Quenelle fever

Must say the "quenelle" controversy was below my radar till about a week ago.

Strikes me as a too-subtle version of a rude gesture widely interpreted as meaning "up yours" or "fuck you" when I was coming up. Popularized mostly by my Italian friends, if I remember correctly. Usually accompanied by a "fungula" or a "batcha mi coula."

Aye, but there's controversy a-plenty. No less an authority than the professional antisemitism spotters at the Simon Wiesenthal Center have declared the gesture "Nazi-like". (See # 10 in the top-ten antisemitic trends of 2013)

Diane Johnstone has an excellent rebuttal on view at Counterpunch.

I suspect the Hollande gang may have plenty of other beefs with Dieudonne than his alleged antisemitism. I further suspect that Dieudonne might have more first-person experience with racism in contemporary France than most of his critics.

Strikes me as a bit of a distraction, a make-work project for fear-mongers. There's more than enough racism in the world without resorting to making shit up.