The left, claims Tony Blair, has forged an “alliance with Islamists”. He goes further: this is simply the latest mutation of antisemitism. Extraordinary accusations require extraordinary evidence. Yet unlike with his illegal war on Iraq, our former prime minister has not even troubled himself to assemble a dodgy dossier.

This latest tirade was published by the Free Press, a woke-bashing, pro-Israel publication founded by journalist Bari Weiss, now accused of pro-Trump censorship in her new role as editor-in-chief of CBS News. The substance of Blair’s charge is what he calls “opposition to Israel”. This has become an increasingly familiar allegation. As the popularity of the Green party of England and Wales surges, its opposition to Israel’s genocide is recast as sectarianism.

Let’s be clear. If there were not a single Muslim in Britain, the left would still oppose Israel’s actions just as forcefully. And what Blair will not confront is that this position reflects mainstream public opinion. A recent poll found as low as 12% of Britons support Israel’s actions in Gaza, while an overwhelming majority supports an arms embargo on Israel, sanctions and the arrest of its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes.

Blair insists that “parts of the left cast the Jewish community as supporters of the government of Israel”. Who, exactly? It is Israel’s most fervent champions who have laboured to collapse the distinction. Blair knows one of them well: Donald Trump, who declared during the 2024 presidential election that Jews who........

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