Tony Blair says the left is in ‘unholy alliance’ with Islamists. It’s a desperate last ploy to quell the anger over Gaza | Owen Jones

The former PM has no valid response when progressives raise a voice over war crimes, so he seeks to mute them. But we’ll take no moral lectures from him 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 l