Israel and the Wall of Silence

Three unconnected events deserve our attention as they  reveal yet again the absurdity of the Israeli defense mechanisms and their isolation from reality. These are about a poem, a Big Brother contender, and a song.

Last week, the German poet and winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in literature, Guenter Grass, was declared a persona non grata in Israel after composing a poem in which he criticized the world for its silence over the Israeli nuclear program and alluded to the double-standards of the –powerful-Western world vis a vis the Israeli  and Iranan nuclear programs. The western world which seems to only see through the beer goggles of Israel and thus concentrate on Iran.  This Iran has always been months away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, this was the case three or four, wait even five years ago.  The Israeli propaganda machine is in full swing now, digging deep in the past of the German poet and his nation and other Western nations to resurrect the Holocaust and the anti-Semitic tape that we have become all too familiar with. It is sickening how this spoiled brat of a nation has built a bulwark around itself made of lies, threats, and victimization. It has silenced the world over its illegitimate policies and practices. By being silent, the majority has become an accomplice in the spread of injustice in this world.  

The poem:

But why have I kept silent till now?
Because I thought my own origins,
Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
meant I could not expect Israel, a land
to which I am, and always will be, attached,
to accept this open declaration of the truth.
Why only now, grown old,
and with what ink remains, do I say:
Israel's atomic power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what must be said
may be too late tomorrow;
and because – burdened enough as Germans –
we may be providing material for a crime
that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
wil not be expunged by any
of the usual excuses.
And granted: I've broken my silence
because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;
and I hope too that many may be freed
from their silence, may demand
that those responsible for the open danger we face renounce the use of force,
may insist that the governments of
both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
free and open inspection of
the nuclear potential and capability of both.

The other event  is about the Israeli  version of Big Brother “HaAh Hagadol’ and how, much to the dislike of the majority of Israelis, one contender , Saar Szekley,  voiced his opinion on live TV about the injustice of Israeli IDF action in Palestinian territories and its illicit occupation of Palestinian land. He was attacked by fellow roommates in the Big Brother House, and was the subject of denigration.  He was threatened with gruesome acts of assaults and facebook pages have been dedicated to the matter; he was ostracized. Poor him, he thought he was in democratic nation, the beacon of the Middle East.

The last but not least is about an Arab girl, Nissren Kader, who by being a sycophant to Israel, thought she may be accepted by fellow Israelis. She took part in a Pop Idol-like contest singing in Hebrew and praising Israel and claiming that she was proud to be Israeli. Like all traitors in history, she was rewarded with countless complaints by REAL Israelis to the channel that DARED accept an Arab girl to sing on Israeli TV and hurt the sensitive ears of Jewish citizens.