The Tablet has the details:
How, then, did the quenelle come to be the controversial gesture du jour, the ‘reverse Nazi salute’ that has the world’s attention, and has French Jews (and their American counterparts) crying foul? The gesture was created and popularized by Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the Cameroonian-French comedian and political provocateur—known primarily by his first name, like Madonna—who has described Judaism as “a sect, a fraud, which is the worst of all, because it was the first,” and who this month was found guilty of defamation, libel, and incitement to hatred and racial discrimination by a French court.
But back to the quenelle, an object BBC News explains Dieudonné once reportedly expressed a desire to put “up the backside of Zionists,” and a gesture he’s incorporated into his various routines since as early as 2005…
And there is more:
…a nifty way to avoid trouble for giving a Nazi salute, which is outlawed in France.
Who’s done it recently? French soldiers outside a synagogue in Paris, who were later sanctioned by the army. French soccer star Nicolas Anelka, who plays for West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League, did a celebratory post-goal quenelle, which he said was in solidarity with Dieudonné and for which he will likely be suspended. NBA player Tony Parker, meanwhile, apologized after the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center slammed him for a photograph in which he does the quenelle with Dieudonné himself.
We have a photo of Tony Parker (on the right – Dieudonné on the left):
Mein Kampf is still a best seller in the Middle East.
Just in time for the Olympics in Russia. And a world war within 5 to 10 years.
More at The ‘Reverse Nazi Salute’ Roiling English Soccer
H/T Stephanie Reifkind Kahn wife of Rabbi Jeffery Kahn on Facebook.
Update: 4 January 2014 0138z
The New York Times chimes in.
Comments
7 responses to “A New Salute”
Simon,
It’s your mamma’s fault
How did this small tribe of people incur the wrath and ire of so many other larger cultures? They weren’t so different in the beginning than other tribes. Like every group they thought they were special; the “Chosen” and like every other tribe they had victories and defeats. Unlike most others though, they managed to keep their identity through even periods of slavery. They had a leader arise who gave them written laws, a ‘council of elders’ and a system of justice, as well as traditions and ceremonies to constantly remind them and others that they were a people apart; unique and different from everyone else. Egyptians had many laws very similar to theirs, but the Egyptians had no ‘Council of Elders’; no Judges, who were not subservient to the royalty that appointed them and could be impartial. Jewish law also had dietary and cleanliness rules that drastically reduced deaths from epidemics, disease and infection. Strange customs and beliefs, living stronger, healthier, and longer; these are the early steps for being blamed, feared, and hated.
They became a nation, created their own Royalty, and prospered and suffered under it. Then like all other Nations they were eventually defeated and an attempt was made to assimilate them and destroy their cultural identity. The young of their royalty who might have attracted rebellious followers were taken into the courts of the conqueror both to be hostages and to be indoctrinated in the new dominant culture. The people’s lands, herds, goods, and businesses were handed over to courtiers, friends, allies, and military officers of their new ruler and the people dispersed across the expanded kingdom to be assimilated or starve. This was well established, time tested, standard operating procedure for conquerors and worked amazingly well on almost everyone except the Jews. That stubborn little tribe refused to die, refused to stay poor and landless, refused to be fully assimilated. They would come back, again and again, often rising to positions of power and wealth, seeking and sometimes even achieving independence, then plunged back into poverty and slavery as a new conqueror made yet another attempt to eradicate them. Keep coming back, achieve wealth and power after being cast into slavery and poverty, succeed where others fail; these are the next steps to becoming the most blamed, feared and hated people in the world
Looking back over history one root cause of the cycle creating antisemitism is revealed and it is Jewish mothers. Jewish mothers who have throughout their history pressured their sons (and in more modern times their daughters too) to “make them proud”. The Jewish mother’s insatiable desire to brag about her children and their achievements, has driven those children to unparallelled levels of social, financial, political, and academic success. Jewish mothers pridefully boasting “My son (or ‘My daughter’) the Doctor”, “the Scientist”, “the Economist”,“the Lawyer” “the Professor”, “the Nobel Prize Laureate”, “the CEO”, “the Big Shot ___ (fill in the blank)”, et cetera, et cetera, without end.
Other groups have taught their children that they are special. In fact many teach that they are so special and superior that the World will be a perfect and wonderful place only when they achieve absolute power. Until then of course, they teach their kids that they are being disadvantaged by ‘the Jews’ and others, that they are the victims of conspiracies, and on a more practical note; how to gain power and status through hate while gaming the welfare systems and charities of the World.
Meanwhile, Jewish mothers perpetuate the belief that their children can help dispel the old lies of blood libel and powerful conspiracies, to help end the historical hatred and distrust of Jews through hard work, study, accomplishment,understanding, tolerance and charity.
For thousands of years the Jews cohesive social instincts (and traditions) have helped the smartest, most successful, and most likeable of them survive hundreds of attempts to destroy them as a group through; genocide, dispersion, assimilation, forced conversions, and other means. Under this pressure those social instincts have only grown stronger, more compassionate, and for many if not most Jews now extend well beyond their own group to encompass all of humanity
When two tenths of one percent of the world’s population produce 22% of the world’s Nobel prize winners, and an equally disproportionate share of the greatest capitalists, inventors, and other prominent figures of success, one would think the world would grow to appreciate them; but when they also produce an equally disproportionate share of the most prominent progressives, communists, socialists, and high profile white collar criminals (and while libeling them yields so much power); not so much.
It therefore seems to this writer dear Jews, that as a whole you are still pretty much clueless suckers when other groups’ leaders dehumanize you and blame you for their own failure to help their own people achieve success…. And it’s all your Meshugenah Mama’s fault!
You ought to read the book of Esther and the traditions surrounding it.
The short version: persecution has held the Jews together as a tribe.
If the world would stop persecuting us we would melt away into the general population.
And yes. Jewish mothers.
BTW the persecution has selected for IQ. At least that is one theory. I did some posts in that a while back.
Here is one: http://classicalvalues.com/2009/08/inequality_1/
You should have me doing topics if this is the best you can come up with! What a waste of time. How about finding out why hollywood did a movie on the attack on the uss pueblo starring hal holbrook ;but NO tv movie on attack of uss Liberty You would get a lot of comments on that one!
I suspect that theory of Ashkenazim IQ is correct. Persecution can and often does enhance group cohesion and identity but with enough time most groups numbers would wither. The dispersion techniques used by Darius and others was pretty effective and the Jews were its most notable failure.
cap asshat, the more you post the more you expose yourself.
The difference is that the Israeli government has paid millions to the survivors of those killed on the USS Liberty while admitting the error and apologizing. In addition they have paid millions to our government for the loss of the ship.
Hi Simon,
I wonder if the pressure-cooker that is China throughout the ages has selected for certain survival traits including high IQ. There certainly seems to be a disproportionate amount of success among the Chinese diaspora. Back in the early 90’s, “the Economist” did a special report that noted that if you considered expatriate Chinese as an economy, they would be the 2nd largest in the world, despite the disparity in their numbers compared to other world class economies.
Now I know that that is cherry picking to a certain extent; if “the Economist” had isolated the most productive sectors in the American economy, there might have been similar disparities, but it is food for thought.
Thomas Sowell, in his “Race” trilogy points out that ethnic Chinese are often the middlemen that hold various economies together even though they’re generally disliked by native populations. And that expulsions of Chinese communities often lead to economic displacements far larger than the net wealth of the emigres.
Do you know if any of the Ashkenazim studies addressed the question of regression to the mean?
In any case, disposing of gifted minorities has the interesting effect of invoking bad luck. Per Robert Heinlein;