After all the discussions during the last days I come more and more to the conclusion that if there should be a real new anti-Semitism, then it is fed with the taboo of criticizing Israel …
I don’t agree with all words of Günther Grass poem (Günther Grass – Was gesagt werden muss), but …
Warum schweige ich, verschweige zu lange,
was offensichtlich ist und in Planspielen
geübt wurde, an deren Ende als Überlebende
wir allenfalls Fußnoten sind. […]
Das allgemeine Verschweigen dieses Tatbestandes,
dem sich mein Schweigen untergeordnet hat,
empfinde ich als belastende Lüge
und Zwang, der Strafe in Aussicht stellt,
sobald er mißachtet wird;
das Verdikt „Antisemitismus“ ist geläufig. […]
Warum aber schwieg ich bislang?
Weil ich meinte, meine Herkunft,
die von nie zu tilgendem Makel behaftet ist,
verbiete, diese Tatsache als ausgesprochene Wahrheit
dem Land Israel, dem ich verbunden bin
und bleiben will, zuzumuten. […]
Und zugegeben: ich schweige nicht mehr,
weil ich der Heuchelei des Westens
überdrüssig bin; zudem ist zu hoffen,
es mögen sich viele vom Schweigen befreien,
den Verursacher der erkennbaren Gefahr
zum Verzicht auf Gewalt auffordern und
gleichfalls darauf bestehen,
daß eine unbehinderte und permanente Kontrolle
des israelischen atomaren Potentials
und der iranischen Atomanlagen
durch eine internationale Instanz
von den Regierungen beider Länder zugelassen wird. […]
What will happen, if Israel will start a war against Iran? I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to imagine. I’m quite sure that the calculation of the US army and the Israeli army are not realistic. And the question is what the next step/ reaction will be. How will the Iran react? What will be the answer? Is this then not a justification for hatred of Israel? Does he need hate speech anymore, when he can exhibit dead persons? And all the other nations? A third world war? I’m not guilty for that what happened in the second world war. I can not change the past. I can not change what happened 60 years ago. I’m 34. I’m only guilty for that what I did, do and will do. But if I am silent now, then I’m guilty for that what will happen in the future. Then I will have blood on my hands.
I hate it, that we Germans still feel guilty for something that the most of us only know from books. That we are born with a Nazi stigma. That we all have to pay for the atrocity of our ancestors. And that also includes, that we have to accept all what Israel does or wants to do. We have to support Israel, always . We have to be silent, even if we don’t agree. A German can not criticize a Jew. No, that’s a mortal sin. And if you do it in public your are a anti-Semite – a Nazi – a Hitler follower. The real topic doesn’t matter. If you are a famous person, you can only lose. Lose everything.
And Grass poem. Nobody in the German public discuss the the real topic. No, the media and famous people – that come out from theirs dark holes – just scream anti-Semite – Nazi. But a lot normal people (not Nazis) agree with Grass. They want to say: Stop Israel! … And the reaction of Israels top-ranking politician (Grass is a persona non grata, a Nazi, he should give back the Nobel prize) isn’t helpful. And it is not helpful for the nation Israel with freedom of opinion, where the topic war against Iran is discussed intensely. And thank god, that there are some Israeli journalist that talk to the German press and criticize the reaction. Like me they don’t agree with every word of Grass, but they agree, that the topic should be discussed – everywhere – in Israel, Germany and all over the world.
The dark chapter of the German history also includes the questions why so many people were silent, when the Nazis killed millions of human beings (not only Jews, whats about Roma and Sinti? Homosexuals? Jehovah’s Witnesses?). And now it is our duty to be silent? This can’t be the right way.
I don’t want, that the Jewish people should be killed. I don’t hate Jewish people. Why should I do that? I haven’t any reason to do that. I don’t agree, that the Jews want to rule the world. That they control the USA and so on. That’s propaganda. I only criticize, that Israel wants to start a war against Iran. I criticize a war against a nation/man that I also fear. And I criticize that Israel owns atom bombs and don’t want to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. I don’t want to be silent. It must be possible to do that. I live in a free country with freedom of opinion. And if this is not allowed, then it feels like oppression. And then you start to think about who is your oppressor …
After all the discussions during the last days I come more and more to the conclusion that if there should be a real new anti-Semitism, then it is fed with the taboo of criticizing Israel …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5TpBMORfT0&w=640&h=360]