I
read 'The Tin Drum' many years ago. The main character who refuses to
grow up is gifted with a piercing shriek which can be used as a
weapon. It seems his creator is recalling old skills in
the nadir of his long and illustrious career. Günter Grass is
undeniably Germany's most famous living writer. A Nobel prizewinner -
the inevitable passport to comment on global politics - his
postwar emergent role as the country's moral conscience was
rather undermined in 2006 when it became known (much
too late) that the teenage Grass had served in the Waffen SS.
But 'with his last drop of ink' Grass has triggered a furious row
with a poem which criticises Israel. How very European and moralistic
of him and how beautifully timed. The European tradition of
accusing Israel of mass murder at Passover is hardly original. Grass
raises the unlikely spectre of Israel "annihilating" the
Iranian people – using a German verb, auslöschen,
which comes dangerously close to evoking the Holocaust. To call him
antisemitic is naïve – instead he seems to have a pathological
need to be thought of as one, banging his tin drum being nothing
more that attention-seeking. He seems remarkably unaware,
as so many European commentators are, of the real state
of affairs in the Middle East, in consequence the weight
lent to the propaganda machine in Tehran by his remarks is likely to
add fuel to a smouldering ember rather than extinguish it. He
suggests, quite disgracefully, that there is a moral equivalence
between the Israeli position and that of Iran – Netanyahu has had
little choice but to bang his tin drum as aggressively as the mad
despot in Tehran whose puppet masters tell him what to say in respect
of Israel and its right to exist. Quite rightly, neither country is
prepared to allow the world to use it as a chessboard to reconfigure
the realpolitik of the region simply because they wish the problem
would go away. Will the Israelis strike pre-emptively? I think not;
they merely bang away as loudly and aggressively as their
enemies - the latest being Grass is persona non grata in Israel and there are howls to strip him of the Nobel. The ayatollahs in Persia realise only too well, however, that their
enemies are capable of sending them all back to the Dark Ages in a
flurry of gamma rays. Monday, April 09, 2012
Tin Drums
I
read 'The Tin Drum' many years ago. The main character who refuses to
grow up is gifted with a piercing shriek which can be used as a
weapon. It seems his creator is recalling old skills in
the nadir of his long and illustrious career. Günter Grass is
undeniably Germany's most famous living writer. A Nobel prizewinner -
the inevitable passport to comment on global politics - his
postwar emergent role as the country's moral conscience was
rather undermined in 2006 when it became known (much
too late) that the teenage Grass had served in the Waffen SS.
But 'with his last drop of ink' Grass has triggered a furious row
with a poem which criticises Israel. How very European and moralistic
of him and how beautifully timed. The European tradition of
accusing Israel of mass murder at Passover is hardly original. Grass
raises the unlikely spectre of Israel "annihilating" the
Iranian people – using a German verb, auslöschen,
which comes dangerously close to evoking the Holocaust. To call him
antisemitic is naïve – instead he seems to have a pathological
need to be thought of as one, banging his tin drum being nothing
more that attention-seeking. He seems remarkably unaware,
as so many European commentators are, of the real state
of affairs in the Middle East, in consequence the weight
lent to the propaganda machine in Tehran by his remarks is likely to
add fuel to a smouldering ember rather than extinguish it. He
suggests, quite disgracefully, that there is a moral equivalence
between the Israeli position and that of Iran – Netanyahu has had
little choice but to bang his tin drum as aggressively as the mad
despot in Tehran whose puppet masters tell him what to say in respect
of Israel and its right to exist. Quite rightly, neither country is
prepared to allow the world to use it as a chessboard to reconfigure
the realpolitik of the region simply because they wish the problem
would go away. Will the Israelis strike pre-emptively? I think not;
they merely bang away as loudly and aggressively as their
enemies - the latest being Grass is persona non grata in Israel and there are howls to strip him of the Nobel. The ayatollahs in Persia realise only too well, however, that their
enemies are capable of sending them all back to the Dark Ages in a
flurry of gamma rays. 
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People like Grass have a voice and gain a following based on past exploits or accomplishments some of which might pass for political action. But mostly, fame earned in another sphere becomes a vehicle for proclaiming some of the most poisonous rubbish. Grass himself apparently hasn't grown much past, oh..., about 16.
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