Iran Cheers Poem Critical of Israel

Everyone’s a critic. But German poet Guenter Grass knew that before he published a poem this week in European papers that condemns what he sees as Western hypocrisy on Israel’s nuclear program. Grass has gained fans in Iran, though, as officials from the Islamic Republic applauded the Nobel Prize-winner’s work and said that the poem may “awaken the silent conscience” of the West. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that for six decades Grass “hid” that he had been a “member of the Waffen SS,” which Grass admitted in his 2006 memoir.