The poem by Günter Grass

[Franzl]

I'm not exactly a fan of Israel or Isreali policy at the moment, but Grass is just totally absurd. It's unfortunate he has a relatively large fan base.

[Franzl]

Considering Grass's entire post-war history and literary work, calling him an anti-semite is retarded.

Yes, and as idiotic as Grass is...it is unfortunate that you can't really make any comments of that sort without being called an anti-semite in this country.

[Franzl]

Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai has banned Günter Grass from entering Israel.

That'll teach him!

It's a basic thing for a country to be able to decide who can and can't enter the country and an activist against that country seems like a good candidate for being banned, so I really don't see any problem with this.

It could also be argued that a democratic country that tolerates differences of opinion, although they, as a sovereign state, have this power....would choose not to excercise it. I don't think you'll find that the United States or Germany...or other Western countries regularly ban people from entering for expressing political views that are unfavorbale to the people in power in that country.