to critics, Grass said he criticized Israel's government and policies, not the nation.

"It's that which I criticize," he said, "a policy that keeps building settlements despite a UN resolution. I'm criticizing a policy which is creating more and more enemies for Israel and is increasingly isolating it."

He especially blames Netanyahu. He said he "should have added that to the poem....I have always been accustomed to my works, large and small, meeting with strong criticism." Nevertheless, he was disappointed about "the offensive and sweeping accusations of anti-Semitism" that followed.

He's also appalled about accusations over his Nazi past. At age 17 near war's end, he was "pulled" into the Waffen SS. He didn't volunteer. Asked whether he's a friend of Israel, he said he wished it finally would make peace with its neighbors. He likely included Palestine among them.

On April 9, a Haaretz editorial headlined "Israel has reacted with hysteria over Gunter Grass," saying:

Public reaction unjustly "focused on the man, not on his positions. Naysayers recalled" his Nazi past, not his credentials as Germany's most celebrated author and 1999 Literature Nobel Prize recipient.

Denying Grass permission to enter Israel for his views "is characteristic of dark regimes....Yishai's use of his government authority is not legitimate. Any protest should be expressed within the democratic-liberal framework, which allows every person to express his views - provocative though they may be."

Grass wrote a poem. Israel reacted "with hysteria. It seems that at issue is less an undesirable person than an undesirable" view.

In 2001, former Chicago Symphony conductor Daniel Barenboim broke a decade's long taboo by performing Wagner during an Israeli concert. At the time, many wanted him declared persona non grata. Cooler heads prevailed.

In 2000, Austria's Jorg Haider was barred from Israel for his right-wing views. In 2004, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz prevented UK journalist Peter Hounam from entering for exchanging letters with Mordechai Vanunu and wanting to interview him. More on Vanunu below.

In 2008, Norman Finkelstein was arrested on arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport. Interrogated and held for hours, he was deported and prohibited from returning for 10 years.

Also in 2008, UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Richard Falk repeatedly was refused entry to Israel for his outspokenness. Last year, he was still banned.

In 2010, famed Spanish clown, Ivan Prado, was refused entry for alleged ties to Palestinian resistance groups Israel calls "terrorist organizations."

In 2010, Noam Chomsky was barred from entering the West Bank through Jordan's Allenby crossing. At the time, he said, "Denying me entry into the West Bank is a minor event, but it is significant because it shows how irrational Israel's actions are." He was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University. He did, but not on campus.

Others were also barred from entry. Palestinian rights activists are excluded. Washington does the same thing. Prominent Muslims are targeted, including politicians and academics.

Former Mossad Head Warns About Israel's Political System

On April 7, the Jerusalem Post headlined, "Dagan warns of dangers of current political system," saying:

Former Mossad head Meir Dagan earlier downplayed an alleged Iranian threat. Now he "play(s) up the threat posed to Israel by its own political system," saying:

"I believe our system is reaching a point where the government is almost incapable of running the country. We are on the edge of – I would not say a disaster because that is a bit exaggerated – but we are facing a very bad prognosis of what will happen in the future."

Last November, he formed an organization to change what he finds destructive. His petition drive hopes for one million supportive signatures.

"The power has been shifted from the majority to the minority because (dominant parties) are forced to create coalition governments."

"National priorities are decided by the small parties who are establishing the coalition and not the majority."

He complained that issues raised at last summer's social protests remain unaddressed. He blamed Israeli politics. He also raised other issues. On April 29 in New York, he'll discuss Iran at the Jerusalem Post's annual conference.

A Final Comment

April 21 marks the 9th anniversary of Mordechai Vanunu's round-the-clock daily surveillance and refusal to revoke his citizenship and let him leave Israel. Earlier he spent 18 years in prison for revealing Israel's nuclear threat.

Vanunu's now in Jerusalem. He appealed Israel's refusal to let him go. He awaits the Supreme Court's ruling.

Eileen Fleming knows his ordeal well. Her "We are wide awake" web site follows it. She explained that "Israel's statehood was contingent upon upholding the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (DHHR)," UN Charter provisions, and other relevant international laws.

UDHR's Article 19 guarantees:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Article 13 affirms:

"(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

Since the mid-1980s, Vanunu was ruthlessly imprisoned, isolated brutally in solitary confinement, persecuted, and hounded for telling the world what everyone needs to know. His courage deserves praise. He's not a monster, criminal or traitor.

Nonetheless, his human rights are spurned. He wants them back. For good reason, he wants to leave Israel and live free. In October 2010, he appealed to Israel's High Court. He was denied.

On March 29, 2011, the Knesset enacted legislation revoking citizenship rights of anyone with dual nationality convicted of spying or treason. Vanunu was born in Morocco. He lived there until age nine. In his 2011 High Court appeal, his lawyers used this argument to return him to his homeland.

He deserves support. Join an April 21 Call for a Global Day of Action. He's prohibited from leaving the region's only self-proclaimed democracy.

Israel's more police state than democratic. How it treats Vanunu, like-minded Israeli activists, and its 20% Arab population is Exhibit A.

Vanunu's treatment is shocking. Though out of prison, he's far from free. He can be rearrested any time for any reason or none at all. In addition, his prohibitions include:

• no contacts with foreign citizens, especially journalists;
• no phone use;
• no cell phone ownership;
• no Internet access;
• no Israeli port of entry or airport visits; and
• no citizenship revocation, letting him leave Israel.

Fleming's known him for years. She says "the longer Israel denies (him) his right to leave the state, the greater his legend will grow...."

He's already a legend in his own time. He doesn't seek fame or fortune. He only wants to live free. After what Israel put him through since 1986, he deserves that much and more.

Join others for the April 21 Global Day of Action. Support him because it's the right thing to do.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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TARIQ ALI: The Disgusting Attacks on Gunter Grass by TARIQ ALI

Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 8:22AM Gilad Atzmon

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/10/the-disgusting-attacks-on-gunter-grass/

The German writer Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum) had already predicted the response to his poem in SdZ. There is no reason to be surprised, but there is every reason to be disgusted. Within Germany both the elite and a layer of the population by their words and actions appear to have accepted the disgraceful Goldhagen thesis whereby all German were guilty for the crimes of the Third Reich. This thesis has now been developed further: all Germans are guilty for eternity for the crimes of the Third Reich.

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: over 10 million according to the historian Adam Hochschild. The killing of Armenians during the First World War was systematic and we could go on and discuss the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but comparing one massacre or genocide to another is a futile exercise. Raul Hilberg the most authoritative historian of the Judeocide was angered by the uses that were being made of that crime today.

Some members of the extreme-right government and Lieberman in particular, that rules Israel today have used proto-fascist language against the Palestinian Arabs. Are we not allowed to point that out? That the Israeli government pushed the Bush administration to make war on Iraq is hardly a secret. Nor is the statement of the Israeli Ambassador to the US the day after the fall of Baghdad: “Don’t stop. Move on to Damascus and Teheran.’ Are we not allowed to rebuke him? The targeting and killing of young Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere is fine, is it?

Gunter Grass was very mild in his criticisms. He concentrated on Israeli warmongering in relation to Iran. He could have said a lot more. The fact that it needs political courage to say even what he did in Germany or France is a sad reflection on the political culture of both these countries. As for the attacks on Grass for his wartime activities, these are beneath contempt. The Israelis were delighted when the former Italian minister, Gianfranco Fini, whose party is in lineal descent from Mussolini, went to Israel and praised the Wall. He was forgiven his party’s past. So the past only matters if a person is critical of Israel. The former Nazis in various positions in the postwar Federal republic who pushed through reparations and backed Israel, they were never criticized either.

German citizens should ponder the following: it was not the Palestinians who were responsible for the murder of millions of Jews during the Second World War. Yet they, the Palestinians, have become the indirect victims of the Judeocide. Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return to others. So why no sympathy for the Palestinians?

Tariq Ali is the author of The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power. He can be reached

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