British newspapers recently featured the case of a Premier League footballer, Nicolas Anelka (his Muslim name is Abdul-Salam Bilal), who gave a "reverse Nazi salute" after scoring a goal a week or so ago. The quenelle, as the salute is called, was invented by the French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala (Anelka's friend). It's claimed by some of its defenders -- though not all -- to be neither a sign for Jew-hatred nor one of support for National Socialism (Nazism). Instead they say it's an "anti-Zionist salute". Others say it's an "anti-establishment gesture."

The thing is, even if the salute is an "anti-establishment gesture", that is primarily so because that very same (French) "establishment" has prosecuted Dieudonne no less than eight times for his remarks about Jews. So this is equivalent, surely, to a paedophile claiming to be "anti-establishment" because he doesn't like the fact that he has been arrested for his pedophile activities.

Dieudonne started out as Leftist "anti-Zionist"; not as a right-wing Jew-hater. He's now classed, at least by some, as a right-wing anti-Zionist as well as a Jew-hater. All this simply begs the following question: Are there any real or genuine differences -- at least in the Dieudonne's case -- between anti-Zionism and anti-Jewism?

Yes, yes! I'm perfectly aware that the terms "anti-Zionism" and "anti-Semitism" are not synonymous (semantically speaking); it's just that I could easily argue that, say, 95% or more of all anti-Zionists are also Jew-haters. That's the brutally simple political -- not semantic -- point that many defenders of "anti-Zionists" like Dieudonne fail to register. (Or they pretend not to register.)

Anyway, Dieudonne also started out as a Leftist "anti-racist" who was also against, in his own words, the "Zionist-American axis of power." Today he's still against the "Zionist-American axis of power", though, some now argue, as a Nazi, not as a Leftist. (Jean-Marie Le Pen is the godfather of his child.)

It could be argued that Dieudonne got at least some of his anti-Zionist views from such Leftist (as well as Jewish) notables as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein; specifically his view that all Holocaust commemorations are "memorial pornography."

Now let's take the case of Dieudonne's fellow anti-Zionist, Professor Shlomo Sand.

Shlomo Sand is a Israeli Marxist who also believes that the Jews, as a people, are a "invention." Sand began his political life in the 1960s/70s as a member of the fanatical Maoist group, Matzpen (as did fellow anti-Zionist Leftist, Sylvain Cypel, who then went on the establish the Workers' League). Some members of Matzpen then went on to train communist terrorists in Syria at a time when Leftist terrorism was almost in first place to Islamic terrorism. (This, at least in part, explains the Leftist/Islamist love affair.)

Today Professor Shlomo Sand believes that, to use Ayatollah Khamenei's words (of 2000), "Israel must be uprooted from the region".

So let's put all this in some kind of context.

Leftist, or more specifically Marxist, Jew-Hatred dates back to 1844 when Marx first promulgated his hatred of the Jews in print. Marx, like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, and later Shlomo Sand, was only Jewish by blood; not by religion or by culture. In fact not even Marx's father was a Jew by religion. Thus Jew-hatred came easy to Marx.

Nazi Jew-Hatred, on the other hand, only dates back to 1920 (some 70 years later) when the Nazi Party was formed. (This is not to say, of course, that German Jew-hatred didn't predate the Nazis: it did, in Marxism and in much else.)

Leftist/Marxist Jew-hatred continued with the Bolsheviks (which is ironic because Nazis made -- and still make -- much of the few Bolsheviks who were Jews); to Stalin; then onwards to the "ultra-Leftist" Holocaust-denying tradition of the 1960s/70s (e.g., Pierre Guillaume); and then all the way to today's Leftist boycott-Israel movement.

As for the last link in that chain: what would you expect from contemporary Leftists? After all, Israel is both Jewish and a capitalist democracy! (Incidentally, Dave Duke thinks that Israel is a "Stalinist" state. Many Leftists think Israel is "Nazi" state.)

In terms of detail, what usually happens is that International Socialists (Leftists) pick out the "neo-cons", "neo-Liberals", "Zionists", "capitalists", etc. who are Jewish for extra-special attention/obsession; as well as, of course, Israel itself.

National Socialists (Nazis) pick out Marxist and also -- strangely enough -- "capitalist" Jews for extra-special attention/obsession; as well as, of course, Israel itself.

In other words, many Leftists think that all Jews are right-wing neo-cons, capitalists and Zionists. There are exceptions of course. The Jewish exceptions are those honorable Leftists who have cleansed themselves of all their Jewishness: save their blood (e.g., Marx, Chomsky, Shlomo Sand, Norman Finkelstein, etc.)

When a white non-Jewish person is a Marxist, or a "neo-con", the Nazis and Inter-Nazis don't notice. He is ignored. However, when a Jew is a Marxist, the Nazis think that's because "Marxism is essentially Jewish". On the other hand, when a Jew is, say, neo-con, many Leftists believe that's because "neo-conservativism is essentially Zionist."

Again, when a non-Jewish white person is a Marxist, or a neo-con, his being Anglo-Saxon is completely ignored or deemed to be irrelevant.

So why are both International Socialism and National Socialism the locus of Jew-hatred? It has a lot to do with that last word: socialism. Marx's neat fusion of Jewishness and capitalism predates the rise of German National Socialism by around 70 years. This is what Marx wrote -- in his 'On the Jewish Question' -- in 1844:

'What is the profane basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the world cult of the Jews? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money.... It is from its own entrails that civil society ceaselessly engenders the Jew."

And when Marx, slightly later, wrote about "niggerlike Jews" he offered us two racisms for the price of one. However, some Leftists have defended Marx's positions on the Jews with a self-contradictory stance: they claim that it's "wrong to apply retrospective judgments" or "contemporary standards" to "what Marx wrote in the mid-19th century." Yet Marxists, evidently, apply everything else Marx wrote to virtually every contemporary political and social situation. Such Leftists also fail to recognize the fact that Marx began a Leftist tradition of Jew-hatred which has continued, almost unbroken, until this very day.

So let's take one final example from around 40 years after Marx's death (as well as being in tandem with National Socialism in Germany). Here we have the well-known -- at the time -- communist and Jew Ruth Fischer writing the following:

"Whoever cries out against Jewish capitalists is already a class warrior... Kick down the Jewish capitalists, hang them from the lampposts, and stamp upon them."

The Nazis own version of revolutionary socialism partly -- or even largely -- grew out of revolutionary Marxism. Many people believe that there is a contradiction here simply because the Marxists and the Nazis were always enemies. Yes, they were always enemies in terms of being two opposing political power-blocs. Nonetheless, they were never complete ideological opposites. (Check out the Nazi's socialist Twenty-Five Point Programme of 1924.)

Throughout the 20th century -- and still today -- both International Socialists and National Socialists believed and still believe that 'Zionists'/'Jews' have superhuman powers. That Jews/Zionists control the thought-processes of rest of us. Yes, both International Socialists and National Socialists believe in false consciousness. And part of the false-consciousness deal is the very widespread belief that the platonic media stops all non-Leftists/non-Nazis from realizing the true nature of political reality. That is, we are all failing to accept or even acknowledge the uncorrupted truths offered to us by Leftists/Nazis.

Of course some Jews are Marxists. Some Jews are anti-Marxists. Some Jews are Zionists. Some Jews are anti-Zionists. Come to think of it, some Jews are businessmen, too. Others are artists, philosophers, scientists, actors, market tradesmen, toilet cleaners...

However, there is one thing that most -- though not all -- Jewish Europeans and Americans share: a high level of education. (That's a cultural, not a racial, thing.) That high level of education has led in all sorts of directions (as education always does): towards Zionism and anti-Zionism, Marxism and anti-Marxism, apoliticism, business, philosophy, sport, acting...

Despite all the above, International Socialists and National Socialists fuse on far more than the Jews. They fuse on:

1) totalitarianism

2) collectivism

3) a reliance on conspiracy theories (often the very same ones!)

4) a reliance on the theory of all political enemies have 'false consciousness' and are victims of the 'Zionist' and platonic media

5) Manichean worldviews in which the Good (Nazis/Leftists) battle against Evil (Jews, capitalists, neo-cons, etc.)

6) black-and-whitism: theories and analyses which are of necessity simple and crude.

7) street violence followed (after the revolution) by state violence

8) a strong belief in the need for all-encompassing change

9) racism: Nazi racism against Jews, blacks, etc. Leftist racism against (non-Leftist) Jews; positive or inverted racism towards Muslims, blacks; racism against (non-Leftist) whites. (There is even a tradition of Leftist Holocaust denial which dates back to the 1960s.)

10) sect/cult-like organizations

11) charismatic and dictatorial leaders

12) socialism (national and international)

... and so on.

International Socialists and National Socialists have always fed off each other. Their relationship is almost entirely symbiotic. That's no surprise: under the skin, they are nothing less than estranged brothers fighting over the same political bones.