Blair on Bush, and Blair’s Cabal

In a forthcoming interview with Vanity Fair, reported on here by CNN, Tony Blair talks about his relationship with President Bush. (The CNN article is titled “Britain’s Blair says Bush no mental lightweight.” CNN–as usual, on the cutting edge.)
What is most interesting about the article is the concluding paragraph, which has no apparent connection to what goes before:
“In the interview Blair called himself a ‘staunch’ supporter of Israel, a minority view in Britain’s House of Commons, according to Margolick.
“The author then quoted Labour Member of Parliament Tam Dalyell, the longest serving member of the House of Commons, as saying he thought Blair was unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisors. Margolick said Dalyell named Peter Mandelson, a former Blair cabinet member, Lord Levy, Blair’s chief fund-raiser and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, an Anglican who has a Jewish grandparent.”
This bears an eerie similarity to what is going on in this country, with antisemitic liberals complaining that “neocons,” all of them Jews, are controlling American foreign policy and guiding it in Israel’s interest rather than America’s. But the claim retailed in Vanity Fair is one of the most pathetic arguments I’ve ever seen in print. The “cabal of Jewish advisers” consists of a former cabinet member, a fundraiser, and an Anglican who has a Jewish grandparent? It is hard to see how anyone could write this with a straight face. The conclusion, I guess, is that antisemitism continues to have a powerful hold on leftists both here and abroad.