Sieg Heil

LGF noticed something about the Hezbollah salute. (via memeorandum)
It’s Almost Supernatural noticed the same thing about “Palestinian Security Forces” and the “Fatah militia.”
Elder of Ziyon noticed it about “supporters of the Fatah movement” Hezbollah’s 10 year old recruits and a Gaza rally for Hamas.
Israelly Cool notices it among Palestinian security forces near Tulkarem.

Repeat after me, “We have nothing against Jews, it’s the Zionists we hate.”

I guess that this bit of history from Bernard Lewis can’t be ignored.

In 1940, the government of France surrendered to Nazi Germany. A new collaborationist government was formed and established in a watering place called Vichy, and General Charles de Gaulle moved to London and set up a Free French committee. The French empire was beyond the reach of the Germans at that point, and the governors of the French colonies and dependencies were free to decide: they could stay with Vichy or rally to de Gaulle. Vichy was the choice of most of them, and in particular the rulers of the French-mandated territory of Syria-Lebanon, in the heart of the Arab East. This meant that Syria-Lebanon was wide open to the Nazis, who moved in and made it the main base of their propaganda and activity in the Arab world.It was at that time that the ideological foundations of what later became the Baath Party were laid, with the adaptation of Nazi ideas and methods to the Middle Eastern situation. The nascent party’s ideology emphasized pan-Arabism, nationalism, and a form of socialism. The party was not officially founded until April 1947, but memoirs of the time and other sources show that the Nazi interlude is where it began. From Syria, the Germans and the proto-Baathists also set up a pro-Nazi regime in Iraq, led by the famous, and notorious, Rashid Ali al-Gailani.

UPDATE: Solomonia observes:

They’re not the only guys who use that kind of salute in the region. It attests to the direct influence of European Fascism on some of the trappings that these area groups have taken on. Fertile ground.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.