BICOM

When he was first challenged about his stiff-arm “quenelle” salute, Nicolas Anelka claimed the quenelle was an “anti-establishment” not an anti-Semitic gesture.

The West Brom footballer almost certainly does not realise it, but the quenelle is part of a long disastrous tradition that demonises the Jews (later Israel) while imagining that by doing so it is striking a blow against an “establishment”.  The ugly phenomenon was called the “socialism of fools”’ in the 19th century, became the “anti-imperialism of fools”’ in the 20th century, and is today – complete with selfies and You Tube videos – what you might call the anti-establishmentism of fools.

The tradition got going during the foundations of the socialist movement in the late 19th century when some on the Left, often as a tactical ploy, replaced class struggle with anti-Jewish struggle. They identified “The Jew” with finance capitalism. August Bebel, the German Social Democrat leader, shook his head at all this, laughed at the “socialism of fools” and fought it.

Read this article in full at The Telegraph.