Mick Hartley

The determination by sections of the Western media and the Western elite to portray the killing of the aid workers in Gaza as deliberate, and part of Israel's "genocide" against the Palestinians, is, says Daniel Bel-Ami at Spiked, the new blood libel:

Israel’s unintentional killing of seven aid workers in an airstrike in Gaza on Monday was undoubtedly a calamity. However, the frenzied discussion of the tragedy suggests that, for many prominent commentators at least, there is more going on here than meets the eye. A new version of the blood libel has taken hold, and it is warping how the Israel-Hamas war is being discussed and understood….

There should be no doubt that the killing of the aid workers was accidental. To deliberately engage in such an operation would be totally irrational from the perspective of Israel’s self-interest. Plus, there is no evidence that this was anything other than a horrendous mistake. It looks likely there was a degree of negligence involved. But to draw firm conclusions we will need to wait for the results of the considered enquiries conducted by Israeli forces, independent organisations and the media.

But anti-Israel activists have shown no such patience. For them, the strike merely confirms their prejudice that Israel is a uniquely bloodthirsty state. This is the contemporary version of the medieval blood libel – the deranged notion that it is in Jews’ nature to want to kill non-Jews, and children in particular….

The reaction to the tragic killing of those aid workers has revealed just how much Israel is up against. Western elites appear convinced that it is in Israel’s nature to want to kill innocent civilians. The success of this anti-Semitic propaganda, this rebranded blood libel, shows that Israel’s position has become even more vulnerable. Not only does it face implacable hostility from the Islamist movement, but it also enjoys increasingly meagre support from the West.

Too few in the West seem to understand the threat that Islamism poses. It is a contemporary form of totalitarianism. Israel may be on the front line, but Islamism is a menace to democracy and freedom everywhere – not to mention the real force for genocide in the Middle East.

With any discussion of Israel and the Jews' fight for survival in the Middle East, a strange mist descends on otherwise seemingly rational people. I think there's a name for it…