Main focus of Thursday, April 5, 2012

Outrage at Nobel Prize winner Grass

"The nuclear power Israel is endangering already fragile world peace," Grass wrote.

The German laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature Günter Grass has sparked a wave of indignation with a poem on the Iran conflict that is critical of Israel. Several international newspapers printed the text on Wednesday. Some commentators find it dangerous to deny Israel's right to self-defence, while others accuse Grass of having written a diatribe as a marketing stunt.

Nobel laureate more dangerous than neo-Nazis

Günter Grass's claim that nuclear-empowered Israel is a threat to fragile world peace is dangerous, the conservative daily Lidové noviny writes: "Grass isn't just a nobody. He's a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and an opinion shaper in Germany. ... Why does he put Israel and Iran in the same boat? Has he never heard of Iran's threats to wipe Israel from the face of the earth? ... He is only furthering the aspirations of those who want to delegitimize the Jewish state. Neither old Nazis nor neo-Nazis are dangerous for Israel. They spend most of their time desecrating the honour of Jews who are already dead. But people like Grass who deny the right of living Jews to defend themselves and their state are dangerous indeed." (05/04/2012)

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » Crises / War, » Literature, » History, » Germany, » Iran, » Iceland
All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček

Diatribe as a marketing strategy

With his anti-Israeli poem What Must be Said Günter Grass is only doing himself a favour, writes the liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera: "Grass has always been good at self-promotion. ... He has now proven this once again with the publication of his poem against Israel. In a cool marketing strategy he selected several newspapers to disseminate his Brechtian diatribe against the great lie. ... Grass is shrewd. He incorporated the accusations he knew this would reap into his poem. The problem is that the accusations against which Grass pre-emptively defends himself are all true. … For instance the 'crimes' of his country. Certainly, it's not easy to come to terms with the past, but Grass can't afford to use ironic words on a subject as sensitive as the role the German people played in the extermination of the Jews in Europe. Even the poem format can't obscure such blatant insensitivity." (05/04/2012)

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Remembrance culture, » Germany, » Israel
All available articles from » Pierluigi Battista

David Grossman does it better

Günter Grass' criticisms of Israel are vague and undiscerning, the liberal-conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung complains: "In mid-March the Israeli writer David Grossman showed how it should be done. ... He too warned vehemently against a pre-emptive nuclear strike by his country. He rebuked Netanyahu's mindset for its hermeticism and expresses doubts that an Israeli attack could deactivate the Iranian nuclear programme. And he is not blind to the scandalous coolness with which the military scenarios ignore the victims among Iran's civilian population. ... Grossman gave a balanced and critical political analysis. Grass writes a nebulous political poem. The German guru uses poetry to remain narcissistic and vague." (05/04/2012)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Germany
All available articles from » Joachim Güntner

Criticism of Grass is exaggerated

Writing on the news portal tagesschau.de, Thomas Nehls is appalled at the furious reactions to Nobel laureate Günter Grass's criticism of Israel: "Virtually none of the comments point out that the Nobel laureate definitely wants the Iranian nuclear facilities to be subjected to unimpeded, permanent and international controls. But he also wants the same for the Israeli nuclear weapons arsenal which has existed for some time now. … Most Grass opponents are frothing at the mouth and acting like the president of the German-Israeli Society, Reinhold Robbe, claims he is acting, namely in ignorance of the political situation in the Middle East. … One of the German state's main commitments is (not just understandably but also fortunately) to help secure Israel's existence. The prose poem by Günter Grass can and should help the country to fulfil this obligation. True, it must be interpreted in the right way. And not as a tool for making nasty accusations." (05/04/2012)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Crises / War, » Middle East
All available articles from » Thomas Nehls

» To the complete press review of Thursday, April 5, 2012